They Have Moses and the Prophets: A Meditation on Luke 16

Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father,

 that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:

For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them,

 lest they also come into this place of torment.

Abraham saith unto him, 

They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

And he said, Nay, father Abraham: 

but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 

neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

After having been derided by the religious leaders of His day for teaching that one cannot serve both God and money, Jesus put a very fine point on the seriousness of His message for those who would hear Him.  Moving from temporal to eternal consequences, Jesus recounted the story of a rich man and a poor man-- one who ended up comforted in heaven, and the other tormented in the flames of hell.  Lest the Pharisees conclude that all this talk of how we treat our neighbors with the resources God has given us be an innocuous intellectual debate, Jesus gave them a window into the eternal future they were building for themselves through greed, avarice, ambition, and their abuse of the poor through the power of their political and religious offices.

There is much to be learned from Jesus' parable (the separation of the blessed and the damned in the world to come; the eternal finality of one's judgment after death; the inability of those in heaven or hell to move freely across the gulf which divides them; the living cognizance of people after death in both heaven and hell; the horrible torments of hell which anyone in their right mind would want to avoid, and spare others of, as well; the blessed comfort and end to suffering in heaven; and so much more...) but the concluding point He made to wrap up His teaching in this section is paramount:  If they hear not Moses and the prophets with their message to be reconciled to God by His grace through faith in Him and His Word, repenting of evil so that they might love God and their neighbor rightly, and escape the just sentence of eternal hell all men face for the sake of their willful, wanton wickedness, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead.  This truth would be witnessed by those who heard Him, when later He would be crucified, dead, buried, and risen again on Easter Sunday for the salvation of the whole world.  After His resurrection, when He came back from the dead, He commissioned His disciples to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins to every person in His Name, sent them to make disciples by teaching His Word and baptizing in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, having sent to them the wonder-working power of the Holy Spirit to work faith in all who would hear and believe His saving Gospel, and having promised never to leave His people until He returned at the end of the world in glory to judge the living and the dead-- what did the Pharisees do?  As the teachers of the Law, the keepers of God's Word given through Moses and the prophets, they rejected the testimony of both them and Jesus by persecuting the Church through lies, treachery, imprisonment, beatings, threatenings, and murders.  Puffed up in their titles, their positions, their offices, their wealth, all their earthly trappings of prestige and self justification, they rejected the Holy Spirit who spoke through Moses and the Prophets, just as they had rejected Jesus and the Holy Spirit speaking through Jesus' Apostles.  Jesus revealed Himself as the eternal and living Word of the Father, showing that the testimony of the Holy Spirit in every true Prophet or Apostle is a testimony of Him, His Law, and His saving Gospel.  Thus all of Holy Scripture, breathed out by God's Spirit through His Prophets and Apostles, testifies to Jesus.  If anyone rejects Moses, he will reject Jesus, too, because Jesus is the fulfillment of the divine Word to which Moses and the Prophets were faithful witnesses.

It is tempting to think that people today would believe if they could see just one more miracle, one more resurrection, one more sign or one more wonder.  The truth, however, is that the heart which refuses to believe the Word of the Lord and resists the power of the Holy Spirit to give it new life from above, will continue to resist every miracle God would perform for His people.  The reason people move away from God in our day is no different than it was in the day of the 1st century Pharisees:  they deny Him because they want to deny Him.  They reject His Word, His Prophets, His Apostles, and His Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, first because they are inclined to do so by their own corrupt fallen nature, and then by an act of their own free will when the Holy Spirit enlivens them to hear and believe His Word.  Like the rich man in the parable, they have the Word of God given to them, they see their suffering neighbor dying at their gates, and they choose instead to serve money-- all their own selfish appetites-- rather than turning to God that they might be healed themselves, and then reflecting God's saving love to their neighbors in need.  The reason people end up in hell is not because God wants them to be there, for He has clearly declared His will that all mankind be saved through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son; rather, the only reason people end up in hell is because they chose to be there by rejecting the only God who could save them.  People end up in hell, because they freely chose the path to hell of their own accord-- they are there by their own fault.

