MPC
30th August 2009.August 30 - Luke 17:1-19 - "A Bit too Glib About God"
MPC
30th August 2009.
Phil Campbell
I'm going to accuse the Pharisees this morning of taking God for granted. Of minimising God.
Which is just another way of turning things upside down, which we saw them doing last week.
I'm going to lay the charge at the feet of the Pharisees that they think they're doing God a favour. That God is in their debt for what they do. When they should be humbling themselves at his feet.
I'm going to accuse these pious and pretentious first century religious leaders of ultimately being glib about God.
In a way that's still alive and well today.
Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs was let out of prison last week, and the newspaper says he's made his peace with God. Apparently, it wasn't too difficult. Ronnie says, "doesn't he forgive everyone? I am at peace with him. We're mates."
Which is much exactly what Paul Hogan says in Crocodile Dundee.
No big deal. An easy going God who just wants to be your friend. Forgiving everyone because forgiving is his job. That's just what he does. And no doubt if you want to do him a favour from time to time, he'll be very, very appreciative of your help. And then you sit down in the cool of the afternoon and have a beer with him.
Our passage this morning here in Luke chapter 17 shows two ways the people of Israel are glib about God. And maybe you're guilty too.
They think God's forgiveness comes easy. And yet they're slow to forgive others.
They think God should be thanking them. And yet they neglect to thank God.
Two confronting issues. Where maybe Jesus wants to challenge us in our complacency too.
Now the issue of forgiveness is pointed and it's painful, isn't it? If in some way you've been profoundly hurt or if you've been abused, if you're living with deep psychological scars; if the pain of your loss is just overwhelming through the wrongs of another person.
Here in Luke 17 Jesus is talking to his disciples. And he's teaching them in a fundamental kind of way how not to be like the pharisees. Who we've seen these past few weeks have been criticising his every move. Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem, where he knows he's going to be betrayed and tried and crucified. But the thing he wants to leave with his disciples is some lessons in forgiveness. And faith. And humble thankfulness.
The thing that's staggering is when you see Christians even today taking Jesus seriously at this point. In ways that can be incredibly impressive. In fact, I wonder if the vast majority of the times you read about or you see genuine acts of forgiveness, I wonder if it's driven by faith. And a commitment to Jesus. Because it's un-natural, isn't it?
And so as 22 year old Ashleah Taylor was looking down at the bodies of her parents beside the highway at Sippy Downs, at the same time she was forgiving the other driver. Ashleah is a committed Christian. Her dad Allan was a school chaplain. Some of you might have known them personally. So listen to the report from The Courier Mail.
Police yesterday confirmed they had not laid charges against the 73-year-old male driver, who was seen weeping at the scene. "I didn't see the collision. I looked up and they were just lying on the ground," said their 22 year old daughter Ashleah. "As soon as I saw them I knew they were in heaven. They were both amazing parents," says Ashleah, "not just to me and my brother, but to hundreds and hundreds of families." Now listen to this bit: "We're all grieving but the driver of the other car has a family as well.... I'm angry they're gone but I'm not angry at him. I want him to know I'm not angry with him at all."
Now it sounds to me like Allan and Kari Taylor got a lot of things right. And one of the things they got most right was the way they've taught their daughter to trust in Jesus and forgive.
I mean, it's staggering, isn't it?
After telling his disciples in verse 1 that things that cause people to sin are inevitable and that we live in a broken world, Jesus says these words in verse 3.
If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents... forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent...' forgive him.
And you say that's just unrealistic.
And you say, you're just opening yourself up to be used. Taken advantage of.
And you say, but what do you do with the hurt from that. Because the reality is, here's somebody sinning against you. Here's somebody doing the wrong thing. Here's somebody causing you pain or loss or inconvenience or offence.
And you want to say, how can I possibly just put the offense aside like that? How can I just let go of the pain?
The Pharisees, of course, kept a record of every wrong. The Pharisees had a critique of everyone and everything. Whereas the follower of Jesus is meant to be a specialist in forgiving. Once. Twice. Seven times over.
Because the fact is, we're bent and broken people living with bent and broken people in a bent and broken world. And the kind of forgiveness Ashleah Taylor was showing to that tearful old man who'd just mown down her parents is just breath-taking, isn't it?
Now if you're someone struggling with issues of forgiveness, and I know this is a live and a painful issue, can I make a couple of important points. Because most often the scenario I've had contact with pastorally is people who are dealing with past abuse. That's left very deep wounds. Notice first and foremost, Jesus says in verse 3, if he repents. And when you've been wronged by someone in a profound way like that and there's been no confession and no repentance, then it's not necessarily the time to forgive. Can I suggest, you might need to be rehearsing it a bit. You might need to make sure you're willing to forgive. But the biblical model is first the repentance, then the forgiveness.
The second point to keep in mind is that forgiveness like that isn't always going to mean it's possible to fully restore a relationship. In fact, sometimes that won't even be wise.
And it doesn't always mean you're going to instantly restore trust. So here's your guy in the story Jesus tells, he's sinned against you and he's repented. And you forgive. He's sinned against you a second time. And he's repented. And you forgive. He sins against you a third time. Look, I think I'm spotting a trend here. And he repents a third time. Now does that mean you're going to trust the guy to never do it again? You'd have to have rocks in your head. But that doesn't mean you won't forgive. Again. And again. It might look like you're the dumbest person on the planet. But the fact is, you're just doing what servants of the forgiving God do.
And anything less than that is taking God for granted.
If you want to think through this stuff some more there are some great talks by Paul Harrington from our bible teaching weekend in October last year on the web. But for now, you might think it's no surprise the disciples says to Jesus in verse 5,
The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
Because it's at times like these when your faith needs to do some heavy lifting, isn't it? It's at times when every part of you wants to harbor bitterness and unforgiveness and get even that to leave things up to God seems to require an immense amount of faith.
