Luke 19:28-31 - The Lord has need of it

Well that's embarrassing! The scheduled post today seem to have left a gap of four verses! So here they are.

19:28-31

Jesus is getting ever closer to Jerusalem, we are now at what we call Palm Sunday. Bethphage was probably a village near the road from Jericho to Jerusalem, though its exact location is not known. Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem, and was where Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived (John 11:18). Two unnamed disciples were sent on ahead to the next village, possibly Bethphage. There they would find a colt tied up and they were to bring it to Jesus. All the events were planned long ago. We need to understand that in the Bible there is no conflict between God’s sovereignty, human responsibility and the reality of life. Ie we are not just actors in a play, but at the same time there is a script.

Luke 19:28-38 - The Lord needs it

Note the original post had verses 28-31 omitted. These have now been added.

19:28-31

Jesus is getting ever closer to Jerusalem, we are now at what we call Palm Sunday. Bethphage was probably a village near the road from Jericho to Jerusalem, though its exact location is not known. Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem, and was where Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived (John 11:18). Two unnamed disciples were sent on ahead to the next village, possibly Bethphage. There they would find a colt tied up and they were to bring it to Jesus. All the events were planned long ago. We need to understand that in the Bible there is no conflict between God’s sovereignty, human responsibility and the reality of life. Ie we are not just actors in a play, but at the same time there is a script.

19:32-36

The disciples went ahead and duly found the colt. Someone did ask why they were untying the colt, and they answered as Jesus had told them to, “the Lord needs it”. This answer was acceptable. How was this so? Possibly God had revealed to the owner of the colt what would happen. We may have seemingly inconsequential things in our possession. They all belong to God, and at some point He may have a most noble purpose for them.

The disciples put their cloaks on the colt and Jesus sat upon it, then He entered Jerusalem. Luke does not give any details about the entry itself.

19:37,38

This is a rather strange scene in some ways. The “crowd of disciples” began joyfully praising the Lord. Why did they do this? Presumable because their Messiah was going into Jerusalem, and they expected Him to claim His crown. But then there are Jesus’ words to His disciples about His suffering. Now it may only have been the twelve who heard these words (18:31-34), and even they didn’t understand them! Matthew relates the entry into Jerusalem to prophecies in Zechariah. A king entering on a donkey is a sign of peace, not one of overthrowing the powers that be. Jesus was going to claim a crown, but first He would have to suffer greatly, and the crown would be one given by His Father, not one taken from men. All four gospels contain reference to Psalm 118:26, but only Luke and John explicitly call Jesus king, though the thought is implicit in the others. Luke omits the word Hosanna and replaces it with glory, perhaps reflecting his audience as being largely Gentile.

Luke 19:15-27 - Making money

19:15-21

Man may rebel and object, but we actually do not have a say in the matter! The view of Richard Dawkins matter little to God and do not present Him with a problem! So the man was made king. He returned and then met with the servants. The first two he met had made good use of the money, so he put them in charge of much greater things, ten and five cities in the context of the parable. But one servant said he had done nothing with the minha, claiming fear of the man. This is a rare parable with several points of learning in it. One is that the full consummation of the kingdom is not yet, so in the meantime there is work for us to do. We need to be serving the king. If we do so faithfully, then we will be given greater responsibilities. We were created with a purpose and for a purpose.

19:22-26

The man who had made nothing is severely condemned. His minha is taken away and given to the one who had made ten. Some objected that this was unfair, but the king was having none of it. So much for socialism, one might be tempted to say! However, one should be a little careful! But we should definitely make one what we can of the things that God gives to us, be they resources, talents or whatever.

19:27

So if we are subjects of the king then we need to take life seriously and to be good servants, but things are even more serious for those who reject Jesus as king. They are to be brought in front of the king and killed! To all those who object to the idea of hell, to all those who are universalists (ie everyone gets saved), you quite simply have not got a Biblical leg to stand on. It is od who will judge all of us on the last day, not some liberal vicar, not Rob Bell. So we would be wise to listen to the words of Jesus and base our assumptions on what He says.

Luke 19:11-14 - Put this money to work

19:11

This is the last parable before Jesus actually reaches Jerusalem.  This parable is similar to the parable of the talents in Matt 25:14-30, but there are some differences as well. This is not surprising as Jesus told similar parables on more than one occasion, and on each occasion there may well have been a slightly different emphasis, or some small additions to the parable or teaching.  Luke tells us that Jesus told this parable because the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to “appear at once”. Ie they expected the full consummation of the kingdom, the complete rule of God upon the earth. The essence of the parable is that the people needed to respond. They were looking for God to do something, whereas God was looking for them to respond.

19:12,13

Jesus tells of a man of noble birth who went to a distant country to be made king. This man is representing Jesus, but what else is the backdrop to this? Why does he go away to a distant land to be made king? Well it is to do with the system that operated in the Roman empire. Herod, and others, would go to Rome and then be made “king” of a region, a region in Israel in the case of people like Herod. The people knew it was Rome that appointed the rulers. Likewise it is God who decides who is Lord, not us. So it is God who makes Jesus king. A minha was about three months wages, ten minhas were given to ten servants and they were told to put it to work. There are significant differences of detail between this and the parable of the talents, though the basic idea is similar. They all got the same, and the amount is less than in the parable of the talents.

