Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Luke 6:43-49


Dear Luke,
I hope that my last two letters have not overwhelmed you with material to consider.  I believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and every word of his is worthy of a lifetime of consideration—and yet, in my last two letters I have given you so much to chew on that you may well be exhausted.  I hope you have room for more, because with Jesus, we can always go farther, deeper, in our explorations of his teachings and his life.  There is no end of the incredible riches of God, and I pray that my letters point you in that direction.
To conclude his sermon on the plain, Jesus has two sections that make sense to anyone, even people who have little or no faith.  I don’t find this nearly as challenging as the part about loving your enemies, but I find it hard to put into practice, especially in a world that constantly demands our attention be focused on new products, new opportunities, and at times insults those of us who choose another path.
Jesus begins the first section discussing fruit trees.  I have never grown fruit trees, and while I know little about them, I know much about the product!  Jesus teaches that bad fruit cannot come from good trees, just as a bad tree will not produce good fruit.  It makes sense, and for those of us who do not know trees, we can judge the health of the tree based upon the product—if it is good fruit, then the tree must be good.  Jesus talked about how figs and grapes aren’t gathered from thorns or brambles, and he wants us to understand that good people do good things because their hearts are good, just as bad people produce evil because of the condition of their hearts.  In other words, however our hearts are tuned, that will directly affect what kind of produce our lives emit—our hearts overflow into our actions.  People can judge the condition of our hearts based upon our actions.
This may seem like common sense to you, but remember that Jesus was teaching to a crowd of people who had a religion based primarily on sacrifices and other actions that made them right with God.  It wasn’t necessarily a religion of the heart, and Jesus was trying to shift their thinking to understand that they needed to be in love with God first, and then that love would overflow into the rest of their lives.  I think those who decide to follow Jesus have to be willing to make the same heartfelt commitment.  It can’t just be about saying the right prayer and showing up at the right time for a service; it needs to be a commitment that swallows up one’s life and one’s heart so that every single action testifies to the condition of one’s heart.
Jesus continues to describe his true followers, mostly because he is frustrated at those who call him Lord but do not do his bidding.  I’m sure that you, too, would be frustrated if people claimed to follow you and then went out and betrayed you by their actions.  As an illustration of someone who acts upon the teachings of Jesus, he lifts up a man who digs a deep foundation for his house and sets it upon the rock, so that when the storms rage and the floods rise and burst against the house, the house does not tremor because of the quality of its foundation.  In contrast, the one who builds a home with no foundation will be ruined when his house falls because the river bursts against it. 
A life of faith is about making a big commitment and following Jesus with your whole heart.  Those who do the minimum, who cut corners and refuse to hand over the keys to their heart will falter in times of trial and fail to testify to the Lordship of Jesus.  Those who truly follow him will offer up everything to God, and as a result each corner of their life will tell God’s story of love and salvation, so that others may then learn about God.
Think about it, Luke—if you were going to build a house, and you watched this flood rise against these two houses, which man would you go to for construction tips?
In the same way, we look to those with strong faith and model our own faith after that.  God’s glory is spread by those who have committed everything to doing God’s will.
I believe this is a good way to end this sermon.  Jesus wraps up everything with two images that make sense to the listener.  You and I can hear them many years later and still grasp exactly what he was talking about—that any decision of faith needs to be made not simply with the hands or the feet but with the heart, so that the whole life is offered.  A follower of Jesus needs to be passionately in love with God and radically dependent upon him, so that the whole story of life is told through the lens of faith.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this series of letters, and I pray that it has given you plenty to consider in your exploration of Jesus’ life and work.
Sincerely,
Theophilus 

No comments: