It is sometimes said that the most difficult thing for the Christian church today is to get people to believe. I think the opposite is true. Most people will believe almost anything, providing that what is said is communicated with a voice of authority. GK Chesterton once observed, ‘When a man (or woman) stops believing in God they don’t then believe in nothing, they believe anything’.

Today we come to the 7^th Coffee Conversation based on Luke’s Gospel. In Luke 24 three scenes portray Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead.

In Luke 24:36-37 we read: …Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them (the disciples), “Peace be with you.” But they were startled and terrified, thinking it was a ghost.

And even when he showed them his hands and his feet – no doubt with the imprints of the nails on them – in their joy they were still disbelieving and still wondering (24:41). These hard-headed men were confused and perplexed, even doubting what it all meant. ‘Is this really Jesus or just a spirit, a ghost?’ they were asking.

Aware of their questions and doubts, Jesus, brilliant teacher and counsellor that he is, addressed one issue at a time. “Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones…,” he said. He then asked for food (24:41). They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence (24:42-43).     

One of this century’s influential voices has been that of the late Stephen Hawking. According to Dr. John Lennox, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, Hawking says of miracles such as the resurrection: “We either believe them or we believe in the scientific understanding of the laws of nature, but not both” (John C. Lennox, God and Stephen Hawking(Lion, Oxford: 2011, p.82).

Dr. Lennox observes that many scientists would say that, “miracles arose in primitive, pre-scientific cultures, where people were ignorant of the laws of nature and so readily accepted miracle stories”. However, he responds: “In order to recognize some event as a miracle, there must be some perceived regularity to which that event is an apparent exception!” (pp.84f)

We don’t need the benefit of modern science to define an extraordinary event.

Lennox also notes that a second objection to miracles is,  “now we know the laws of nature, miracles are impossible” (p.86). However, as he observes, “From a theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene… To argue that the laws of nature make it impossible for us to believe in the existence of God and the likelihood of his intervention in the universe is plainly false” (p.87).

 It’s important for us to consider these matters. Followers of Jesus Christ accept the laws of nature that science observes. They are observable regularities that God the creator has built into the universe. That said, such ‘laws’ do not prevent God from intervening if he chooses. When he does, we are able to identify the irregularity and speak of it as ‘a miracle’. So, with respect to the resurrection of Jesus, the New Testament does not speak of it as a result of a natural mechanism. Rather, it happened because God intervened, using his supernatural power (Romans 6:4b).

To return to Luke 24. In each of the three scenes, the Scriptures and Jesus’ own words provide an explanation of what has happened. In the third scene these elements are brought together: “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you”, Jesus said. Everything he had taught and done had been foreshadowed in the Scriptures – even his death and resurrection.

Jesus’ resurrection has no significance without his death. It cannot point to forgiveness unless sin has been dealt with. The resurrection is a glorious message because it makes sense of Jesus’ death. At first the disciples felt his death was the end of all their hopes. But then they discovered it is the foundation of all their hopes. 

Malcolm Muggeridge, former editor of Punch, speaker, and author once wrote: ‘Confronted with the reality (death is the one certainty in life), we may rage or despair, induce forgetfulness, solace ourselves with fantasies that science will in due course discover how we came to be here and to what end, and how we may project our existence, individually or collectively, into some Brave New World spanning the universe in which Man reigns supreme. God’s alternative proposition is the Resurrection – a man dying who rises from the dead… I close with, ‘Done’…: Christ is risen!’

Ask questions. Over these 7 weeks I have suggested points in Luke’s narrative to discuss with your friend(s). Luke has introduced us to someone who is like no other. You may want to return to the words of the angel to the shepherds: “…Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (2:10f).

It’s worth observing that if this is true we need to give Jesus the highest level of attention. Ask what your friend believes. If they agree with Luke’s account but find it difficult to take a step of faith in Jesus, suggest that they ask God for help – help to make the step of turning to Jesus, help to ask for forgiveness, help to know the deep joy of knowing the love of Jesus in their life.

