Day 15.  Hope’s Enigma

by John Mason | Feb 26, 2016 | 2016 Lenten Series

Read:

Luke 23: 32–43[1]

32 Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.  34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.  And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35 And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” 39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

HOPE’S ENIGMA

The scene around Jesus’ cross was gruesome. He was naked, exposed to the curiosity of the crowd and the frivolity of the soldiers. “If you are the king of the Jews,” they taunted, “save yourself.”  In the midst of this vicious and degrading scene there was irony, for above Jesus’ head Pilate had ordered the charge against him to be written — ‘King of the Jews.’ The extraordinary thing is that Jesus did not curse his tormentors. There is no spirit of revenge. Instead we hear a prayer – “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing”.  

Some suggest that Jesus was praying only for the soldiers, but if that were so he would have said, ‘Father, understand them,’ not, ‘Father forgive them.’ They were only carrying out their duty.  It is more likely that Jesus was praying that God would forgive the ignorance of all – ignorance of who he is and what we do as ignorant and foolish people. Furthermore, he was praying not just for the crowd, for Pilate or the soldiers, but also for us.  

The scene that follows is most instructive, for it shows us that the most important decision we need to make in life has to do with our relationship with Jesus. The first criminal chose to die without him, disparaging the God who had allowed his death. He was contemptuous of Jesus and blasphemed him. He chose to die as he had lived, totally rejecting anything to do with God.

However, the second criminal chose another way to die. This man’s life was no better than his colleague’s: he wasn’t religious or good by any means. He said so himself. Yet something about Jesus seems to have struck this hardened criminal. It may have been the contrast between Jesus’ prayer for his tormentors and the bitter hostility of his colleague. It may have been the righteousness that was so evident in Jesus that awoke this man to his guilt before God, or the tenderness and good will evident in Jesus that allowed him to hope that his prayer would be answered: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” His words are strikingly simple. In some vague way he understood that Jesus really is God’s king. He took the crucial step of asking the king for a place in his kingdom. It was an eleventh hour repentance. His faith may have had faith no bigger than a mustard seed, but Jesus’ response would have reached the depths of this dying man’s soul: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” To die with Jesus is very different from dying without him.

You may want to consider:

1. the attitudes of the various groups and people there: why doesn’t Jesus pray, “Father, understand them”?
2. the different attitudes of the dying men on either side of Jesus: do you agree that their attitudes reflect the two fundamental differences that exist in the human heart when people die?  
3. the meaning and implications of Jesus’ words, “Today you will be with me in paradise”?   

Let me encourage you to pray:

© John G. Mason, Reason for Hope – 40 Days of Bible Readings and Reflections – 2016. All Rights Reserved.

Day 14.  Hope and Grace (Part 2)

by John Mason | Feb 25, 2016 | 2016 Lenten Series

Read:

Luke 15:25–34[1]

25 “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31 Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

HOPE AND GRACE

What of the older son?  The elder brother is portrayed as being in need of just as much grace and transformation as the younger. Discovering the reason for the party which he heard as he returned to his father’s home, he refused to go in. Once more Jesus portrayed the father reaching out to a problem son – humiliating himself in public again. Going out on to the street to meet his elder son, who should have been present as one of the hosts, he was met with the arrogant and cutting words: ‘You have given a party for this spendthrift waster; what have you done for me?’ is the gist of his words. Disdainful of his father’s action, he summed up his response with, ‘I have slaved for you’.

Works? In Jesus’ audience that day there were two groups of people – those who knew they were sinners and those who considered themselves righteous (15:1–2). It is the second group that Jesus had in view as this second part of his story unfolded. He wanted this group to see that they, like the older brother, had not understood the nature of a relationship with God that was based on love. Like the older brother their relationship with God was based on works.

The older son styled himself as a slave or a servant. He always obeyed orders, yet he didn’t understand what it was to be a son in his father’s home. He saw himself as hard-working and industrious, but he was blind to what it meant to be a son and heir. Consider his father’s comment in 15:31: “Son”, literally, ‘my boy’ (it’s a term of endearment) “You are always with me, and all that is mine is yours”.

Like his younger brother, this son did not really know his father. He had failed to understand the privilege and the position that he held. He had failed to see that his father was open-handed and generous. All he needed to do was ask: he would have been given what he needed, because he was his father’s son.

PRODIGAL SON

This story, often called the parable of the prodigal son, is in fact a story of two lost sons.  The younger had been self-seeking, totally self-indulgent, wanting everything now. Not only had he virtually wished his father dead, but he had squandered everything he’d been given.

