THE “RESOURCEFUL GOSPEL”: LIVING THE GOLDEN RULE IN 2021
Luke 6:27-38: LIFEWAY WINTER QUARTERLY 2020/21 SESSION 7
Two of my favorite stores to shop at for “dress clothes” are quite different from each other. I shop for clothes at Kohl’s, and Dirt Cheap. Kohl’s has the best selection and the best clothes but it is more expensive. Dirt Cheap is “bargain basement” deals- excellent on a minister’s salary but you have to shop carefully! All sales are final. I’ve been able to find I-Zod, Haggar, Chaps, Dockers, and Van Heusen dress shirts, slacks, khaki’s and polo’s as low as 4 dollars apiece but it is all clothing that has been “written-off” in another store’s insurance claim, overstock, or has imperfections- you buy it and it’s yours! The return policy is non-existent… So make sure you’re not buying “nine or eleven” fingered gloves, a three-armed shirt or one-legged pants (“pant” in this case) and check that no one has had too much fun with Crayola markers and a sharpie. Scrutiny and good judgment is required.
People scrutinize return policies and see them as critical when shopping however some Christians apply and develop their own spiritual “return policy” when it comes to loving their neighbor and following God’s commands. The problem is they follow earthly “rules of equity” (“Do unto others as they do unto you”) that seem to make good common sense, is good business practice, and seem wise but it is quite different and far short from what Jesus wants from His followers. Jesus doesn’t want a good rule, a wise rule, the crucial rule or even the cardinal rule He wants the Golden Rule (Do unto others AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM do unto you) and there is no better time to put that Golden Rule into full practice than now. Many times when asked WHY we follow the Golden Rule we say because we have to- Jesus commanded it. A true statement but incomplete if you consider Jesus wants us to live it and keep it more than just obey and follow it. The Golden Rule is lived as a response to God’s shown grace in our lives and I will argue is only kept (the way Jesus wants it kept) by the transformative work of grace He has already done in us. Remember our 3 part motif for understanding the Gospel of Luke: (The Gospel is a gift given {it’s a heavenly gift from God}, the Gospel is a gift received {we don’t earn it but accept and believe it by grace thru faith}, and the Gospel is a gift proclaimed {we can’t help but share the transformative work God has done in our lives thru changed living and spreading the word so that others may receive and be a gift back to God as He has made us}). Luke shows us that the Golden Rule is a heavenly command kept by spiritual means in an earthly venue in order to reflect a holy, heavenly and loving God to a world that needs Him. One thing we will see in our lesson today is that there is an implied- “what if” question Jesus is answering in His explanation of the Golden Rule- “what if the neighbor you are showing the Golden rule to by your life is far less than Golden to you- what if they hate you? What then? AND HOW do I live out this kind of grace this kind of “no strings attached” love when there is an impossible difference a chasm between my motives and my neighbor’s- (or my enemy’s)? . Luke addresses all these questions; let’s take a look!
The best way for us to interpret this passage is to break it up into three parts: The command to loving actions (v. 27-30), expectation versus status quo (v.31-34), and the radical response gifted and rewarded (v.35-38) Let’s take a look at the first section: the command to loving actions. Luke lets us know in verse 27 that Jesus is speaking to people that want and desire to follow Him by listening to His words and hearing His commands. These are not “casual observers” or a disinterested audience but people who WANT to become His disciples… This section of Luke parallels Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (Mt. chapters 5-7) and Matthew’s discourse on the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven and Jesus’ subjects within that Kingdom. The primary essence of this Kingdom is the Love of God (agape) a love that has genuine concern for the other without regard of any payback in kind. Jesus doesn’t set the bar low, or even high- He sets it at perfection (see Mt. 5:48, Rom 12:14-21). Jesus is not being “symbolic” or using “hyperbole” (an intentional exaggeration) He means it; why? Because it is an example of God’s love for us, for a broken world, and for us sinners; for those He died for while they were still His enemies. That is the kind of love God has for us and the kind of impossible love He wants us to have for others (a patient, pure, complete, unselfish, and long-suffering kind of love).
Now Jesus goes to His expectation (the Golden Rule verse 31) and contrasts it against the world’s idea of love and the way people had been interpreting the Old Testament Law up to this time… “The Earthly Return Policy” of equity in love- love given for love received. Jesus breaks down the border wall between “friend and enemy” the only equity (equality) in the passage is that we give love to all regardless of our relationship to a neighbor and we expect and hold no account of expecting anything in return (see 1 Corinthians 13 and Paul’s extensive definition of love) love is not a wage, a loan, or a record. We are told to love. We don’t do good or help someone because we expect to be repaid for doing so. That is the way the world works, but not Jesus’ Kingdom or His followers- it is based on mercy (compassion) and grace (unmerited favor) because that is what God offers us. In the ancient world and in the Middle East and dare I say in our current political system vengeance was and is a problem. The initial motivations behind the 10 Commandments’ admonitions on the treatment of one’s neighbor (Commandments 5-10- see Exodus 20:1-21) was to uphold justice and discourage revenge. “An eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth” (Ex 21:24) was to discourage the rampant revenge which we read about in Genesis 4 (Lamech’s Song of the Sword v. 23-24) at the time of Noah and the Flood. Jesus however doesn’t just want to discourage revenge and uphold justice He doesn’t just want to stop the sinful cycle of discord and evil doing He wants to show us what grace and mercy look like (see Matt 18). He wants to move us towards God’s love by the unmerited favor of His grace. He wants to dignify and purify our desires through giving us spiritual vision past the status quo to the Father’s heart.