‘Money can’t buy life’ were reportedly the last words of the musician Bob Marley. How can we prepare for life in the hereafter – assuming such a thing exists?

In a 6^th Coffee Conversation let me suggest you explore with your friend(s) the question that a young magistrate who lived twenty-eight life spans ago (a life-span being seventy years) put to Jesus: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18).  

This young man seemingly had everything – status and success. Matthew and Mark also add that the man was wealthy. If the car you own, the property you hold, or the opinion that others have of you, have anything to do with life now and in the hereafter, this man had it.

He also had religion. When Jesus quizzed him about keeping the commandments, “…Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,” the man responded that he had done so from boyhood.

Furthermore, he showed respect to Jesus. He called him, ‘Good Teacher.’ It would have taken courage for a young ruler to ask someone like Jesus publicly about life matters. Jesus was a nobody: he had no social standing and no formal education. Yet despite the differences, this impressive, self-possessed young man asked him a significant question.

Consider Jesus’ response. ‘You know the law,’ he says. ‘Do you keep God’s rules of neighbor love? Do you respect other people’s marriages, their property, their reputation and, do you truly respect your parents?’ ‘I do all that,’ the young man replied.

Significantly, without commenting on that, Jesus pushes further. This time, drawing on the essence of the first commandment, he says: “One thing you lack. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Luke 18:22).

When we look carefully at Jesus’ words here we see that the key verb is not ‘sell’ or ‘give’, it is ‘follow’. Jesus does not command everyone to sell their property or cash in their shares, but he does demand discipleship. In the young man’s case discipleship meant selling everything. Money dominated his life. He couldn’t follow Jesus as long as he was entangled in his wealth.

Jesus is brutally frank: ‘You really want to love your neighbor as yourself? Sell what you have and give to the poor. How can you say that you love your neighbors while they go in rags and you live in prosperity? Do you really love the Lord your God, with all your heart, mind and soul? Let’s see if you are willing to give up your idolatry of wealth that has gripped your greedy heart.’

Money not only couldn’t buy him life, but ironically could prevent him from obtaining life.

As the man turned away, Jesus’s comment is graphic: “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:24f).

‘Who then can be saved?’ the disciples asked. And we must ask the same for, generally speaking, most people in our western world have riches that exceed those of the disciples. “What is impossible with men and women is possible with God”, Jesus replies (Luke 18:27).

We need to remember the young man’s question: ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Do,’ Jesus says. ‘You can’t do anything to inherit eternal life through your own efforts. You simply don’t come near God’s just requirements’.  

But there’s another verb in the original question we usually overlook. It’s the verb, to inherit. We usually inherit something through the death of someone with whom we had a relationship.

When we understand this we can begin understand why Jesus says, ‘What is impossible for men and women, is possible with God.’ We can’t inherit eternal life because of what we have or what we have done. The good news is that eternal life is a gift from God. But to become beneficiaries we need to form a relationship with Jesus while we have life now. It means turning to him in repentance and faith, committing to follow him as our only Lord all our days.

C.S. Lewis once observed: ‘All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it…  or else, that it was within your reach and you have lost it forever.’

PS. You may want to suggest that your friend(s) read Luke 21-24 for a 7^thCoffee Conversation.

In his Road to Character (Random Press: 2015), David Brooks writes, ‘…We have seen a broad shift from a culture of humility to the culture of what you might call the Big Me, from a culture that encouraged people to think humbly of themselves to a culture that encouraged people to see themselves as the center of the universe’.

He observes, ‘…In 1950, the Gallup Organization asked high school seniors if they considered themselves to be a very important person. At that point, 12 percent said yes. The same question was asked in 2005, and this time…, it was 80 percent.’ Brooks comments, ‘…As I looked around the popular culture I kept finding the same messages everywhere: You are special. Trust yourself. Be true to yourself… This is the gospel of self-trust.’