The older son had seemingly been the model son. He’d remained with his father and he’d done everything he’d been asked to do. But though he was a son, living under his father’s roof, he didn’t live in a son/father relationship.  It was more like a slave to master relationship. He saw himself as a servant and the nature of his relationship with his father as being based on good behavior and the quality of his work.

The elder brother serves as a powerful warning to us. There are many good and upright, sometimes churchgoing people who are like the older brother. They reckon that they have a right relationship with God because of the quality of their lives. They would say that they have lived moral lives and are known for their integrity at work and for their support of their church and people in need.

Jesus is saying that it is false to think that by our efforts we are good enough for God – to be sons and daughters of God. A son or a daughter can only be a member of a family when he or she is born or adopted into a family. To that extent it is out of their control. Works have nothing to do with it. Because all of us have broken our relationship with God, he has to be the one to restore it. Because he is passionate about rescuing us, he has done everything that is needed.

This is the point of the humiliation of the father in the story. It foreshadows the Son of God putting aside his status, allowing himself – he had voluntarily agreed to do it – to be nailed to a cross on that first Good Friday.

You may want to consider:

1. the place of ‘works’ and ‘law’ in our relationship with God;
2. the warnings we need to heed from the older son;
3. the implications of the extraordinary grace of God in your life.

Let me encourage you to pray:

©John G. Mason, Reason for Hope – 40 Days of Bible Readings and Reflections – 2016. All Rights Reserved.

Day 13.  Hope and Grace (Part 1)

by John Mason | Feb 24, 2016 | 2016 Lenten Series

Read:

Luke 15:11–24[1]

11 Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

HOPE AND GRACE

Jesus’ story of the two lost sons is amongst the greatest of all stories. It is one of the most vivid pictures of the extraordinary riches of God’s grace towards men and women.

One way or another all of us want to enjoy and benefit from the good things of life while keeping God at a distance. This is true of both of the sons in the story that Jesus told here.

By asking his father for his inheritance now, the younger son makes an outrageous request: it is as though he was saying to his father, ‘Dad, I wish you were dead’. His request and his later actions reveal that he has no interest in his father or any sense of responsibility towards him. Yet the father shows extraordinary generosity.

As the story unfolds, the younger son squanders his inheritance on extravagant parties with good-time friends. Inevitably, he finds himself without money to live and without friends to call upon. In desperation he takes a poorly paid position feeding pigs. This is a twist that emphasizes the extent of the young man’s poverty. He, a Jewish man, under the laws of kashrut, for whom pigs were not clean food, could only find work feeding pigs.

Resolving to return to his father he was willing to admit responsibility for having lost the money: “I have sinned before heaven and before you…” In asking his father take him back as a ‘hired servant’, he reveals his sense of unworthiness (15:22). He didn’t even feel worthy to be re-instated as a son.

However he had not understood the nature of his Father’s love.

GRACE

Grace. The father did the totally unexpected. Like most fathers, he was aware what his son’s character was, and had no doubt what he had done, but he still loved him. He had been watching for his son’s return. When word came that his son indeed was coming home, he ran down the road to greet him. He was heedless of the scorn he would receive, for in running he was making a public spectacle of himself. A man in his position would always walk with dignity. Not only that, he was running to embrace the black sheep of the family who had formerly rejected him.

When he reached his son he threw his arms around him and kissed him. Overcome by this totally unexpected welcome, he said, ‘Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ Period.

REPENTANCE

Repentance. The son had planned to add, ‘Treat me as one of your hired servants’. But now he saw that this was not appropriate. He realized that he’d never really known his father and that he had not understood what it was to have been his father’s son. His father loved him beyond measure. He saw that now. His father was prepared to do for him what he had not expected and certainly did not deserve. His father had given himself publicly, humiliatingly, for his sake.

Jesus wanted his hearers, and each one of us, to understand that the father is like God. God has given most of us many good things to enjoy. But we, like the son, have become so preoccupied with the good things of life and our own lives in general, that we forget God. Jesus wants us to see clearly and without a shadow of doubt that God loves each one of us, far more than we can ever believe. Our problem is that we become too absorbed in our own affairs.

With this parable, Jesus foreshadows another and far greater dimension and expression of God’s extraordinary love. The shadow of his cross begins to emerge. It is in and through the cross we see the greatest act of public humiliation anyone has ever demonstrated in history, for there, God in Jesus Christ stepped into our shoes and died in our place.

But the story does not stop there.  Before the younger son could catch his breath, his father was busy ordering new clothes, shoes and a ring – the best of everything. An elaborate and expensive feast was prepared and the father tells us why: “For this my son was dead, now he is alive, he was lost but now he has been found” (15:24). The wayward, rebellious boy who deserved nothing good from his father was to be reinstated as a son. In Luke 19:10 we Jesus’ words about himself and his mission: “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost”. The younger son had not just regretted his folly, but in turning back to his father and admitting his failure, he had been truly repentant. Through his father’s extraordinary and undeserved love, he is reinstated as a ‘son’. He sees that to serve as a ‘hired slave,’ to try to work his way back in to his father’s good graces, was both impossible and unnecessary.

