"Two Invitations – Two Responses"          2010

Luke 18:18-25           Luke 19:1-10

 

Luke 18:18-25

A certain ruler asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 19Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 20You know the commandments: “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother.” ’ 21He replied, ‘I have kept all these since my youth.’ 22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money* to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ 23But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich. 24Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’

 

Luke 19:1-10

He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax-collector and was rich. 3He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ 6So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’ 8Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ 9Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’

 

Are you entirely satisfied    with   your faith-journey   with the Lord?

            … and more importantly,     do you think that God is satisfied?

 

Is your Christian life all that it could be?

             Is your relationship with Jesus all that it should be?

                                                                        …  and is it all that you want it to be?

 

And where are your choices and your decisions in life taking you?

            Are you sure that you are progressing along the right path?

 

In Luke 18, a rich ruler asks Jesus,     vs. 18             

                        "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"                          

            'what must I do,

                             and am I doing the right things along the right path

                                    so to earn and deserve, so that  I achieve eternal life?

 

In the Greek, there is a subtle twist and irony within his question.

            The  emphasis is placed on the word, "I",  i.e.  what must   I   do?;

                        yet     Jesus is on his way to be crucified in Jerusalem,

                           to provide eternal life, a gift we cannot do for ourselves.

 

We might have expected Jesus to answer, "repent and believe",

            but rather,   when Jesus brings up God's commandments,

                        the man responds:    vs. 21

                                                "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." 

 

This is a good and righteous man who tries to do all the right things,

      and yet he is uncertain and spiritually dissatisfied.

                            He senses that something is still missing,

                                    because there is still a deep longing in his 'nephesh'.

 

"Nephesh" is the Hebrew word that generally gets translated, "soul";

            but which means    a great deal more than just that.

 

Nephesh is the essence of the person God created.

            It is who we are.   It is the God-given and God-breathed part.

                        It is our innermost self, our passion and living-truth,

                                 --      and the nephesh

                                                is that   which longs and hungers after God.

 

This rich ruler in Luke, has a longing, a hunger in his nephesh.

 

And for this man in particular   Jesus recognizes and focuses onà  

            the main obstacle                            that is standingà

                           between this rich ruler  and him having a healthy nephesh.

 Jesus sees what is blocking a true & faithful relationship with God.   

 

vs. 22-23

            Jesus said to him, “There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”    But when he heard this,  he became sad; for he was very rich.

 

   This is the one instance in Scripture

            where someone intentionally chooses to walk away and reject

                a direct invitation to come and follow   that came from Jesus.

 

             It's my hope that perhaps sometime later on in his life,

                        this man reconsidered,  and did accept

                                    a second invitation   to follow and walk with Jesus.

  But at this point, this man's possessions,   possessed him.

 

In Luke's gospel,

            it doesn't specify that this man was extraordinarily rich,

                        it's just that he has more    than he is willing to give up.

 

Jesus has read this man's inner self, his nephesh    accurately;

     and recognizes that he places his trust in the stuff that he owns,

            so he is unwilling to trust his security fully to God's promises.

 

            This man  would rather starve and emaciate his nephesh,

                        than risk    a faithful response to God's gracious love.

 

So too our

            lives can be so packed and filled with so many distracting things

                        that all our stuff,  all of that baggage absorbs our life;

                                    and so our inner lives,    our nephesh hunger and longing

                                        receives too little care,   feeding   or attention.

 

     So obviously this story urges us to reconsider more carefully

            what might be encumbering,  or may  be strangling our nephesh;

 

                             and to reflect on what might be keeping us

                                    from following Jesus in committed discipleship,

                                        or what we most fear to give up and submit to the Lord…

       … for this will probably be among  our toughest spiritual battles.

 

This is a stark and radical story.  It is an in your face challenge,

     as Jesus just let the man   sadly walk away by his own free will.

 

And so too, our walk with God is about making our choices & decisions

            to believe,  to accept what God has promised, ---  or to reject.