Which brings me to a fifth Coffee Conversation with your friend(s). Although I omitted mentioning it, I assume you have suggested that your friends continue to read on through Luke – specifically, chapters 10 through 14.

Again, ask if they have any questions. If you are unable to answer, speak with your minister or email me. Luke 12:13-21 is the focus of the fifth Coffee Conversation.

While David Brooks rightly identifies the rise of self-focus in American culture, it is true for Western culture in general. Furthermore, it reflects the human story as exemplified in Luke 12:13-21.

Jesus was speaking about eternal matters, when a man in the crowd burst out: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” The man was focused on his own interests.

“Friend,” Jesus replied, “Who appointed me a judge or an arbitrator over you? Take care,” he warns. “Be on your guard against all greed (or covetousness), for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions”.

Greed stands out as a dominant feature of the human heart. We crave things that delight our senses and feed our self-worth. Jesus’s parable is a warning: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly,” he began. “The man thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops.’

‘Me…’ He was today’s wealthy man or woman with a surging investment portfolio, the single person or couple greedy for the perfect house, the retiree with the multi-million dollar nest egg. He was someone who was blessed, but who had no personal consciousness of God in his life. Nor did he give any thought for the poor and the needy. He thought only of himself.

The first-person pronouns that Jesus uses to portray the man’s self-interest are telling: ‘My crops,’ ‘my grain,’ ‘my barns’. The man oozes self-confidence. ‘What shall I do?’ he asks.

Then he said, ‘I will do this…  I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink and be merry.’”

“But God said to him, ‘You fool!  This very night your life is required of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

“You fool!” What chilling words! What words for an epitaph. This man’s tragedy was that he had forgotten the rest of the proverb, ‘Eat, drink and be merry… for tomorrow we die.’ Death for him would not be put off until tomorrow. It would be tonight.

He had forgotten that his life wasn’t a gift. A day would come when the owner would insist upon its return: ‘your life, yourself, your soul will be demanded from you.’ It is the language for calling in a debt. Life is not ours to do with as we want. It is something for which we will have to give an account.

Jesus puts his finger on the real tragedy: “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God” (12:21). God is not a kill-joy: he gives us good things to enjoy. Jesus isn’t saying that money and possessions, success and recognition are sinful. Our problem is that we spend our lives focused on ourselves without reference to God. That is the ultimate foolishness.

True riches. How important it is that we are rich towards God. We find true riches only when we genuinely turn to Jesus Christ, asking for his full and free forgiveness. For the true riches of life – love and joy, happiness and contentment – we need to pray. We can’t obtain them by our own efforts. The good news is that it is God’s delight to give them to us.

And as we begin to grow in the riches of his love, more and more we will want to put aside self-interest and put the Lord God and others first.

PS. You may want to suggest that your friend(s) read Luke 15 – 20.

Back in the nineteen-sixties the Beatles sang: “All you need is love …” The problem is, as the 60s generation discovered, it’s one thing to sing about love but quite another to live it. People talk about the need for ‘love’ in the world today, yet everywhere we see the outcomes of humanity’s failure to love – and not least in the terrorist attacks carried out in the USA eighteen years ago today. Yet love and its true practice lie at the very heart of genuine Christianity.

On one occasion a lawyer asked Jesus: ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25) It was a good question, but Luke tells us the lawyer’s intention was to test Jesus. It was a ‘Gotcha’ question. Jesus knew this but he didn’t miss a beat as he responded with a question of his own: “You know the law. How do you read it?”

In reply the lawyer quoted: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind soul and strength,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself”. These two verses are found in the Old Testament, but not in the same Book. The first is from Deuteronomy 6:4, the second from Leviticus 19:18.

The rabbis of Jesus’ day rightly understood that these two commands distil the law of love. And indeed, Jesus’ responded with: ‘Correct. Do this and you will live.’ There the conversation could have concluded.

