The Feast of the Diseased
So we are embarking on a journey through Luke to discover what the gospel is. What is this ‘new kingdom’ going to be like, and what does God expect of the members of it? In the last post we considered that Jesus hinted that the kingdom would be unexpected. Let’s have a look.
In Luke 5:27-32 we find Jesus and his followers at a feast. The feast is being held by His newest disciple, Levi (or Matthew), who was a tax collector. It’s important for us to understand a bit about tax collectors. These were considered to be terrible traitors by the Jews. They were collecting money from their own people to hand over to their oppressors! Worse than that, many skimmed off the top, so they weren’t just traitors, but thieves as well!
Jesus meets Levi at his work and says, ‘Follow me.’ Levi drops everything and follows. (More on this next time.) They go back to his place and Levi throws a big party. Who does he invite? the people he knows; other tax collectors and people that will be willing to hang out with tax collectors. The Pharisees refer to these people as ’sinners’. Let’s not get this twisted, the Pharisees are not denying their own sin with this title. This was a common, catch-all name for any Jews who were not making an effort to follow God. ‘Sinners’ were people who didn’t go to the festivals, didn’t follow Torah, and didn’t bring offerings to the Temple. Matthew’s own account of this event reveals that there were also prostitutes there.
So these are the people Jesus spent at least some of His time with. Why would He do this? Because the good news is for those who haven’t heard it! In Jesus’ words, ‘I have not come for the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance.’
Again, let’s not twist this message. Jesus is not condoning sin; in fact He is calling people to repent! These is quite conscious of the fact that these people He is feasting with are diseased. But He IS GOING TO these people!
I have a bad habit of telling the good news to people who already know it. I make these occasional speeches that we call sermons, but typically more than 90% of the listeners already believe. Do you know that there is no record in the NT of a sermon delivered to a group of believers? Yet we do it every week!
Again, don’t get me wrong, we are to exhort and encourage each other in the church. Sermons can be a useful and meaningful way to do this. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking we are ’spreading the gospel’ when we just go to our church buildings and give a talk once a week! Imagine if your local hospital canceled its ambulance service. They just issued a couple of ads in the paper saying, ‘Anyone that wants help needs to find their own way to the hospital!’ We wouldn’t be too happy with that. But are we any different when we sit in our ‘hospital’ waiting for people to come for healing?
Jesus makes a fundamental point here that I think many of us, definitely self included, often miss. To share the gospel, you have to FIRST go to the people that need to hear it. It doesn’t count to just sit in our clubhouse and talk about how cool Jesus is, as fun as that may be. We’ve got to be willing to get our hands a little dirty some times. Essentially, Jesus is challenging the Pharisees and scribes to consider that ’sinners’ might not be that way if someone gave them a chance! The good news of Christ’s kingdom is that it is for everyone!
Jesus demonstrates to us that it is possible to share our lives with unbelievers and not participate in sin. Perhaps I need to be more intentional about not spending all of my time doing ‘church stuff’. The kingdom of Christ should be proclaimed in the world, which means we all have to be out there doing a bit of proclaiming!! But how do we do that? What will it look like? Let’s continue to look into Luke for clues…
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I like the metaphor of the hospital. It will definitely be good to see how it is that Jesus calls to repentance those who were making no effort to follow God.
The workplace can be a Christians dream. Tons of conversation,8 hrs/day of interaction and “getting to know” people, and usually a 30 minute break/lunch to talk about things a bit more in detail if that presents itself. You can reserve your comments to really dangerous/possibly unproductive topics, as…you are at work, and trust is built on a professional level as well. Great way to confess Jesus before men, and be there for those who desire to know more about Him. I think getting people to come listen to the sermons is where we can be most failed/unfocused.
Great thoughts so far Ed…look forward to the next post!
“Do you know that there is no record in the NT of a sermon delivered to a group of believers?”
Hmmm. I guess it depends on how you define “sermon.” Paul gave two lengthy-ish talks to Christians about spiritual matters in Acts 20 alone, after all.
It’s a great point, though, that we tend to spend far more time teaching each other than trying to find those who are lost. Need to get out of the comfort zone.
- A PRAYER FROM JESUS -
This prayer is from Jesus that we may here from Him, that He may meet our needs. It only consist of three simple steps.
1) We need to read one scripture. This will focus us in the word that brings everlasting life.
2) Since this prayer is from Jesus we need to direct our prayer to Him personally. Too often Christian focus they’re prayer’s to G_D the father. Scripture proclaims that Jesus should be the focus of our prayer.
3) The simplest part of this Prayer is to ask Jesus one question. Please, all that is required for this question is to make it simple. Let Jesus Himself finish the question when He gives you that understanding through prayer.
The PRAYER
The scripture that is the focus of this prayer is “ACTS 2:38″. It’s not necessary to do any study into this scripture. Jesus Himself will bestow the understanding that will resonate in your heart.
The most important part of this prayer is that we need to direct our prayer directly to Jesus. If you normally would say Father in your prayer, change your focus from the Father to Christ Jesus by lifting Jesus name up every time you would normally use Father in your prayer.
Maybe the hardest part of this prayer is the question that we need to ask Jesus. For man as we are, always try to understand the question and may add many additional quires. The simplest question is all that is required.
Simply ask Jesus ‘WHY’
Scott Kercheville made a good observation in a sermon; the building is where we go for nutrients not fruit-bearing. Study, prayer, hearing, are all taking in, not bearing out. BUT, we can’t have one without the other- balance.