Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. - Romans 5

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Luke 7New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant
7 When He had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum.
And a centurion’s slave, [a]who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some [b]Jewish elders asking Him to come and [c]save the life of his slave. When they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored Him, saying, “He is worthy for You to grant this to him; for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue.” Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, “[d]Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just [e]say the word, and my [f]servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” 10 When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
11 Soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain; and His disciples were going along with Him, [g]accompanied by a large crowd. 12 Now as He approached the gate of the city, [h]a dead man was being carried out, the [i]only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “[j]Do not weep.” 14 And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” 15 The [k]dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. 16 Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has [l]visited His people!” 17 This report concerning Him went out all over Judea and in all the surrounding district.

Yay Jesus is back in Capernaum. What does it mean for Jesus to “discourse in the hearing of the people?”

I have never noticed the juxtaposition in this story. You see in v4 that the Jews are all like “this dude centurion is like fancy schmancy, so be sure to go see him because he called for you,” but in v6 you see the centurion himself send a message saying “I am not worthy of You to come under my roof” and then proceeds to enact one of the most powerful moments of faith in Scripture (as established by Jesus in v9). I found it also interesting that Jesus and the centurion actually never meet, and it is because the centurion, who is a Roman military leader who even built the synagogue at Capernaum, doesn’t think he is worthy of inviting Jesus into his house. I wonder how this makes all the Pharisees feel, and even Peter who had Jesus over in chapter 4. 

Yay another miracle that leads to the glorification of God. Again this is a story that isn’t talked about very often. Do the people say the right things here or the wrong things here? Technically God in the flesh did come to visit His people, but Jesus is not really a prophet. He is the King of all Kings. The CHOSEN ONE!!!!

A Deputation from John
18 The disciples of John reported to him about all these things. 19 Summoning [m]two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are You the [n]Expected One, or do we look for someone else?” 20 When the men came to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, to ask, ‘Are You the [o]Expected One, or do we look for someone else?’” 21 At that [p]very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many who were blind. 22 And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them. 23 Blessed is he [q]who does not take offense at Me.”
24 When the messengers of John had left, He began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 25 [r]But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft [s]clothing? Those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces! 26 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet. 27 This is the one about whom it is written,
Behold, I send My messenger [t]ahead of You,
Who will prepare Your way before You.’
28 I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is [u]least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” 29 When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they [v]acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. 30 But the Pharisees and the [w]lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by [x]John.
31 “To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another, and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ 33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a [y]drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and [z]sinners!’ 35 Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

Basically haters gonna hate (for v33-34). Also Jesus hyping up John the Baptist yo. Greatest man to have ever been born, yet worldly status cannot trump even the least who has heavenly/kingdom status. Why did people acknowledge God’s Justice here? What does that even mean?

I also don’t think John the Baptist was doubting Jesus as the Messiah (as some scholars and Christian would want to assert). But I do think there is a reconfirmation before John was going to die, since we know from the other Gospel books that this was right before he was going to be beheaded (we also know from Luke 3 that John was already put in prison). If John was truly a doubter, Jesus would not follow up with calling John the greatest man to ever be born and wouldn’t recite the passages from Isaiah that John the Baptist fulfilled. If John had truly heard the voice from Heaven when he was baptizing Jesus (I mean, heaven freaking opened and there was a voice and there was a glowy white bird thing that came), or even heard the story of himself leaping with joy from the Holy Spirit when Elizabeth met Mary way back in the day, then John would have assurance in his belief in Christ. I think even if there were shreds of doubt, like how every Christian will have at some time or another, or maybe a hope that Jesus would free John from prison, maybe John just wants to die with the peace of mind that he did complete his job as the last prophet to pave the way for the Messiah.

36 Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to [aa]dine with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 And there was a woman in the city who was a [ab]sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, 38 and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a [ac]sinner.”

