Dear Luke,
As a follower of Jesus, I will
admit that there are times that I want to encourage you to skip over some of
the more difficult parts of faith, but I know that is neither fair nor
faithful. You deserve a complete picture,
and while I will freely admit up front that I don’t fully understand everything
that Jesus says, we all deserve to be able to ask big questions and expect some
answers. I believe that God is big
enough for our questions, and I also believe that a complete and dynamic faith
is possible even if there isn’t total knowledge of exactly how everything holds
together. I have faith in the God who
holds it together, and I hope that maybe after I die I’ll have a better
understanding of the ways of the world and the teachings of Jesus.
That’s not just a way to duck your
questions. They are fair questions, and
I’ll start with the easiest—Lot was a man who lived in a city that was being
destroyed by God because of their sinful choices. Lot and his family followed God, so Lot was
told by God to leave, but he was also commanded not to look back at the city as
God destroyed it. There was nothing left
for Lot there, and not a bit of regret should be upon their hearts, for God’s
way led them forward. Lot’s wife, as
you’ve probably determined by now, looked back and was turned into a pillar of
salt. Strange, I know, but it’s a lesson
for us not to get so attached to the things of this world that we find
ourselves looking back at them when we should be looking forward to God. Jesus’ teaching is the same—we can’t be
disciples if our eyes are trained backwards on the world and our stuff. This is the heart of that
admittedly-confusing sentence—if we are willing to give up everything for
Jesus, to follow him and hand over our hearts and our lives, we’ll keep what is
truly life, but it may seem, at first, like we’re losing life. In contrast, if we hold onto the things of
this world so tightly and try to keep them, we will end up missing out, losing
Jesus and the abundant life he offers us.
True life is only in Jesus, and we don’t want to lose that.
As for Jesus discussing the
vultures, I think he is just lifting up the point that there is usually nearby
evidence to direct us to what we are looking for. For instance, if you’re looking for a dead
body in the middle of the desert, look for the vultures and they will point the
way. In that same vein, if you’re trying
to discover where God is at work, look for transformed lives, for people
willing to lose their lives for God’s kingdom, people willing to hand over
everything to Jesus, and there you will find evidence of the kingdom. This is what he means when the kingdom is
within you—it is the transformation of God at work in those who choose to
follow him. The kingdom is hard to
understand—but it is God’s reign, and when we choose to follow Jesus and hand
over everything to him, that is God’s kingdom ruling in your heart and your
life. There is still more to come in the
world than just God ruling in your heart and life, but that is a part of the
kingdom.
I hope this all makes sense, Luke. Jesus wants people to follow him, but we have
to be willing to let him take over to do so.
In the passage you related, Jesus talks about how the people of Noah’s
time and Lot’s time were busy in their everyday lives before God destroyed
their worlds. God sent judgment for sin
upon the land, and in both cases people were unprepared—they were so caught up
in their own lives that they had ceased to pay any attention to God. Jesus doesn’t want followers who pay more
attention to themselves and their business dealings than to God. Jesus wants disciples who follow him with
their whole hearts. This is the only way
to live the abundant life God wants for us.
I love Jesus, and I trust him. I don’t always understand him, but I believe
that my life is in good hands. From
those questions, I’ll turn to what I have learned next. It’s a curious story when we compare it to
the often-immediate healings that Jesus offers so many who come before him.
It was described to me as a parable
that Jesus told in the hopes of encouraging people to continue praying even in
the face of long odds. My own prayer
life is hardly a model for others to pick up—I will often give up when my
initial prayers go unanswered. Jesus is
addressing people like me in this story.
Jesus begins by describing a judge
in a town. The judge could best be
described as arrogant—he had no respect or awe of God, and likewise, he did not
care for the people in the town. In this
same town there was also a persistent widow who continued pestering the judge
to grant the widow justice against one who opposed her. The judge, caring not for the widow, refused
to acquiesce to her plea, in time decided in the woman’s favor in the hopes
that it would grant him some peace and quiet.
He did not give in to her out of a desire to do the right thing, rather
hoping that a decision would quiet her constant voice.
Strangely, this is the example
Jesus lifts up, offering the teaching that God will listen to those who
ceaselessly cry out to him for justice.
God will not only grant them justice, but do so quickly. Jesus uses this story about the judge to
describe God’s faithfulness.
Luke, I know that this is odd, but
I expect that it made sense to the disciples—they knew what power a judge had,
and they could understand the idea that it was important to be persistent. Jesus is encouraging them, and us, to be
persistent in our prayers, secure in the knowledge that God will hear our cries
for justice and rush to our help. Based
upon other teachings, I think we can safely agree that God will do so out of
love rather than a desire for peace and quiet from our prayers, but there is
the danger of reading that into the story.
Jesus closes with a question that
probably kept more than one person up late into the night pondering the
answer. He asks whether the Son of Man
will find faith when he comes to earth.
Our knee-jerk reaction is yes, but
I’m sure that people stayed up, just as I did, pondering what the threshold is,
trying to understand just what it means for them to have faith, that they might
stand before the Son of Man and be declared as having faith. I believe—I just hope that my belief matches
what Jesus is teaching that faith is.
Jesus sets a very high standard, and we all fall short. I believe that he is gracious and forgiving,
but at the same time, I know that there is plenty of room for faith to continue
to grow to take over every corner of my heart.
For a life-dominating faith, I pray.
Sincerely,
Theophilus
No comments:
Post a Comment