Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Luke 20:41-21:4 Commentary

Whose Son Is the Messiah?
41 Then Jesus said to them, "Why is it said that the Messiah is the son of David? 42 David himself declares in the Book of Psalms:
" 'The Lord said to my Lord:
"Sit at my right hand
43 until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet." ' [c]

44 David calls him 'Lord.' How then can he be his son?"

Warning Against the Teachers of the Law
45 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, 46 "Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 47 They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely."


Luke 21
The Widow's Offering

1 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3 "Truly I tell you," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."



Dig Deeper
Not too long ago I was having a brief online conversation with someone from a different country than the one in which I live. Normally that goes fine and the fact that I am from a different country than someone else poses no problem at all. This was a little different, though. This friend mentioned that they thought it was pretty cold where they were at which caused me to chuckle a bit. I know for a fact that the country in which this person lives almost never gets below 50° F. To me that’s just not cold so I replied that I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t that cold. They argued back that it got extremely cold in their country and that I sure didn’t know what I was talking about. She then asked how cold it got where I lived. When I told her that it was currently about 0°, she replied back that that was pretty cold but not too bad. I agreed that it wasn’t terrible but I would prefer it get about around 32° because that’s a really pleasant temperature to run in. She mentioned that this seemed like a really warm day to run in. Then it suddenly hit me that we had a big problem. We were working with two entirely different measurement scales. I was speaking in Fahrenheit while she was using Celsius. This means that when I said it was 0° F, she was hearing 0° C, which is about 32° F. But 0° F is is -17° C And when I said that I wished it was 32°, she was hearing 32° C, which would be about 90° F, a truly warm day to go running in. The problem was not necessarily with either Celsius or Fahrenheit but with the fact that we were using completely different scales. Unless one of us changed our paradigm we would never be able to understand one another.

This is what is at the heart of these three little passages that all seem, on the surface, to be unrelated but are actually quite related if we follow Luke’s line of thinking. At the core of each of these stories is the problem that happens when you are using different scales to measure things. If two different groups are using two different scales for measuring, they will never be able to understand one another without some serious re-interpreting. The point of each of these stories is that those opposed to Jesus were looking at things with an entirely different measuring scale than God is and if they didn’t transform their thinking rather quickly they were going to be left behind when God’s new family marched forward into history.

In the span of Luke’s narrative, Luke 21:40 brought to an end the last chances that the religious leaders and the nation of Israel had to turn to Jesus and ask him questions. Rather than asking him sincere questions and trying to find truth, they squandered their opportunities by trying to catch him in traps and induce him into blasphemous statements so that they could get rid of him. Now, as verse 40 made clear, they had no more questions. That tactic simply wasn’t working. Jesus was too smart for them so they would drop the questions and would soon simply arrest him, railroad him in a mock trial, and do to Jesus exactly what he predicted would happen to him in Jerusalem. But not before Luke will give Jesus his clear say about why they have failed to recognize his authority and what the terrible results of that would be.

Jesus now acts in the role in the role of questioner and commenter. The people of Israel were waiting expectantly for the Messiah but did they even know who he really would be? The problem was that they did not. They were using an entirely different measuring scale and needed to change their thinking radically. That’s where Jesus’ question comes in. It was a much beloved belief that came directly from the Old Testament Scriptures that the Messiah would be a descendant of David. Jesus points out a problematic issue from what would become one of the favorite Old Testament passages of the early church (see Acts. 2:30-36; 7:55-56; 13:33-39; 1 Cor. 15:22-28; Eph. 1:19-23; Heb. 1:3-14; 5-7). In that passage, which describes what Israel’s ideal and promised king would be like, David refers to this Messiah as his Lord. So how can the Messiah be both David’s Lord and his son (a word that was often used synonymously for descendant)? Descendants were always considered lesser than their ancestors so how could this be?

