Ryan Hale

This morning, as I read Luke 8, I was struck by verse 14. It says:

The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.

Luke 8:14

Jesus is explaining the parable that he gave to the crowds about the four different types of soil where the farmer had scattered the seed. In this particular case, it was the third soil where the seed was scattered and then took root and grew. So far so good!

But as the seed grew, there were weeds and thorns that surrounded it and choked the plant. Jesus said that those weeds and thorns are the things that we worry about in life – our riches, our pleasures.

This struck me for two reasons.

First, I see it everywhere. Whether it is in the US or here in Sicily where I live, I see it. Whether you speak of someone who is already rich, or you speak of someone who is poor and wants to become rich. I see it. Whether you speak of people in the church or outside of it, I see it.

The Word of God, and what it tells us to be or to do, is routinely choked out by the things of this world. As a people, we are much more concerned about our riches or our status in these few years that we have here on this earth than we are living for eternity.

The second reason that this struck me is that I see it in myself. I get worried about our finances. I get worried about whether or not we will be able to do something or not do something. I get worried… And this is, as they say, a long step off of a short pier. It doesn’t take much to lose focus on the things that matter, those things of eternal value. It is easy to do, so I must continue to focus on what God has to say so that I don’t become entangled in the thorns of this life and become choked out by those things that are temporary here on earth.

I am, instead, inspired by what Paul had to say in his letter to the Philippians. He said:

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:21

Paul is indifferent to the things of the world. He knows the supreme and everlasting power of living in the Kingdom of God. He understands that there is one thing to live for, and that is Christ. Everything else is second, and in fact, if he is killed for what he is living for, that is even better. The world has no hold upon him.

This is how I want to live and the attitude that I want to carry with me each day. God help me to live in this way and not be choked out by the temptations of the things of this world!

It is a strange scene. The Jewish leaders bring Jesus to Pilate and say that they want him to crucify Jesus.

Why? Pilate asks.

Well, he’s a criminal, they say. Of course he is. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have brought him here to you.

But Pilate still can’t figure out why he is supposed to crucify Jesus, so he goes to Jesus to ask him. What did you do to make them so angry with you? But Jesus still doesn’t say anything that should get him crucified.

Pilate declares Jesus innocent, so that should be the end of the story. Once you are declared innocent, you should be set free!

But the Jews know that Pilate cannot support anyone that would be considered a king, especially not a king above Caesar, the emperor of Rome. So that is the card that they play. They tell Pilate that he is no friend of Rome if they allow this king to go on living.

So Pilate gives the order that Jesus should be crucified. The Roman soldiers will take him, along with the Jewish leaders, to be crucified.

So, who killed Jesus?

Was it the Jews? They handed Jesus over to the Romans demanding that he be crucified because they claimed that he was blaspheming and that they were jealous because the people were listening to Jesus and following him instead of them.

Or was it the Romans? They were the legal authority at the time. The Jews could not inflict any punishment upon Jesus without the authority that the Romans would provide. The Romans provided the final say, the final authority.

But there is one more important figure in this story who is the one who is truly determining Jesus’s fate.

Pilate was angry when Jesus wouldn’t speak to him. He asked Jesus: Don’t you know that I hold your fate in my hands? “Don’t you realize that I have the power to either free you or crucify you?”

But Jesus sets the record straight and says:

You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.

John 19:11

Jesus points out that there is someone with much greater authority in this situation than Pilate. It is God the Father, himself, who has given Pilate the power over Jesus.

And what is worse, the high priest of the Jews has committed a great sin before as he hands Jesus, the Son of God, over to Pilate to be killed.

So, who killed Jesus?

Yes, the Jews were involved. They were, humanly speaking, the instigators to bring Jesus before Pilate.

Yes, the Romans were involved. Despite declaring Jesus to be innocent, Pilate goes ahead and kills Jesus anyway.

But it was God himself that made this plan. And it is God that is carrying out the plan. He is the one who would offer Jesus as a sacrifice. Jesus is himself God and is offering himself, offering his own blood, for the salvation of those who would put their faith in him.

It is God. He is the one who killed Jesus. He predicted Jesus’s death centuries before, and now he is carrying out his plan.

Think about this a moment: Jesus chose Judas Iscariot to be one of his disciples. Why would he do that?