Now here we basically have a 3rd juxtaposition. We had people tell Jesus that the centurion was worthy to meet at the centurion’s house (almost to the point that Jesus was almost not good enough to meet the centurion), and subsequently the centurion send word that His house isn’t worthy of Jesus (probably surprising the crowd). Now we have a Pharisee requesting to have Jesus over for dinner, but only treat Jesus as “somebody” but not “the somebody,” as we will see below. I wonder if this all was planned by God or planned by Luke, to have all of this happen in one single chapter.

I will elaborate more below on the woman.

Parable of Two Debtors
40 And Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he [ad]replied, “Say it, Teacher.” 41 “A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred [ae]denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.” 44 Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. 46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. 47 For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” 49 Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say [af]to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” 50 And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Here Jesus hits home with a clear analogy/parable of how great our sin is (which is infinite against an infinitely holy God), and if we truly understood the weight of our sin, then we would understand the weight of the gift that is Grace. We would also understand the cost Jesus paid on the Cross. All of this should blow our minds up like someone shotgunning a watermelon at point blank range. On repeat. Forever. MIND BLOWN! Yet, we behave like the cost of our sin was really nothing by continuing to live in sin. We treat our own sins as “meh” or “its not that bad,” not realizing if we truly understood the Gospel, then the weight of Glory would press down on our hearts until we say “enough is enough! I will end/mortify my sin now because I am a new Creation who has Christ in my heart and a supernatural power to resist Sin from the Holy Spirit! But alas, cheap grace has permeated through modern church teaching and average Christian behavior. It is the different between the sheer joy and gratitude you feel towards the firefighter who just saved your wife and kids (and dog) from a fiery death vs the simple acknowledgement of a good deed to the guy who gave you a quarter on the way into Aldis. That is the contrast Jesus presents between Simon the Pharisee and the unnamed “sinful” woman.

First of all, of all the people in the Bible, the one role model I look up to (besides Jesus who is the true Imago Dei) is this unnamed woman (as well as her parallels in the unnamed woman in Matthew 26, the unnamed woman in Mark 14, and Mary in John 12, who all may be the same or different women). In these cases, this woman knew (somehow) that Jesus was going to die. We know elsewhere that Jesus said that this perfume was meant for His burial. Jesus must have preached that He came to be taken up by the soldiers and killed on our behalf, and we also know that even his closest disciples (Peter) rejected this notion that Jesus cannot die. Yet this woman did understand. She also understood that through Jesus she is saved. She was bought with a price, of costly Grace (even before Jesus went to the Cross). Hence the parable. Hence her crying and devotion. Hence the kiss and the anointment. Every single sentence Jesus said, He contrasted it to the behavior of Simon. “She did, you did not. She did, you did not. She did, you did not!” Again elsewhere, Jesus said this: “Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her (Matt 26:13).” Bam! There are not many people (if any) that Jesus has said that about. Sure, by inclusion within the Bible, we know the stories of all the Biblical characters, but Jesus literally broke the 4th wall to us here. This unnamed woman’s legacy will be told wherever the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, will be told. We will remember her. I will remember her.

If we have Grace (capital G), and really understand how much that Grace was worth, we will love as she loved. As Jesus said, “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Grace will lead to Love (capital L), a love that surpasses the kind of love sinners have for those they like (from Luke 6:32 as I just read). A love that is unconditional and alien to our human/sinful/wicked/evil nature (all those adjectives are equal). A love that is birthed through justification and regeneration by Grace through Faith (capital F). The same Faith that the woman has and Jesus calls out in v50. How do I tie in Hope (capital H)…

It is of the greatest coincidence that Francis Chan told this story at Onething 2018 right after I wrote this. His explanation of the woman is so much better than mine. She understood her place on the earth, who she was. She knew who was important, who was deserving of all her affection and worship. She didn’t care what other people thought about her in the house. She didn’t care about what Simon thought of her, what the disciples thought of her, what everyone else thought of her. She only cared about crying at Jesus’s feet. She knew what it mean to come into the presence of Jesus, her Lord her Savior. What an honor to wash Jesus’s feet with her tears and scrub them with her hair. There wasn’t a smidge of fear of man in her heart, only the Fear of the Lord. She just wanted to be with Jesus. Jesus was enough for her.

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