To which Jesus surprisingly says, it actually hardly takes any faith at all. You just need a tiny bit to lift a huge load. This is tough love coming from Jesus. This is Jesus saying, you can do it. In fact, it's your duty. This is just what Christians do.
I wonder if you could try that strategy sometime. I remember when the removalists were about to lift our old iron framed piano up the stairs into our place, just when you're thinking they'll be straining and sweating and cursing under their breath... one of them cracked a joke. And lightened the mood. Just like a walk in the park.
The apostles are saying, this is hard. Increase our faith.
And Jesus says, I suspect you've got all the faith you need. Verse 6.
If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.
Have you got that much faith? Then shifting a load of unforgiveness should be easy. Besides which, when you do it... you're just doing your duty any way.
Now see, here's issue number 2. The thankfulness thing.
Because it's very easy to start thinking that when we do something right, we're doing something special. That when we actually forgive someone, it's like we've hefted a grand piano single handed up a seven story stairwell. Like thinking when you didn't steal something from the shops you should get some kind of special thank you from Centre Management at Brookside, and if you don't drive through red lights the police might pull you over and say well done.
The point with the Pharisees is they make such a song and dance about the way they keep God's laws, they're thinking God should be throwing them a pamper party. That God should say thankyou to them. They've got things badly back to front. Listen to how Jesus puts it. Verse 7.
Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'?
Is he going to say to the servant put your feet up, let me make your dinner? It doesn't work like that. I mean, it might these days if you're a Generation Y worker in the software industry. But with servants and masters, that's not how it is.
Would the master not rather say, verse 8,
'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'
Now I wonder if you have that problem?
That you've got such a small view of God and such a big view of you that you really do think deep down that anything good you do you're doing God a favour? That anything right or proper or loving or generous you do, you're chalking up cosmic credits? That because you were a Sunday School teacher for 45 years or you were always honest in your job or you've been a Presbyterian all your life or because you've not been a Presbyterian or because you've been loving or because you've been forgiving that you can actually be proud of that and God's going to say put your feet up while I get you a drink? Jesus says, when you do the right thing, you've only ever done what you were meant to do in the first place. Just say this is what we do.
And the non-Pharisee thankful humble heart knows that. And serves like that. And lives like that. It says something about us, doesn't it, when we expect to be thanked by God for doing right. As if somehow the normal default position is to be selfish and self seeking and doing what suits ourselves.
We get it all back to front. Because we forget it's us who should be doing the thanking. Of the God who gave us all our resources in the first place. But most especially of the one who washes us clean.
You remember we started out this series with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. And as he's meeting with the people of Israel, as he's meeting with the people who are meant to be God's people, he's looking for signs of fruit on the unfruitful tree.
Well, here's a lesson in thankfulness. And the thing we're going to notice is that nine out of the ten lepers who are made clean by Jesus just take it for granted. Nine out of the ten lepers who Jesus takes pity on just walk away. And those same nine out of ten lepers are the Israelite ones.
Only one comes back to say thank you. Which is kind of bewildering, isn't it? That these healed Israelite lepers would so take God for granted that they don't even bother saying thank you. And they're shown up as the Israelites so often are in the gospels, by a Samaritan.
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, verse 11, and he's travelling down the Aamaritan border. And as he goes in a village, the ten lepers meet him and they're calling out from a distance, because they're not allowed to come close. They're calling out "Jesus, master, have pity on us."
Which of course merciful Jesus does. And he simply says to them, "go and show yourselves to the priests." Which is what the Old Testament law says you've got to do in the rare case that you're cured of your skin disease. Kind of weird. Cause there are no magic words, there's no healing touch. Just go see the priest. As if by the time you get there, you'll have something to show.
And it's as they go, verse 14, that they're cleansed.
But the point is actually in what happens next. It's no real surprise that Jesus has mercy on them. It's not even any real surprise by now if you've been watching Jesus that he can heal them. The surprise is in verse 15 and 16.
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked Him - and he was a Samaritan.
To which Jesus asks, so where are the others? Not that he's surprised, I guess. Just confirms what we already knew. "Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this FOREIGNER?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."
A faith found in a foreigner. Not found in the Israel of God. I guess they've been learning from their pharisees. Faithless, thankless, thinking God should be thanking them. When it's exactly the reverse.
See, there are loads of life lessons for us in this chapter aren't there? And as we take a break from Luke for a few weeks, it's a good point to take stock.
Because there's a portrait here of what a follower of Jesus looks like that's actually very attractive. Here's the true disciple. Let's work backwards from the end.
First and foremost, a person whose faith in Jesus has made them clean. That's the game-plan, isn't it? That's the first and most fundamental point, and Luke's only gradually unfolding it for us as he takes us to the cross where sins are paid for. But even now, a glimmer. If you want a clean, fresh, new start with a clean fresh new heart, be a person of faith in Jesus. The disciples said give us more faith. And Jesus says even a little bit is enough. Trust me!
Number 2. Follow that by being a person of thankfulness. First and foremost, appreciating what Jesus has done for you. Rather than taking it for granted.
Number 3. Being a person of humble service who knows serving the master is simply your duty. You're not doing God a favour. He's done you all the favours. And when you're serving, it's just what you do.
Number 4. Being a person of mercy. And easy forgiveness. Because you know at the heart of it all, God has forgiven you.
It's easy to be glib about God, isn't it? To take his mercy for granted, to start thinking he's there for your convenience. Jesus wants to confront that sort of attitude. And turn it around.
So maybe for you there's stuff you can work on. As I know there is for me. We who when we've done all that needs to be done can only ever say, "We are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty."