Investigating Jesus - On His character
- Stephen Phelan
- Apr 18, 2010
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Investigating Jesus—On His Character
Lk. 15: 1-10, Mid-City, Apr 18, 2010
We’re in a series in Luke where we are investigating Jesus. Christianity hinges on Jesus so we’re taking some time to investigate who he claimed to be and what he taught. If you aren’t sure if you want to become a Christian, then these messages should function like a series of dates where you are getting to know this person that you are considering putting your faith in. This morning we’re going to look at His character. If you want to check out someone’s character, you should consider who they hang out with, what they talk about, & what they do. This morning we’re going to do just that with Jesus by looking at:
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Jesus’ Friends and Foes
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Jesus’ Message
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Jesus’ Mission
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Jesus’ friends and foes
In V1-2 we see who Jesus’ friends and foes are. ”Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Once again the Pharisees and teachers of the law are the foes of Jesus. Now, remember, the Pharisees were middle-class businessmen with no professional theological training. They were the moral police and functioned much like lobbyist do, only they had much more power than American lobbyist.
The scribes and teachers of the law, on the other hand, were the professionally trained theologians who developed Torah, which was a set of extra-Biblical rules about how to follow the Bible and honor God. In our text, The Pharisees and teachers of the law are “muttering” because Jesus is violating one of their extra-Biblical rules here. The particular violation in question was one of the scribe’s rules developed by the teachers of the law that “one must not associate with an ungodly man.” They interpreted this law really broadly, so much so that they wouldn’t teach someone like a tax collector or “Sinner,” nor were these types even allowed in the synagogue. They were thought of as unclean.
Not only did Jesus teach the tax collectors and sinners, but he called them to be in His inner-circle of friends and disciples (such as Levi/Matthew), he went to their houses and ate with them. And that is what all the muttering is about.
Now let’s consider these friends of Jesus who were foes of the religious. Tax collectors were hated by the religious b/c they were in league with their Roman oppressors. They collected taxes for Rome and, of course, would always skim a bit off the top for themselves by increasing the tax rate to just about whatever they wanted. And they were notorious for making up random and frivolous taxes on things like wheels on carts and anything that could make a little extra profit for themselves. Given that tax day just passed this week, some of you are probably starting to think this sounds frighteningly familiar.
Now the other friends of Jesus in v1 were the “sinners.” The “Sinners” were people who either by occupation disqualified themselves from being apart of the temple worship (a prostitute for example) or, here is the other major class of “sinners,”—the extreme poor. Those that were too poor to know and follow the law were “sinners,” such as beggars and the lame. So, Jesus friends are the most irreligious people in town, the poorest, and the most marginalized.
As a result, the religious crowd was muttering and rolling their eyes.
So, let me ask you, “Is this true of you?” “Do people mutter about who you hang out with?” If not, then I think something is wrong. B/c there were a whole lot of mutterers around Jesus. Think about this with me as it applies to sexuality here in San Diego.
My gay friends have helped me see that the gay community can actually function much like the Pharisees and teachers of the law. This may surprise some of you, but it is true. See some in the gay community develop strict rules about what churches you should or should not attend, what types of people you should hang out, what clubs and restaurants you should and should not frequent. And before you know it, you can become just like the Pharisees--you only want to hang out with people who think and act like you. And your whole world gets wrapped up in the gay community. And if you start to venture out with heterosexual people and go to different types of churches, then the unofficial leaders in the gay community, much like the Pharisees, begin to mutter.
On the other hand, notice how quickly heterosexual religious people can become like Pharisees also. Because they are not gay, they feel morally superior to anyone who is gay. They attach every evil in America to the gay community and mutter about them relentlessly. And they don’t just mutter about gays, but they mutter about all those Christians and churches who are in relationship with the gay community and how they must be compromisers.
The point is that if you are heterosexual or homosexual and you begin to follow Jesus, religious people around (the lobbyist) will mutter. In some ways, having religious people mutter about you is a sign of spiritual health.
Or let me give you another example of muttering besides sexuality. Bradford and I lived in a condo complex in North Park full of yuppies—young urban professionals. While we were living there, Bradford and I developed a relationship with a young man that our yuppy friends weren’t too happy about. His name was Justin. Justin smelled and was dirty and was in a really tough spot in life. We felt like Jesus was calling us to invite him stay in our spare bedroom for a bit. One of our 14 neighbors liked this and befriended him, the rest did not and began to mutter.