John, who was Jesus’s disciple and who wrote the book of John, wrote that Jesus knew from the beginning – from the time that he chose Judas, and even much before! – that Judas would betray him. And it seems that this is precisely the reason that Jesus chose him.

Judas was in charge of the treasury of their group and stole money from them.

Judas was the one who said that the perfume that Mary poured over Jesus could have been sold and given to the poor, although in reality he didn’t really care about the poor. He only wanted more money for himself.

And finally, Judas sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

See a pattern? Judas loved money much more than he loved Jesus. Judas was part of this group for his own gain. He followed Jesus to be able to build up his own wealth, his own fame and power. Very likely he thought that Jesus might be the someone important, so he intended to ride Jesus’s coattails to his own fortunes.

And Jesus knew all of that. He knew of Judas’s thieving heart and that Judas would betray him and sell him for a small amount of silver. In fact, he chose this man to be one of his disciples precisely because he wanted Judas to betray him. Judas’s betrayal of Jesus would set in motion Jesus’s death, an act that Jesus knew must happen and that he was destined to complete.

I think that when you see this selection of Judas from this perspective, you can begin to understand why Jesus would see his time headed to the cross as bringing glory to himself and to the father. It is strange, isn’t it? To consider marching to your own death and calling it bringing glory to the Father and to yourself? And yet, that is exactly what Jesus says:

When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

John 13:31-32

At the beginning of verse 31, it says, “When he was gone”, refers to when Judas left their Passover dinner. Jesus had just identified Judas as the one who had betrayed him and told him to go do it quickly. Judas then stands up and leaves.

That is the context in which Jesus then says that the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. Given that, I think it would be fair to ask the question: Who made this plan that Jesus would be betrayed? Is it Judas? Is it the Jewish religious leaders? The Romans?

No, clearly, it is God himself who has made the plan and Jesus is on the earth to carry it out.

But now take a look at the next sentence that Jesus says. He has already said that he would be glorified, identifying himself as the Son of Man, and then saying that God the Father would be glorified in him.

And then Jesus goes on to say that God will glorify the Son in himself. He explains the glory that he will receive and that the Father will receive in a circular pattern. They both are receiving glory from one another as a result of Jesus’s action. It is, in fact, another way that Jesus is identifying himself as one with the Father. Together, they receive glory for the blood purchase of many through Jesus’s death on the cross.

“I respect all people and all of the different religions and ways that God has spoken to them.”

“I’m happy to learn about other religions, but you have your religion and I have my religion, you know. We can each follow our own way.”

These are both statements that I heard this last week. The first from a Catholic and the second from a Muslim. And the statements seem logical. I have my way, you have your way. It sounds nice and makes it work out well so that we don’t really have to make a solid decision, and what is more, we don’t have to offend one another.

And in one sense, I can agree with this. I can’t, and won’t try to force anyone to believe anything. So, in that sense, of course. Everyone is free to believe as they like. But they should be making their decision about their eternity, an eternity that they are choosing even now, in a way that is fully informed. We should each be informed about the truth of history and how we arrived where we are today, and we should be informed about how our faith and its beliefs and practices align with what God has been doing throughout this same history.

Jesus addressed a similar idea of multiple ways of thinking about reaching God when he spoke of a sheep pen. In this particular case, he was speaking to the Pharisees, the Jewish religious leaders and teachers of the Jewish law, but I think that we can apply these same words to situations like what I outlined above with our Catholic and Muslim friends. He said:

Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.

John 10:1

Jesus is clear. If you do not enter the “sheep pen” through the gate, you are a thief and a robber. And of course, that is not a good thing. The sheep pen, as Jesus is describing it here, is the kingdom of God, and no one is going to be able to enter into the kingdom of God as a thief or a robber.

Jesus goes on to describe himself as the gate itself:

“Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

John 10:7-10

Jesus is saying that he is the one and only way to enter into the sheep pen. He is the only way to enter into the kingdom of God. He doesn’t, at all, discuss his respect for other religions or other schools of thought. He tells them very simply. I am the gate.

And that is it.

Stop.

So if we say that we like Jesus, as many do…or we say that we believe in him, as many do…we should make sure that we know what he taught. We should make sure that we understand who he has called us to be. We should understand that Jesus didn’t bring unity. He brought division. He spoke of one way, and one way only. In him, and through him.