If we are always concerned about what we will get before we give as Christians we will be as miserly, judgmental, condemning and miserable as Ebenezer Scrooge and we show that we really don’t understand God’s love. We won’t bother loving the people that need it the most if we are concerned with the return. We won’t love the spiritually impoverished sinners (Matt 5:1-12) around us that we once were before God showed His love to us. This is why Paul’s beautiful prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 emphasizes believers KNOWING the love of God so they can not only know they are loved but be able to love others like Jesus did. Yet it seems only fair and just that we get a return for the great difficulty and sacrifice of loving someone else and just as Jesus commands that we shouldn’t worry about, scrutinize, expect or demand a return of our love we can be assured that we will receive a return from God… It is God that repays and rewards and He is generous! Because of the deep love of Christ we can let go of our own baggage and the quotas we keep towards others!
The reward we are given is greater than anything we could ever deserve, want or imagine according to verse 35- we are children of the Most High- how’s that for grace? Verse 36 tells us to be “merciful” (compassionate) like God is merciful. In Matthew’s discourse we are told to be “perfect” as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:48). When we combine the two under the rubric of the 4 Gospels’ message we can ask the question: In what way does the mercy of God lead us to His perfection? The mercy, grace and love of God is His perfect gift from heaven in the form of Christ Jesus to us, and it is not something that we just receive and have sit in our souls like an eternal sponge that just soaks up water but never gets wrung out. We give (proclaim) the mercy, grace and love we have received and experienced. It is impossible for us to share or reward others with what we don’t know and have not experienced. Impoverished spirits beget impoverished spirits just like we talked about last week how “snake begets snake”. Can we honestly expect to be rewarded with a reciprocal love of the magnitude of God’s love from a person who is just as spiritually impoverished as we are? Whatever we receive would be pathetic in comparison with God’s gracious reward. We need another source- a spiritually rich and boundless resource! Yet when the perfect love of God comes 1 Corinthians 13 promises that the imperfect within us begins to disappear because the wealth of heaven, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the endless love of God “the greatest of these” has been given to us and nothing compares to it! “Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus- vast, unending boundless free; rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!”
Luke wants us to know that this is the love we have been given in Christ, this is the gift we have received and if we are ever to become mature and approved witnesses of God’s Kingdom it is this kind of love with Him as the continuous experiential source in our lives that we give and proclaim! It’s hard to love the unlovely but Jesus loved us when we were unlovely. It’s hard to forgive when people wrong us, but Jesus forgave us when we sinned against Him. The love of God we have been given is the love that doesn’t make “snap” judgments about people, and look for things to condemn. It meets people exactly where they are and exercises the discretion, sound wisdom and heavenly judgment with deep compassionate effort to not leave them that way just like we weren’t left that way! The love we give others goes beyond the passive motto of “first do no harm” to our neighbor and because of Jesus reminds us to first do good and harm to our neighbor will not follow. Love forgives, it moves forward and its measure is always growing and boundless in our lives- never running dry and never running out of room for others! That’s a description of Jesus’ love and it is a love that has been shown to us, in these hard days will we pass it on? May the love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit compel us to love that way always! Please know I am praying for you all. Don’t give up, don’t be afraid, don’t be discouraged- we are one in the bond of love because of Jesus Christ. That will never change! May God richly bless you as you serve Him. And I look forward to our being together again soon! All the Best and in the love of Christ, Darrin.
THE ORDINANCE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER JANUARY 17TH, 2021
Many of us can’t be together to take the Lord’s Supper/Communion this January. I hope this short homily and set of verses will be of help to you as you partake of it and remember that it is because of Jesus that we are one that we are united and family. It is because of His death that we are forgiven and our sins are cleansed and gone! It is because of His resurrection that this Memorial of His death is celebrated at a table of endless fellowship and eternal life instead of a grave. The tomb is empty and we serve a risen Savior who will one day raise us up! We remember His sacrifice today, His body the bread and His blood the wine and we call out with other believers- “Come LORD Jesus!” Thank you for having mercy on us through the cross, thank you for your grace that sustains us may you continue to grow our Faith that we may serve you more as you have served us! Amen.
1) Take a moment to be still before God. Thank Him for His presence examine yourself spiritually and confess your sin to Him and ask forgiveness.
2)Take the wafer (bread) and read 1 Corinthians 11:23-24.
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
3) Partake of the bread… Reflect on what’s Christ’s “broken” body means for your brokenness and the “body of the Church” see 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.
4) Take the cup and read 1 Corinthians 11:25-26.
25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
5) Partake of the cup… Reflect on what it means to proclaim the “Lord’s Death”. What difference has Christ’s death made for your life?How can we proclaim His death in this current season? Thank Him for all He has done either in prayer, song or both! May God richly bless you and comfort you as you remember His Sacrifice!