On Sunday, we heard the first part of Luke 15, which is one of the most beloved chapters in Luke’s Gospel. The three parables Jesus tells in that chapter (the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son) remind us of two profound truths: One, God never stops searching for those who are lost; and two, there is great joy in heaven when one sinner repents.
The backdrop to Jesus’ three parables is sometimes forgotten. The Pharisees were angry at Jesus for eating with notorious sinners—in their eyes, he was not valuing God’s holiness sufficiently (and therefore endangering Israel) when he ate with prostitutes and tax-collectors. He told them these stories to show that his meals with sinners were both God’s means of searching for the lost and also heaven’s celebration over them being found. The meals were double-edged moments: an evangelistic search and the ensuing celebration when someone repented.
By ending the story of the prodigal son with a feast that the older brother is refusing to join, Jesus is both challenging the Pharisees (they are the older brother, who never left God’s home) to enter the search AND inviting them to enjoy heaven’s celebration over each sinner who repents. But they weren’t interested in either invitation; they preferred their own “righteous” company.
(There is a lot more that could be said about this chapter! Those participating in the Bible studies on David might see interesting themes in the father-son-brother relationships. There is also the fascinating idea that eating is integral to evangelism. This would have been much more provocative to the Jews than it is to us, because of their food purity laws, but we should still realize that eating a meal with someone is a profound way to demonstrate love.)
Interesting ideas aside, there is a simple and clear challenge for us:
Do we eat with those who are far from God, or is it safer for us to stay in the company of the “already righteous”? Do we hold a celebration when someone comes to know God, or do we continue to look down on them because of their past?
The first two parables end with the declaration that heaven rejoices when a single sinner repents, and the third ends with an invitation to enter into that celebration. May we be a church that doesn’t give up on the sinner, but instead gladly joins both the search team and the heavenly celebration that follows.
In Christ,
Steven+
The Life of David
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus “opened” the Scriptures to two grieving disciples. Luke records the incident in chapter 24 of his gospel, and spends an inordinate amount of time and uses a very complex rhetorical arrangement to demonstrate the importance of this moment. Luke doesn’t want us to miss that all of Scripture is about Jesus and that all of Scripture demonstrates that the Messiah had to suffer to win victory.
This fall, we will be embarking on a Bible study on the life of David. (If you aren’t already in one of the groups, email Justin+ or Tori to get involved.) This study will be the perfect moment for seeing what Jesus meant (and what Luke didn’t want us to miss): all of Scripture is about the suffering Messiah!
David’s life is a type, a living picture, a foreshadowing of Jesus. He wasn’t perfect (in fact, his great sin with Bathsheba caused death and havoc in his family and kingdom and effectively ended his moral authority as a godly king), but in spite of his imperfections, God told a story through the details of David’s life that was far larger than David himself. In David’s life, God told the story of the Messiah—the story of an overlooked young man who delighted in the Father, was anointed for leadership, won a great victory by crushing the head of a the enemy of God’s people, endured persecution before claiming his kingdom, built a new Jerusalem for his people, and prepared the way for God’s temple to be among his people again. Over and over, we will see Jesus’ life in David’s, sometimes in subtle hints and sometimes in things too obvious to miss.
But if David’s life is a prefiguring of Jesus’, then it is also a prefiguring of ours. After all, we have been joined to Jesus and given his life. Whatever is his is now ours, and he called us to walk the same path he walked. In other words, as we study David, we will see ourselves, because we will see Jesus and we are a part of him.
Join one of the groups! I am looking forward to this study, and pray that it is a deep encouragement to all of us.
In the Messiah,
Steven+
Scripture Reflections
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (Col. 2:16-17)
This morning, while reading through Colossians, these verses caught my attention. They aren’t the only place the Bible says something like this (Heb. 8:5 calls the tabernacle and its sacrifices a “shadow of the heavenly things”), but it isn’t an idea most of us pay a lot of attention to, either. The basic idea is this: God established, on earth, a copy or replica of heavenly truth, so that his people would recognize the heavenly truth when it arrived. The food laws, practice of Sabbath, tabernacle, priestly work and sacrifices—all of it pointed to something deep and real, something eternal, something TRUE. All of it pointed to Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the clean food that offers life and divides those inside the covenant from those outside the covenant. He is the Sabbath, the eternal rest offered to each of us. He is the tabernacle, the place God meets with man. He is both high priest and the sacrifice for cleansing and forgiveness. All of the pieces of the old covenant were shadows, copies, types, images—things meant to train and teach and prepare, so that Christ would be received and understood when he arrived.
There are two implications to this: On the one hand, it no longer matters whether we keep kosher or follow the exact strictures of the Sabbath, because the thing to which the Law pointed has arrived—the eternally real Jesus Christ has replaced the temporal shadow. We no longer offer sacrifices, because the true sacrifice has come. We no longer approach God only in the temple, because the true meeting place between God and man has arrived in Jesus. As Paul says, “let no one pass judgment on you,” in these matters, because they are just shadows.
And yet, because they are the shadows that God established to teach us to recognize Christ, food, rest, priestly ministry, sacrifice, and holy space are far more important than we normally realize. The shadows cast by Christ are not random—they are images and reflections of his eternal truth and life. If we try to understand him without the idea of holy food, rest from work, or perfect sacrifice and priestly ministry, we will misunderstand him. Each of them reflects him; each is a shadow cast by him.
One of these seems particularly critical for us, as Americans. We know how to work, and we understand amusement and entertainment, but rest is hard for most of us. We need to learn to practice rest more, so that we will understand Jesus. No one should judge one another on how we practice Sabbath (Col. 2:16), because the old covenant is obsolete (Heb. 8:13) and the Sabbath is fulfilled in Jesus (Mt. 5:17)—he is our true rest, and he is the Lord of the Sabbath (Mk. 2:28). And yet, if we don’t practice Sabbath, we will fail to understand what it means to find rest in Jesus. It was made for us (Mk. 2:27).
I would encourage you to build into your life a time (every week!) when you choose to rest in what Jesus has accomplished. We judge ourselves on productivity, and then when we are exhausted we look for amusement and diversion, but learning to rest in Jesus is essential to receiving and understanding Jesus. What would it mean to lay down your labor, and simply enjoy the fact that God has already done all that is necessary? What would it mean to realize that you have already been given all things, in Jesus? What would it mean to practice the truth that you will be judged by God not for your productivity, but instead for your willingness to trust Jesus?
In Christ,
Steven+