This is a difficult saying for me. I see it and it is clear to understand, but it is not easy for me to take on and digest…primarily because I don’t really want to. I want to believe, instead, that each person can simply come to God once they hear.

Of course, I have no idea who God will call and who he won’t, or whether he will call someone now while I am speaking to them or will call them in the future when someone else is speaking to that same person that I have spoken to.

But Jesus was clear when he spoke to the Jews as they challenged him. Jesus explained precisely why they didn’t believe:

Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

John 8:45-47

Interestingly, at the beginning of this exchange, in verse 31, it says that Jesus is actually speaking to those who had believed him. It seems that Jesus is taking a next step to even challenge their belief, to move them beyond their religiosity through their Judaism, beyond their faith in being part of God’s people, the Jews, and instead putting their faith in him.

Challenging them in this way reveals that they haven’t actually changed their minds to fully believing what Jesus is telling them, but instead they prefer to hang on to what they have relied upon from the past, that they are descendants of Abraham, and that is what allows them to be accepted by God.

Not true, says Jesus.

And this is the part that rings so true to me and why I wanted to highlight these verses today. So many people have such a hard time believing that what they are doing, even religiously, will not make them righteous before God. Muslims believe that if they go to the mosque 5 times to pray each day (even though many of them actually do not), or give money to other people, or fast during Ramadan, that God will see them as righteous.

Many of the Catholics that I meet seem to believe that if they are “good people”, or they follow the religious rules, or go to the religious festivals, then God will see them as righteous.

And yet Jesus is standing in the square telling them that he is the light of the world and they can’t hear him. It is as if they are deaf to what Jesus is saying. Their ears and hearts are closed, and what is more, they argue in the other direction, explaining why what Jesus is saying must be wrong.

I so much wish that it wasn’t the case, but I have to say that I feel at times that this sentence is true with many of these people:

The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.

I pray that God will be patient, that he will be merciful, that he will give grace, that each will be saved. I pray that many will be able to hear because they belong to God.

As Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, we see a scene that seems very familiar to me. There is a great amount of confusion in the crowd:

Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.

John 7:43

We see that people say this about Jesus or that about Jesus, thus dividing themselves, based primarily upon their misunderstanding or ignorance of him.

For example, the crowds are confused because of their understanding of where the Messiah is from. They say that the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, but should instead come from Bethlehem, the down where David lived.

Did Jesus come from Bethlehem? Yes, he was born there! But because they were ignorant of this background, they immediately pass judgment and say that he can’t be the one.

Or rather, Jesus says that he will go away for a short time to a place that they can’t find him. Jesus, of course we know now as we look back on it today, is speaking of when he will ascend to the Father in heaven. Those that are here on earth won’t be able to find him as they won’t have the ability to see him. And yet the crowds wonder if he will be going to preach to Jews who are scattered amongst the nations, or even to speak to the Gentiles.

Or furthermore, Jesus asserts that he is here on earth – or there in Jerusalem – not on his own authority, but on the authority of the one who sent him, speaking of course of his Father in heaven.

And even this causes division because the people know that the Jewish leaders want to kill him for “blasphemy” because they are understanding that Jesus is saying that he is, himself, God, but they aren’t arresting him and instead are allowing him to continue to speak.

There is confusion everywhere – all over who Jesus is.

As I mentioned, this is the same confusion that I still see today. Philosophies, religions, and cultures all seek to define him and new ideas come to us on a regular basis, and some insistently. Insistent that their ideas are correct. And yet, similar to what we see in this situation in John 7, they aren’t based on the evidence, the truth, or even who Jesus says that he is. Instead, they are based simply on what someone else says of who Jesus is.

Let us dig into the words and stories of Jesus. Let’s let the truth come in and inform us instead of us attempting to form the truth in our own way, in our ignorance of the facts.

Lord help us to know you as you want us to know you!

Jesus healed a man who had been lame, unable to walk, for 38 years. He had been laying next to a pool in Jerusalem hoping that he would be healed by the waters there when Jesus arrived, asked him if he actually did want to get well, and then had him stand up and walk away.