Like so many things people choose in their shortsighted selfishness, the consequences are far worse than they imagine.  Even the rich man in Jesus' parable, unmoved by the suffering of Lazarus before his living eyes, once he entered into his awful fate, desired that his family not be likewise condemned through similar unbelief and unrepentance.  While no one will go to hell apart from their own choice to reject God and receive His judgment, rather than receive the grace of forgiveness in Jesus Christ, no one will desire to remain under that awful judgment forever.  But once our choices are made complete in our earthly death, and God's judgment is cast, our fate is final and eternal.  There will be no more preaching of the Gospel of grace in hell, but only the inescapable declaration of the perfect and holy Law.  Once the Holy Spirit has withdrawn Himself and His Word from any person, that person's fallen nature becomes his only nature, and his only fate can be that which is shared with the devil and his unholy demons, forever twisted together in the flames of perdition.

Jesus comes to you this day, that you might never taste of that awful judgment of God-- that instead you might drink in His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and eternal life through faith in Him and His saving Word.  Jesus did not suffer and die under the weight of all the world's sin so that you would be lost, but rather that you might be found and live in Him forever.  His loving Word and Spirit pursue you, whether you be wrapped up in delight or despair, whether you are rich or poor, the persecuted or the persecutor.  God desires none to come to that place of rejection and torment, for He has spilled the holy blood of His only begotten Son for you, and for every soul that would ever walk this earth.  Hear Him as He appeals to you through all His Prophets and Apostles, His Word working in you by the power of His Holy Spirit to create faith unto repentance and eternal life in His Name.  Flee the distractions and deceptions which would tempt you to a fate worse than death, and instead cling to Jesus whose Gospel will wash you, cleanse you, enliven you, and keep you forever.  Hear the Word of the Lord which comes to save you-- repent, believe, and live.  Amen.

No One Can Serve Two Masters: A Meditation on Luke 16

No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; 

or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts:

 for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

Jesus' words may ring strangely in our modern ears, as we all seem to serve many masters.  If we are blessed to have a job, or perhaps more than one, we have bosses that define what we will be doing with our time in exchange for our paychecks.  If we drive on the public roads, there are police who are always ready to help us remember how we are obligated to use our time and resources, and take our money or freedom is we don't comply.  We have a government at local, state, and federal levels which write and enforce our laws, collect our money for taxes, and provide general services to the community-- even a military in which some of us served or served, which may govern much of our lives.  Some are blessed with families, with obligations commensurate to their callings in those families (fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, etc).  With all the masters we seem to serve on a daily basis, how can Jesus say, "No one can serve two masters"?

Jesus points to a deeper reality we all know is true, having to do with priorities.  Ultimately we can have only one Master which sets our priorities and establishes the terms by which we relate to everything else.  For far too many, their Master is the love of money, and everything they do in their lives is ordered to that priority, leaving human and divine obligations to wither.  For some, it is the love of their own pride, which causes everything other than their pursuit of power and prestige to be stepped upon to reach those goals.  For others their Master may be their appetites, always in pursuit of pleasure or fleeing from pain, leaving everything else abandoned in their wake.  Some make another person or their own families their Master, sacrificing everything for them, and when that person either betrays or is taken from them, they fall into deepest despair.  Still others might make public service or some organization their Master, giving the years of their vigorous youth to endless social causes or campaigns, finding only later what they have lost in the exchange.  Jesus' words bore deeply into our fallen souls to reveal what we have really made our Master, so that we might understand to whom we are really beholden.  Regardless of what it is, our Master sets our time lines, the boundaries of our relationships, orders our lives, takes its sacrifices, and gives whatever payment it has offered.