 

We decide, one way or the other,  and God accepts the choice we make.

          But what God does not allow  is a safe middle ground of undecided.

                        Either we take God and God's word seriously, or we do not.

    In that sense, life is a theology exam   that we do not  want to fail!       

 

A second and contrasting story, also from Luke:

            Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector wants to see Jesus ---

                        -- and though he might not have known at the time, I believe,

                                    it was a desire and longing to feed his hungry nephesh.

 

In the story, passing through Jericho,

            Jesus encountered Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector,

                        a most lucrative job that made him very rich   and despised.

 

Jericho was a very prosperous city along an important trade route,

     which even today is still a very fertile and productive oasis,

            so as chief tax collector, he would have done very well indeed.

 

The Roman tax system was set up to collect  tribute as conquerors.

            It was intended to crush and oppress the people through taxation

                  and by using the greed of the locals to do Rome's dirty work.

 

 Rome would specify the amount each region was required to pay,

            and locals  bid for the authority to collect in that territory,

                        because they got to keep any excess collected  as overhead …

             … which was a very profitable arrangement for the tax collector.

 

So of course tax collectors were despised as greedy traitors

            for stealing, cooperating and even helping the hated Romans,

                        and were viewed as dishonorable sinners by the community.

                       

To their community & neighbors, tax collectors were hopelessly lost,

            and were written off as those  who could never possibly change,

                 and who were surely way beyond & outside  even the grace of God.

 

It’s a surprise that for some reason, Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus.

            My belief is that by grace, God put that desire in his heart;

                        causing Zacchaeus to recognize the black hole of his greed

                                    and feel the downward tug of materialism on his life.

 

Zacchaeus, a short man was unable to see over the crowd,

            and so he runs ahead, climbs a tree so he can watch Jesus pass by.

                        But in the Middle East, where honor & dignity are paramount,

                                    dignified  men in robes don't run or climb up into trees.

 

I imagine that the sight of Zacchaeus running and climbing a tree

            would have caused considerable ridicule among the crowd,

                        but also indicates how desperately he longed to see Jesus.

 

One would expect a religious teacher, a man of God like Jesusà

     to ignore, certainly not acknowledge a man enriched by corruption;

                        for Jesus would hardly condone such avarice and greed.

 

It was just a chapter earlier  vs. 24-25  that Jesus had said: 

            "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!   Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

 

So like the crowd,  we are surprised by what follows in the story …

            vs. 5

                        When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today"

            How could Jesus so honor

                        this most dishonorable and despised man in all of Jericho?

 

Of course the people in the crowd were confused, offended and angry,

            that Jesus would share a meal with that notorious traitor,

                        such a greedy godless man they all knew was hopelessly lost.

 

To accept hospitality and sit at table with Zacchaeus

            was  an unmistakable statement,

                         that inferred acceptance, and an offer of a relationship

                                with a man whose sins were obviously beyond redemption.

 

Yet Jesus saw something that no one else did,

            something other than the sinful & wrongful choices of Zacchaeus.

                                    Jesus saw one whose longing nephesh  was open to God -

                                                someone not beyond the reach of God's love & power,

                                                            but one who could become   more than he now was.

 

               The person Jesus saw was not just a greedy sinful outcast,

                        but someone who could respond   to the inviting grace of God.

 

Jesus invited, offering new possibilities of grace & miracle,

            saying:  'you can make a new start – have another second chance,

                        'you can move beyond your corrupt and selfish past,

                                    'you can step beyond the life-limits you have chosen.

            'You don't have to remain trapped in the greed of materialism,

                        starting now, you can change,  you can do   the right thing.

 

The crowd knew this man and what had always mattered most to him,

            that his greed and depravity had defined who he was, all he did,

                        and that he could never change beyond his greed and  avarice.

 

   But God's grace is more powerful than even the worst of human greed;

            As Jesus said, vs. 27

                        "What is impossible for mortals is possible for God.