Not amazed by the fact that a lame man was walking, but instead incensed that Jesus had done this on a Saturday, the sabbath, the Jewish leaders begin to persecute Jesus. While we don’t see it specifically said in this case, we often see the Jewish leaders ask Jesus upon what authority he is acting as he is, breaking the Jewish customs. And Jesus is happy to explain it to them:

In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

John 5:17-18

The Jews clearly understood that Jesus was comparing himself to God. They even try to kill him because they think that he is blaspheming.

Yet Jesus is showing them through what he is doing that he is telling the truth. He is working, he says. Is there anyone else walking around doing miracles like I’m doing? My Father is at work…and so am I. Guys, we are one and the same. I am God.

“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.

John 5:31-32

Jesus goes on to say that John the Baptist had testified about him, but even that testimony is not enough. It is the testimony of God himself that Jesus is discussing. The Father has given the Son work to do, and that is what he is doing. Because the Father has given him these works, he speaks to who Jesus is.

But there is a problem. Jesus says that they cannot understand this testimony because they do not believe the one that the Father sent. In other words, because they aren’t willing to believe Jesus, they can’t understand the Father.

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

John 5:39-40

The Jews put their faith in the law that Moses wrote, believing that because they have God’s law, they are the people of God. And in one way this is true, but God doesn’t want them just to have the law, he wants his people to give him their hearts. To give him all of themselves.

The Jews miss something very important within the scriptures that they rely upon. They miss the fact that the scriptures talk about and point toward the Messiah, who is Jesus. Jesus points toward these scriptures saying that they actually speak about him!

So, any questions? These are the things that Jesus speaks of as he explains under what authority he is doing what he is doing, and why he is doing them in the timing that he is doing. He is, himself, the Lord of the Sabbath. He can do his work in his timing because he has all of the authority to do as he would please.

As I was growing up, this was a popular saying: We have all of the time in the world. Of course, it simply means that there is no rush, no hurry. We can do whatever we want. We can take our time and slow down. We have nothing that we need to be concerned about at this point.

Louis Armstrong, as it turns out, even solidified this saying into a song that became a theme for a 007 James Bond movie. Just for fun, here is that song. I think it even appropriately sounds like the sentiment itself:

Jesus pointed out to his disciples that they had a similar saying in their day and in their culture. The Samaritans from the town of Sychar had heard about Jesus from his “chance” meeting with the woman at the well and many of them were coming out from the town to the well to meet Jesus and see if his claim to be the Messiah could actually be true.

As the people were on their way, Jesus was speaking to his disciples and said to them:

Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’?

John 4:35

Jesus is quoting a proverb to them from their culture. He’s saying that they are essentially saying:

There is no need to hurry!

We have plenty of time!

The harvest isn’t for another four months…

…You can’t do anything about it anyway. The grain just needs to grow.

But then Jesus immediately follows up this retelling of the proverb with a rebuke of this mentality. Instead of thinking, “We have all the time in the world” or “It’s still four months until harvest”, they should instead be thinking:

I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

John 4:35

Jesus is saying that there is urgency to this task. Get going! The fields are ripe for harvest and we are just sitting here.

Jesus wants his disciples to realize that there is work that has been done, and is continuing to be done amongst the people. Seeds have been sown. God’s work is going forward. It is his work, and now it is time to bring in his harvest.

Cruise Boat or Battleship

I have a friend who used to say that we, as the church, need to decide whether we are cruise boat or a battleship.

What was he saying?

The point to his statement was that the church can see itself as a nice place where we have received the blessing of God and enjoy one another in a nice environment. We can relax. We don’t really need to do anything. We’re forgiven, right? We can sort of just cruise our way into heaven.

Or, on the other hand, we can see ourselves as a battleship. We can not only say that we are ready, but we can train. We can prepare – theologically, practically, and in any other way that is needed… and then we can go to war.

Our war is a war of love for the people around us and a desire for God to receive glory for who he is and what he has done for us.

It is time for God’s people to decide. The church must come alive and come out of its stupor to realize that God made us to be a “battleship” of sorts. He intended that we go into the enemy’s territory and take people from him and back into peace and reconciliation with God. Will we complete the role that God has given to us? Will we be the ambassadors that Christ has intended us to be?

Or will we continue to slumber and cruise along because we have all the time in the world?