And what do our earthly Masters offer us?  Temporary pleasure, power, wealth, prestige, or satisfaction?  When the years of your life are spent, and you look into the horizon of eternity surrounded by the temporary baubles you have pursued all your life, what have your really gained?  What shall you hold up before your eternal Creator, to justify the way you have spent the life He has given you?  And which of these temporary pursuits do you think you shall offer to satisfy the Judge who gave you your breath, your being, and your time?  If we think we shall approach the King of Glory bearing these trifles to impress Him, we are deluding ourselves.  As He has given us our very existence, He has also given us His expectations as our legitimate Master.  As the Author of Life, He tells us clearly what He expects of us by His Law and thereby what the terms are of His gift of eternal life:  we are to love Him fully and completely, and our neighbors as ourselves.  That divine Law of Love finds full expression through the Natural Law written into the cosmos, the Ten Commandments carved into stone by His hand on Mt. Sinai, and written across all of Holy Scripture by His Prophets and Apostles.  The works God demands are eternal, complete, and holy, showing how our lives ought to be entirely ordered toward Him, His Word, His holiness, and His love.

That reality should be terrifying to us all.  There is no life of fallen men which meets this holy and eternal obligation, which means that no man on his own power, choice, or capacity actually has God as his true Master.  Rather, we have chosen other Masters, none of whom can grant us eternal life, and none which can give us rewards which will satisfy our holy Judge.  Of our own fallen nature we seek to be our own Masters, and find that instead we are enslaved to one of the many faces of the evil one, whose only eternal reward for us is death, destruction, pain, and misery.  While it may seem that there are many Masters to whom people are beholden in their lives, there are really only two in the whole universe:  the Master who is Himself Life everlasting, and the rebel Master who himself is destined for eternal fire together with all he wooed to his service.  Of these two, we can serve only one, as our lives can be ordered only toward either Life or Death.  Jesus' words call everyone to look at themselves honestly and see their hopeless state, as our sin and rebellion from God's Word declare us all to be servants of death.

Having brought us all to recognize our condition, Jesus alone took the steps necessary to restore us all.  He alone is God incarnate, living out the perfectly ordered life of service to God our Father, then taking our disorder upon Himself shed His blood upon His Cross to satisfy our just condemnation.  He offered His perfect, holy, and eternal life so that we might not suffer and die in our rebellion.  His gift of sacrifice for us restored our relationship to the Master of Life, so that we might be free from the Master of death.  In Him, as He made His Vicarious Atonement for the sins of the whole world, He earned through His life, death, and resurrection the grace we all need to be forgiven and free from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil.  In Jesus we see the eternal Law with all its justice satisfied, and the everlasting Gospel of grace proclaimed for all who will repent and believe in Him.

Some will scoff at Jesus and deride Him, choosing to hide instead behind their trifling academic degrees, secular power, pursuit of pleasure, or some other Master they have chosen for themselves.  But how does Jesus' word meet you this day?  Has Jesus shown you the depths of your sin and rebellion, and the only end to your path of death?  Be of good cheer, dear Christian, for in removing your disordered hope and passion for the Master of death and destruction, He has prepared your heart to receive the Gospel of His grace, mercy, and life.  Jesus is the Lord who has taken your death from you, that you might stand and live forever, forgiven and free, covered in His Blood and washed clean of your every failure and stain.  Jesus is the Master of Life who died for you that you might live in and for Him, and through Him live in divine love for His whole creation, as you were always meant to live since before the world began.  Hear the Word of Life which calls to you today, that His Spirit might move you to faith in Him and repentance from the ways of death, and unto eternal life in Jesus your Savior.  Amen.

Joy in Heaven: A Meditation on Luke 15

What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them,

doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness,

and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours,

saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,

more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

I have heard over the years many theories about what pleases God.  There’s a common refrain that being attached to this or that social justice motif brings pleasure to God, or perhaps more piously postulated as Christians working to bring God’s Kingdom down to earth in some politically tangible way.  Moving from the outside world of politics and social justice campaigns to inside the Church itself, there are suggestions that a particular form of worship pleases God, or particular songs, or particular instruments, or a particular way of holding one’s hands, or a particular kind of dress (for both laity and clergy), or a particular building style, or any host of man-made customs. And while it’s certainly true that some customs are much more appropriate in the House of God than others, attempting to tie such menial contrivances to God’s pleasure or joy is ignorant at best, and at worst a kind of unbearable hubris.  Who are we, after all, as creatures of infinitely lower dignity and capacity than the eternal divine majesty of God Almighty, to attempt to tell God what should and should not please Him?  Do I really think that I can manipulate God’s emotions the way some slick politician, praise band, or charismatic preacher can manipulate the hearts and minds of impressionable people?