You may want to consider:

1. the lessons to be learnt from the younger son;
2. the implications of the extraordinary grace of God in your life.

Let me encourage you to pray:

© John G. Mason, Reason for Hope – 40 Days of Bible Readings and Reflections – 2016. All Rights Reserved.

Day 12.  Hope’s Key

by John Mason | Feb 23, 2016 | 2016 Lenten Series

Read:

Luke 9:18–27[1]

18 Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19 They answered, “John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.” 20 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah of God.” 21 He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

HOPE’S KEY

Who Is Jesus? We have a habit of making judgments about one another. This is especially true when someone begins to emerge as a celebrity, and Luke wants us to know that most people were very taken by Jesus. However, there had been impressive people before and we sense that people thought Jesus belonged to the special group of heroes in Israel’s history (9:18–19).

But, Jesus was not content with this, and so he asked a more focused question of his disciples: ‘Who do you (plural) say that I am?’ (9:20). He reckoned that they had been with him long enough to form an opinion about him. By that time they had seen him day-in and day-out for over two years. They had listened to him and come to know him. And, while they seemed dissatisfied with the views of others, such as the Pharisees, Herod and even the crowds, they themselves still seemed to be uncertain about him. Jesus now challenged them to clarify their thoughts.

In this context, the picture cleared, at least for Peter. No doubt he had thought about the question before, but the idea had seemed impossible: ‘You are the Christ of God,’ he said (9:20). His response is as mind-blowing as it is significant. He was saying that Jesus was God’s long-promised ‘anointed one’ (Messiah). These men who had been in close proximity to Jesus, who had enjoyed the privilege of observing his every move and every look, confirmed Luke’s record of the words and events surrounding the birth of Jesus: Jesus is the Christ of God (also, 4:18–21).

THE MESSIAH

This is the first human testimony to Jesus being the Messiah, the Christ of God. Until now this kind of public witness had come only from supernatural sources – angels (1:31–35, 2:11), God the Father (3:22), and demonic spirits (4:41).

Prayer. It is easy to overlook that Peter’s testimony also had a supernatural origin, for the flow of Luke’s narration implies that Peter’s insight occurred as an outcome of Jesus’ prayer (9:18). It suggests that we too need to pray that people around us will come to this same statement of faith.

The radical solution for our need (9:21–22). Having recognized him the Messiah, Jesus knew his disciples would need a re-education program. Clearly they thought of the Messiah as a warrior king, like king David, a supernatural leader who would purge the country of the Roman scourge. They thought of God’s Messiah as the leader who would establish the glory of the kingdom of David across the whole world. This was their dream, their desire and their hope. Indeed, we get the impression that they saw themselves as having a role as courtiers in the coming kingdom (for example, 9:46–48).

But Jesus commanded them to tell no-one about what they now understood (9:21). His command for silence echoes his words to the demons (4:40–41), but his reasons here are different: ‘The Son of man must suffer many things…,’ he said (9:22). He needed to teach them that his path to glory would involve suffering and a cross. He would be rejected and would be put to death, but on the third day he would rise to life. With Luke’s arrangement of these two verses we feel the force of Jesus’ injunction for silence and the reason for it. However, the full significance of these events would only become clear to the disciples once they had taken place.

It is most important that we understand what Jesus is saying here. Most people reckon that what is needed to make the world a better place, is a new government, better education, better law enforcement. But Jesus knew that power, wielded by legitimate governments in the cause of justice could, at best, only limit evil. He knew the greed, the hatred and the selfishness of our human hearts could not be rooted out by better laws, better education or still less, by warfare, though these things have their place.

There was only one weapon that could finally defeat the power of evil and that was the weapon of innocent suffering and voluntary sacrifice. It required him, innocent man before God that he is, to tread a path to a cross. If Jesus had said the world could be rescued through education, social action, better government, or even armed revolution, many would follow. But he had to hang and suffer on a tree. And we might be tempted to ask, ‘You can’t really change the world like that, can you?’ The extraordinary thing is that he did.

You may want to consider:

1. the significance of Jesus’ questions of the disciples;
2. the place of prayer in people’s response to Jesus;
3. the implications for us to Jesus’ resolution to our human need.

Let me encourage you to pray:

© John G. Mason, Reason for Hope – 40 Days of Bible Readings and Reflections – 2016. All Rights Reserved.