 

In the presence of Jesus, Zacchaeus re-evaluates his whole life,

            and decides he wants a better, more faithful life, a new destiny.

                              He responds to Jesus, and by grace becoming a new person.

 

            He accepts the miracle before him, and responds to God's grace.

vs. 8

            Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,  "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much."

 

Zacchaeus's salvation

     did not mean remaining trapped, continuing the sins of his past.

                   A changed life means  having a new set of priorities in life.

 

Zacchaeus however, was not buying God's grace or doing God a favor,

       but it was a simple response of gratitude   for what God had done.

 

He has a new priority - he wants to live within God's law & intentions.

   Zacchaeus now he wants to participate in the work & purposes of God,

            and so to  glorify God,    he puts his money where his mouth is.

 

No longer motivated by his insatiable-greed and selfish-interest,

            now his earnest desire is to live  to honor God and His grace.

He wasn't ordered or compelled by Jesus,

    he simply wants his wealth to accomplish good - in gratitude to God,

                        and to show before all   that God truly had   changed his life.

 It's a miracle  for Jesus has set a man free  from greed to generosity.

 

            This man who used to care more about money,  than his neighbors

                        who for wealth, turned against God and his community, ----

                                    now,    voluntarily gives it all up in gratitude to Jesus.

 

In response to this obvious change in Zacchaeus,  Jesus declares:

vs. 9

    "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.

                       

In the Greek,

     this word salvation also means  to rescue,  to heal  and to cleanse.

By grace,

            Zacchaeus's nephesh is restored; rescued,  healed  and cleansed,

                        for now he remembers who he truly is,

                                    a Son of Abraham, who is precious and loved by God.

 

Against all human expectations, he has been found and restored;

            because as Jesus says in vs. 10

                        "For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."

And I suspect that Zacchaeus was not a delay in the journey of Jesus,

            but that at least part of the reason Jesus came through Jericho,

                        was to seek and save the lost, and to turn a rich man's heart.

 

David Saucier was the fourth patient

            at a hospital in Houston to receive a heart transplant.

                        On the 10th anniversary of his heart transplant,

                                    he wrote an essay titled, "Number Four is Still Alive."

 

He wrote:

            Ten years ago in the wee hours of the morning, God performed a miracle in me. It was not the first miracle he had performed in my life, nor was it to be the last, but it was perhaps the most dramatic.

            Now, some may call this a miracle of modern science, but life itself is a miracle of God, and for another person's heart to grow to my severed aorta and become a part of the living "me," is a miracle of God in my book!  à

            Many people have asked me if I feel any different, or if I act any different, if the transplant has changed my life in any way. I can answer that in three ways:

 

            First:

There's urgency. I live with a renewed sense of urgency, and that has changed my priorities because I realize that if I'm to stop and smell the roses, I had best do it now.

            Second:

There is gratitude. I don't understand this miracle that has happened within me with my new heart. All I can do is accept and feel grateful for each additional day I live.

            Third:

I now walk a little closer to God because when you've been through a harrowing experience with someone you form a special bond with them.  Deep down inside I know that God will always take care of me. I also know that no one lives forever and that someday He'll decide He can better care for me on the other side of the Jordan, but until that time, Number Four is still alive and enjoying every minute of it.

 

            This transplant patient understands

                        having a new lease on life, a new beginning, a second chance;

            all because he received a new heart that gave him à

                        a fresh sense of urgency and gratitude and closeness to God.

 

            Something like that happened to Zacchaeus.

                        Zacchaeus didn't have a heart transplant,

                                    but he did have a heart transformation.

            The Great Physician touched his heart, turned his life around.

 

If God's grace is real,   and if God's word and promises are  truth,

            then are we not challenged to feed the longings of our nephesh,

                        and are we not called to an appropriate response to grace…

                             in contrast to the rich ruler   who sadly walked away?