Which brings me to a suggested fourth coffee conversation with your friend(s).

Having touched on questions of ‘authenticity’, ‘Christmas’ and ‘transcendence’ over three conversations, it’s worth focusing on this fascinating exchange between a lawyer/theologian and Jesus (Luke 10:25-37). But first, don’t forget to ask your friend(s) if they have any questions about Luke chapters 7-10. (If you don’t know the answers, say so, and speak with your minister; or you may want to check out my book, Luke: An Unexpected God – Aquila: 2019, 2nd Edition)

Hearing Jesus’ commendation: “Do this and you will live,” the lawyer wasn’t happy. His plan to upstage Jesus hadn’t worked. So, lawyer-like he asked Jesus to define ‘neighbor’.

The story that unfolded that day and the flow of the questions around it, were important then, as they are today. Most people, if they believe in an afterlife, think they can attain it by their own efforts.

Knowing that he needed to puncture the mask of the lawyer’s self-satisfaction, Jesus told a story: “A certain man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead…”

These opening lines would have drawn Jesus’ hearers into a scene they understood – a traveler on a road notorious for bandits. And the unfolding story would have resonated – a priest and a Levite seeing the unconscious man and asking themselves whether the man was a ‘neighbor’, requiring their attention.

But the priest and the Levite didn’t feel the need to stop and help. They may have thought, ‘I didn’t beat up this man and leave him for dead. It’s nothing to do with me.’

Many of us can think this way today, turning God’s positive command to love our neighbor into a passive form: ‘I haven’t done anyone any harm; I haven’t killed or defrauded anyone; I haven’t cheated on my spouse. I must have kept the law of love’.

“Who is my neighbor?” the lawyer had asked. Jesus’ hearers would have expected him to introduce a godly Jewish layman. Instead, a Samaritan is introduced – not only an unexpected figure, but a hated one (10:33-35).

Yet it was the Samaritan who showed compassion, applying first aid and sacrificing a month’s wages to cover the cost of the man’s recovery. He did everything in his power to aid this unknown, unidentifiable, possibly Jewish man. “Which of these three,” Jesus asked, “proved to be neighbor to the man in need?” (10:36)

By turning the lawyer’s question around, Jesus invited him to put himself into the place of the victim. He was challenging the lawyer to think about the way he defined and practiced neighbor love.

“The one who showed mercy,” the lawyer responded. He couldn’t say, ‘the Samaritan’. Yet his word mercy suggests that Jesus had at least begun to change the lawyer’s thinking: he needed to understand and practice neighbor love from a victim’s perspective.

“You go and you do likewise” – ‘if you can’, Jesus commanded (10:37b). The personal pronoun you is singular, making Jesus’ words personal and challenging. God’s law of neighbor love means we need to care for anyone in need when it is in our ability and wise to do so.

Over the centuries the model of the Good Samaritan has set a pattern for compassion and care. God’s people especially have been involved, positively, sacrificially, joyfully, assisting people in pain – the hungry, the lonely and the elderly, the victims of abuse and of injustice, unemployment and poverty.

But this was not the primary reason Jesus told this story. “Who is my neighbor?” was the lawyer’s second question, refining his first: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

‘Do?’ Jesus is saying, ‘you can’t do anything about your eternal state because you don’t keep God’s law. Your life is not good enough.’ The parable of the Good Samaritan reveals how morally bankrupt we all are. If we truly kept God’s law the gates into eternal life would be open to us. But we all fall short.

Consider the lawyer’s first question, “What must I do to inherit… ?” We inherit something, not because of what we have done, but because we are beneficiaries of someone with whom we had enjoyed a relationship and who had subsequently died.

As Luke’s Gospel unfolds we see that Jesus is not only transcendent: he is also wonderfully good. For he is the ‘Good Samaritan’ who out of his ‘neighbor love’ for us has stepped out of his story and done everything necessary to rescue and restore us. When, in response to his love for us, we form a truly repentant relationship with him, we become his beneficiaries.