19:14

His subjects hated him, just as the Jews hated Jesus. We need to be aware of man’s absolute rebellion against God, this is the depth of sin within our hearts. The Jews would appreciate this part of the story, for they would be thinking of some lackey going off to Rome to be appointed king. So they could understand the subjects hating the man. In the same way the Jews hated Jesus, and in the same way all of mankind hates God. By nature we do not want Him to be ruler over us. We consider that God has no right to rule over us.

Luke 19:5-10 - Man comes down from tree

19:5,6

Jesus spotted him, in fact it is even as if Jesus knew He would meet Zacchaeus. Jesus then invites Himself to Zacchaeus’ house. Zacchaeus was delighted with this. Now let’s consider what people thought of Zacchaeus, what he did, and what was going on in his heart. People hated him, he extorted money from them, acting for a hated oppressor. He was very rich, and they would despise him for that. Zacchaeus did act wrongly, he would have planned on how to get as much money as possible. He did evil. Yet there was something inside of him looking for release, looking to be different. We need to recognise that evil and a desire to be different can exist at the same time within a person. We are all sinners, and we are all victims. It isn’t one or the other, it is both. We are guilty, we are responsible, we are evildoers.  We are also under the oppression of sin, we are slaves to sin. We need to appreciate the two-sided effects of sin, or the nature of sin and the sinner. Usually we focus only on one aspect. Only Jesus can set us free.

19:7

The people were offended by this. why should Jesus go to the house of a sinner? Notice that the people are reacting in much the same way as the Pharisees and other religious leaders reacted. At heart the common people were no different from the religious leaders. To put this in a modern context, we all like to criticise our politicians, and there is much to be criticised. But we are no better than them, all he character flaws that lead them to act the way they often do exist in us as well.

19:8-10

Now see the reaction of Zacchaeus, he repents. He demonstrates his repentance by giving money to the poor, and more than compensating those he has cheated. So we see Jesus reaching out to the lost and the despised, and we see repentance. I have been banging on about this point for a while now, and I do so because it is important. So often we say “Jesus welcomes anyone”, but the truth, the gospel, is that Jesus welcomes anyone who comes in faith and repentance. We like to forget about repentance and we end up having no gospel at all.

Jesus declares that Zacchaeus is a “son of Abraham”, and that His very purpose was to seek and save the lost.

Luke 19:1-4 - Man up a tree

19:1

Remember that Jesus is closing in on the time when He will be crucified in Jerusalem, yet He has just healed a blind beggar, and now will meet with a tax collector, Zacchaeus. Although the most climactic event in history was about to happen, in the meantime Jesus continued doing the day to day stuff that He was sent to do. We need the same approach to the return of Christ. Clearly the return of Christ is an important event, to put it ever so-mildly! But our reaction to this is not to be indulging in idle speculations, but to continue obeying Christ today.

19:2-4

The “hero" of the story is Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector. We have already seen why tax-collectors in general were despised, so the chief tax-collector would be doubly despised. He was wealthy, and that wealth would have come largely from unjustly taking money from people, as is confirmed later in the story. He was also a rather small man, so normally would have not been able to see Jesus in the crowds, and no one would have made way for this despised figure. So he exercised initiative and climbed a tree in order to get a better view.

Nahum 3:12-19 - Nothing can heal you

3:12,13

Assyria had great military strength, or so she thought. But at the time of testing they would all fall, like figs from a tree ripe for harvest. Some nations can seem so strong for a while, but then they fall. Suddenly the land that seemed so impregnable is easily conquered.

3:14-17

The graphic description of Assyria’s downfall continues. She had built up vast military power, and a large trading network, but all this would be of no value against the onslaught that was about to befall her. Assyria’s merchants are likened to locusts. Locusts would strip fields bare, just as Assyria’s traders would exploit nations. But then they would all disappear, so would all Assyria’s influence. Empires can collapse very quickly, what seemed like a powerful unmovable edifice and very quickly crumble to nothing at all. Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC and the city lay buried until 1845 when it was uncovered by archaeologists.

3:18,19

All the foregoing stuff was prophecy, words given before the event, but words which would be fulfilled. Here the king of Assyria is warned about what will happen. When Jonah warned the city she repented, this time she would not repent, and so the destruction would follow. Her people will be scattered, her warriors and noblemen will lie down dead. Other peoples will rejoice at her downfall, because they suffered at the hands of Assyria. She was receiving the penalty for her cruelty.

So what are we to make of all this? It certainly isn’t the jolliest of prophecies! It contains hardly anything in the way of “salvation theology”, at least as we commonly think of it. So it tends to be ignored, hardly ever preached on. Well perhaps this highlights the shallowness of our thinking, our desire to ignore the hard aspects of the gospel. We like to pay no more than lip-service to man's’ sinfulness and to judgement. Yet doing so led Israel to make wrong choices, to wrongly assess situations, and so to worship idols and make alliances with pagan nations. If we want to have a correct worldview we need to take the message of Nahum to heart. When we see powerful nations, or powerful blocks within society, nations and power blocks that are ungodly, we need to know what their ultimate fate will be unless they repent.