At root, our human pride always seeks to find something in ourselves that grants us dignity before God, as if of ourselves we have some standing before God which requires His respect.  Unfortunately, given our fallen and sinful state, there is nothing we can do of ourselves that pleases God, and there is nothing in us that has not been twisted by our own pride and wickedness.  Not only are we originally created inferior to God as our Creator, but our fallen evil nature constantly seeks to take glory and honor from God which He has not given.  This impulse of our fallen nature moves men to think themselves capable of moving God to pleasure or joy by their own efforts, and thereby securing for themselves some reward or payment from God as a just desert.  Not surprisingly this motive is found in nearly every pagan religion across the globe, where man has tried to build his religion toward God without the guidance of His Word and Spirit.  Where fallen man attempts to reach and satisfy God through his own works, there inevitably emerges a religion which reflects man’s twisted and fallen nature, and which cannot ever please or satisfy the only true, holy, and almighty God.

Once we come to understand the absolute futility of pleasing God on our own terms or through our own works, we are prepared to listen to God’s solution to our problem.  God’s Law, written generally into all of nature so that every armchair pagan philosopher can grasp its basic tenets, yet explicitly revealed in Holy Scripture, prepares each and every human heart to despair of their own ability to reach, please, manipulate, or bring joy to God.  God’s Gospel, however, revealed in Holy Scripture as the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of condemned sinners through the forgiveness of sins by grace through faith in Jesus, lifts the despairing human heart into the joy and peace of God.  God’s joy is not something we give to Him, but rather something that He gives to us—it is what Jesus secured for the whole human race through His Cross, when He took our sinful wickedness and condemnation upon Himself, so that He might give His grace, mercy, love, compassion, joy, and eternal life back to us.  God does not present Himself as one to be manipulated by sinful men, but rather as the One who calls all fallen sinners to repent and believe in Him through the power of His Spirit working through His Word.  How then do sinful people enter into the joy of God in heaven, but by trusting in the gracious invitation God makes to us by His Word?  It is such faith and repentance which brings every lost sinner into the joy and celebration of heaven, where God and all His Holy Angels, His Prophets and Apostles, and all His blessed saints and martyrs of every time and place, rejoice in grandeur surpassing earthly understanding for every soul saved from perdition.

Where does God’s Word of Law and Gospel meet you this day? Are you still striving to please God through your own works and manipulations, thinking you have something in you which God is obliged to honor and reward?  Are you exhausted from your fruitless and vain pursuits to bring joy to God by your own offerings of service, praise, plans, or contrivances?  Are you at last despairing of any reason why God would take joy or pleasure in you, for you have come to understand the totality of your fallen depravity, and your utter inability to climb out of your sins and into the holiness of God’s presence?  Take heart, dear Christian!  Hear the Word of the Lord which calls you to repent of your fallen wickedness, of your pride, of your attempted manipulations of the King of the Universe.  Hear the Word of the Lord which speaks to you life and forgiveness and mercy and hope, all for Christ’s sake.  Hear the love which God has had for you from before the foundation of the world, which moved Him to seek and to save you from the despair and vanity of your fallen works by the shed blood of His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever would repent and believe in Him might not perish, but rather be given His eternal life.  Hear the Word of the Lord reveal to you that God’s joy is manifest to you in Jesus His Son, and that He has always been beckoning you back into the fellowship of His eternal joy through faith in Him.

Be of good cheer, for God has not commanded that you bring Him joy, but that you receive His joy by grace through faith in His Son—a faith and repentance He brings forth in you through the power of His Holy Spirit, working through His Holy Word.  Hear Him.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.