You might suggest to your coffee conversationalist(s) that they read on through Luke 11-15.

Some years ago, I was chatting with an acquaintance about Christianity over coffee in one of New York’s coffee shops when I noticed two women sitting in a darkened corner of the room. As the window blind had been drawn, I thought it strange that one of them was wearing dark glasses. It was not until they rose to leave that I realized that she was a famous film-star. I had been sitting a table away from a movie celebrity – but I didn’t know it.

It’s easy to miss such opportunities. I say this because many today have only eaten a diet of secular progressivism when it comes to the subject of a Jewish celebrity of the 1st century – Jesus of Nazareth. Yet perhaps unsurprisingly, today’s generation which tends to focus on self, is not interested in learning from the past, let alone taking an interest in the primary documents that tell us about him.

All of which brings me to a third coffee conversation you might schedule with your friend.

After reviewing any questions your coffee companion may have about Luke 4-6, let me suggest that you focus on the drama of the scene described in Luke 5:17-26.

You might point out that people were so keen to get near Jesus and hear him speak that they spilled out of the doors of the house where he was and onto the street. Draw attention to the ingenuity of four men trying to get a paralyzed friend inside to see Jesus. In their desperation, they carried him up to the roof of the house, removed the tiles and lowered him on his stretcher-bed into Jesus’ presence.

 The unexpected. Notice that instead of simply saying, ‘Rise and walk’, to the paralyzed man, Jesus astounded everyone by saying, Man, your sins are forgiven you (5:20).

His unexpected words suggest the man’s sickness was linked to sin. Jesus didn’t always make this connection. On another occasion when his close followers asked him why a man they came across was blind, he said, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be manifest in him” (John 9:3).

To return to the scene of Luke 5, medical science has long understood the link between mental attitude and physical well-being. Indeed, for some people, there is a link between depression and unresolved guilt.

In Luke 5:17ff, Jesus is telling us that the paralyzed man’s primary issue was that of unresolved guilt. “Your sins are forgiven,” Jesus said. ‘Forgiven by whom?’ we ask: ‘His family or his friends? His neighbors or God?’

Who is this? This was the question the religious leaders asked: “Why does this man speak like this?” they asked. “Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Their complaint centered on Jesus’ claim to have the authority to forgive sins. God is the one who is wronged by us. It’s his prerogative alone to forgive. Their theology was right, but they were unwilling to think outside their prejudices to form another conclusion: ‘Could this man have God’s authority?’

An unanswerable response: “So that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, … I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home” (Luke 5:24).

We can only imagine the tension and the anticipation as the drama unfolded.

Jesus’ commands are clear: Rise, pick up, go. We’re left in no doubt that the man is completely healed. The miracle is a sign of both Jesus’ power and authority – the power to heal and the authority to forgive.

Why didn’t Jesus cut to the chase and simply heal the man? Why didn’t he avoid conflict with the leaders? He deliberately used the occasion to provoke a reaction, because he wanted his audience then, and us today, to feel the full impact of his words and his action. He wants us to know that sin is serious and, importantly for us, that God has given him his authority to forgive sins.

Transcendence. Luke tells us that everyone who heard and saw what Jesus did that day, realized they were in the presence of someone who was more than a celebrity – “We have seen extraordinary things today”, they said (Luke 5:26).

Indeed, as Luke’s narrative unfolds, we see that the authority Jesus displayed that day was not a freakish event. Again and again, he revealed his greatness and his power – over the forces of nature and evil, over sickness and even death. Jesus’ greatness prompted CS Lewis to write: Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

We all need to recover an awareness of Jesus’ greatness – deepening our trust in him and enabling us to introduce him to others so that they too can meet with the One whose ‘transcendence’ is truly divine.

You might want to encourage your friend(s) to read Luke 7-10 and set up a time for coffee conversation #4.