They nominated the boldest and loudest mutterer—High Priest of Muttering--to come mutter to our face. She came and said, “He is going to have to go?” And I said, “Well, I am a bit confused. We have the right to have friends stay with us. I don’t tell you what friends can stay with you or when they should leave, and I don’t think that you should selectively do that with me either.” See they had developed unofficial Torah—or rules—about who they wanted in their orbit. And they didn’t want a man like this in their midst.
Here is the point of these 2 illustrations. My hope is that Harbor Mid-City will continue to avoid the trap of religious muttering. Instead, if we’ll set our course on Jesus, and if we do, then He will lead us into such a broad cross-section of society that inevitably it will lead to your friends muttering about you.
To do that, we really have to know and to incarnate the gospel—to flesh it out for people. That takes us to our 2nd point:
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Jesus’ message
So what was Jesus’ message? Jesus gives his message in story form and in doing so he is pointing out the central part of the gospel message that the Pharisees and teachers of the law were missing. Let’s uncover what that is. In v3-10, he tells them a story about a lost sheep and a lost coin.” WHY?
Well, a parable is really just an extended metaphor, so if you want to understand the parable you need to understand the metaphors and why Jesus chose them. So why would Jesus choose sheep? Well, we hear sheep and we get the warm fuzzies. Not those in the 1st century. They were around sheep all day and they knew better. It wasn’t a compliment to be called a lost sheep. It was an insult. See here is what a sheep does. It will do anything for a green blade of grass. Put a green blade of grass in the middle of the 805 and the sheep is going to go get it.
This is why shepherds have to be so careful with sheep because if they see a green patch of grass either up or down a mountain they are going to get it, regardless of whether they can get back down the mountain or up the mountain and so sheep will literally walk to their death. And they often get stuck on ledges on the side of mountains.
So what Jesus does is takes the Bible scholars to Bible school and says, “Remember, Isaiah 53:6, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”
You mutterers have turned to morality and law abiding to get to God. It won’t work. You are like a sheep stranded on a ledge feeding your soul on religion and morality that will ultimately lead to your death.
This parable wasn’t just to the Pharisees, but it is to us also. B/c all of us have wandered astray and have tried to feed our souls on something other than God. Let me show you with an example from a book that Bradford and I are reading that I would highly, highly recommend. It is called A Praying Life by Paul Miller. Paul Miller gives a great example of how he was trying to get his daughter Emily to stop wandering off & feeding her soul on other things. First, He noticed that Emily particularly liked to feed her soul on the praise of those around her and he saw this particularly at work on the field hockey team.
Emily played on a great team that was well-coached and was typically in the running for the state title. The coach was excellent, but Emily thought the coach played favorites. Emily, who was a good player, fell out of the coaches list of favorites, and spent most of her time on the bench her junior year. One of the parents came up to Paul and said, “Isn’t that unbelievable what the coach is doing? Doesn’t that make you mad? I replied, “Actually, no. We are thankful Emily has this low-level suffering while she is still on our watch. It is a wonderful opportunity for her to grow in her faith. She’ll learn far more about God on the bench than out on the playing field. The other parent expected Jill and me to be angry about what was happening to Emily. Her goal for her child was tied to the child’s accomplishments. Our goal was tied to Emily’s faith. Because of that, we saw sports as just another venue where she could learn to sink her roots into God. I saw bench warming as an answer to my daily prayer that Emily would not love the world or the things in the world.”
Man, this really hit this old-washed up athlete in me in the face. Sports, for Paul Miller, was simply another venue to help his daughter learn to sink her roots into God. Oohh man—I must confess this wasn’t (and, well, isn’t) the way I view sports most of the time. Sports are about winning. Miller says no—sports are actually just another venue to teach you to feed your soul on Jesus alone. And sitting on the bench is often the best way to make that happen.
See he knew that his daughter was a sheep and that she was wandering. She saw just a little patch of grass down the mountain that she wanted to feed on called, “Approval.” Then another a little lower called, “Success.” He puts it this way, ”If a ship is off a few degrees, it is imperceptible at first, but over time it becomes a vast distance. I was praying to prevent the distance of a heart gone astray.”
After the season Emily made the difficult choice to skip summer field hockey camp and go to a Christian summer camp where her faith grew substantially. When she came back in the fall, she had no idea how good she would be playing, but her play that year was her best ever. Her dad asked her what the difference was and she said, “I don’t care as much about what other people think. I can just be myself.” See the lost sheep had been feeding on the barren grass of praise and approval from her friends and coach. She had to have it and kept wandering to get it and, actually, it was crippling her play. When the Good Shepherd brought her home and she began to feed on him, she no longer cared what others thought. And now she could really cut loose and play some field hockey.