The problem wasn’t with the ancient Scriptures but with their understanding of the Messiah. They were hoping for nothing more than an earthly king who would lead them to great military victories over their enemies, particularly the Romans. But they were missing the little hints from passages like these that when the king arrived he would be the embodiment of God himself. God would come and shepherd his own people just as he had promised (Ezek. 34:10-12). The rejection that Jesus was facing, that would culminate in his own death was the action of God himself. God did not send another to die in his place. The living God was completely and personally present in the Messiah. Until they understood that they would not be able to grasp the truth of the Messiah. Psalm 110 is a beautiful passage written about the Messiah who would rightfully be enthroned after defeating and subjecting those who opposed him. But this king would not just be David’s descendant but also the one that David called “Lord”. He would be the one that would share the very throne of God. David didn’t just envision a son but one who would also rightly be his Lord. The people that Jesus was addressing, though, were using the scale that included “son” but their scale had no room for the “Lord” aspect that they were missing.

Did people need evidence that the religious leaders of Israel were using the wrong measuring system? His disciples need look no further than the teachers of the law. Were they being the humble servants of God and the spreaders of God’s will the way that those who claim to serve the living God should? Were the defending the cause of the poor and needy as embodied in their treatment of the most vulnerable among them, the widows? Were they showing the nations of the world what God’s future age would look like? The answer to all of those was a resounding no. Rather than measuring their worth by God’s measuring standard they judged it by how long and fancy their robes were, by how much honor and pomp surrounded them wherever they went. They made a show of their religion all the while they were ripping off the weakest and most in need of being cared for in order to strengthen their own position. Their religion was a sham, so no wonder they were using the wrong standard to measure the Messiah with. Their actions demonstrated loud and clear that they were not close to living as the kind of people that Jesus had spent years teaching his disciples that God wanted, so how could they possibly recognize God’s Messiah when he actually came? They would, Jesus ensured, be punished most severely for their ungodly injustice. This is a topic to which he will turn more fully in chapter 21.

To make the point clear about their mistreatment of widows, which was emblematic of a entire wholesale rejection of the love of mercy and justice that God demanded of his people (Matt. 23:23), Luke tells us of a scene in the Temple as Jesus observes a poor widow contribute her last two coins as an offering to God. In this short but powerful account Luke has given us much to think about as he continues to show us that the measuring standards are quite different than anyone might expect. He takes us, once again, to God’s scale where two insignificant coins are an immeasurable sacrifice.

The reality of this scene is that its primary function is to serve as a buffer between the denunciation of the religious leaders of Israel and the stark prophecies of the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem herself that will take up the remainder of Luke 21. Jesus denounced the teachers of the law for their mistreatment of widows and now Luke shows an example of that in the Temple itself. Because of their oppressive and self-advancing policies, the priests, teachers of the law, and other religious leaders had put this woman in a position where she was giving God her last two coins. Rather than the Temple being a house of prayer that showed people what it looked like when heaven broke into the present age, it had became a place of robbery. It truly was a den of thieves that would soon receive its just punishment.

But even though Jesus didn’t specifically commend this woman for giving generously in the face of the shameful practices of those who had put her in that position, there is much to learn from her example. She is commendable not because she gave a great amount but because she gave sacrificially and faithfully. When God measures our giving he doesn’t count, rather he weighs. She gave more than anyone who put in much larger amounts. But this woman trusted in God more than she trusted in those two coins. This is significant because it is so hard to do that when you are down to your last few resources. (Certainly, we must note, that this woman obediently gave her last but this passage should not be used by greedy men claiming to be ministers who would use such a passage to bilk the poor out of their last few cents. She is a positive example because she gave willingly, but the men who called her to do so and did not help her in her situation are soundly being criticized.)

Another important thing to be learned from this woman is that she gave a very small amount and yet this was enough for Jesus because she gave everything she had. In the end, that’s always what God wants from us whether it be our resources, our time, our hearts, or anything else. Yet sometimes when we have very little to give to God, we are the ones who disparage that as not enough. If we genuinely have only two hours a week, for instance, to serve in a ministry that we’ve wanted to be a part of, then we have to trust that this is pleasing to God because we are giving all we have. We must remember the truth mentioned above that God does not count but he measures. It is our challenge to make sure that we are judging things based on the same measuring standard that he is using.



Devotional Thought
Are you truly giving God everything you have? When you do, is that enough or do you beat yourself up for not doing more? If your resources or time are very limited but you are genuinely giving everything you have, is that enough? Are you using God’s measuring standard or the world’s?

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