So, Jesus tells the first story to help us all realize that we’re sheep who have gone astray and are feeding our souls on things that will kill us. Until we realize how helplessly and hopelessly lost we are, we’ll never be one of his friends. The tax collectors and sinners knew this—the Pharisees and teachers of the law didn’t. But that still doesn’t solve the problem? It is one thing to know you are a lost sheep—what do you do about it?
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Jesus’ Mission
Well, this highlights Jesus’ Mission. See the other central metaphor in this parable is a Shepherd. V4 the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep and goes after the one lost sheep. V5 tells us how the Shepherd joyfully puts the lost sheep on his shoulders.
The Shepherd may be joyful. The sheep is not. Here is what happened. The Shepherd would seizs the sheep, bind its legs, and as v5 says throw it over his shoulders and carry it home. See a sheep isn’t like a dog that just needs a little lift off the ledge and then he’ll find his way home. No. A sheep is utterly helpless. Let him down and he’ll wander off again. He must be carried by the shepherd all the way home.
Religious people listen up—salvation from first to last is of grace. You do nothing to contribute. The Shepherd does everything. Grace, my friends, sheer grace.
And then, just in case you miss this point, Jesus tells a parallel parable about a poor woman who lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and goes after the lost coin. A lost coin doesn’t roll back to the widow by itself. A lost coin does nothing to contribute to it’s being found.
Herein lies what the Pharisees and teachers of the law missed. They understood that God took repentant sinners back. They had a process for repentant sinners, even repentant Gentiles, to have their sins forgiven and to be brought into the visible community of God, but the Pharisees and teachers of the law had no category for a God who goes after unrepentant sinners.
Think about it--the lost sheep isn’t repentant, neither is the lost coin. Yet, God pursues them when they are lost. The sheep is out on this ledge that it has wandered down to, has eaten all the grass there, and it wants more. It isn’t heading home—the sheep is looking for more grass and isn’t at all aware that it is even lost. And the shepherd comes after him.
See some of you are thinking that you have got to get cleaned up before you come back to God or even to church and you’re not sure if you did the right thing even by coming today. But that is thinking like a Pharisee. Jesus says that He is a Shepherd who comes to get you before you get cleaned up because he will do the cleaning up. He will turn you for home. The Fray wrote a song about this called You Found Me. See the song is about a guy who is lost and insecure. Life has slammed him and he is at the end of his rope. He is that sheep out on the mountain ledge that has eaten all the grass. Listen to it. 1:27-2:28
But in the end everyone ends up alone
Losing her, the only one who's ever known
Who I am, who I'm not and who I wanna be
No way to know how long she will be next to me
Lost and insecure, you found me, you found me
Lying on the floor surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait? Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late, you found me, you found me!
Now often I pontificate about what songs are about. I don’t have to this time. Isaac Slade, the lead singer, blogged about the meaning. He said, “You Found Me is a tough song for me. Its about the disappointment, the heart ache, the let down that comes with life.. This song came out of a tough time. There's some difficult circumstances my family and friends have been going through over the past year or so. It wears on me. It demands so much of my faith to keep believing, keep hoping in the unseen.. This song is about that feeling, and the hope that I still have, buried deep in my chest."
See Isaac is in relationship with Jesus, and he says he has this hope, buried deep in his chest, that the Good Shepherd goes after sheep who are lost and insecure, whose worlds are falling apart, and he finds them and hoists them onto his shoulders and brings them home. That is why he can sing, “You found me.”
That is really what it means to become a Christian. That you are found by Jesus. He comes and gets you and joyfully hoists you onto his back. Now, my friends, when this happens, Jesus says in v7 & v10 that there is a party in heaven. The angels rejoice. And do you know who Revelations tells us is at the center of the heavenly party. The lamb who sits on the throne—the lamb who as slain.
See to understand this gospel party in light of this parable, you must know the gospel story—on the cross, the Good Shepherd became a sheep. He became lost in our sin that was placed on him and was willing to stand on that ledge. Oh, the lamb of God, who was slain for the sins of the world. He was lost, that we may be found.
For those of you who are followers of Jesus, when this gospel really hits you down deep in your chest as Isaac put it, then the mutterings of people will no longer matter. Why? B/c you have tasted grace, you have been hoisted up and there has been a party held in your honor in heaven, and you want, more than anything else, for your friends and family and neighbors to be hoisted up as well.
For those of you who are not yet followers of Jesus, some of you sense His presence hoisting you up now. You should simply respond in faith.
