Law and Gospel

Now, we’re going to read from the Bible this morning, in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 16. We’re going to read from verse 13 to verse 18:

“‘No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.’

“The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.

“‘The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.

“‘Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.’”

Heavenly Father, we pray now that you will give to us minds that think clearly, hearts that are open and receptive to your truth, and wills that become obedient to your Word. Unless you come and breathe by your Spirit and enable us, we can’t speak, listen, hear, understand, obey, apply, receive your Word at all; therefore, the whole exercise is marked by futility, except for your divine intervention. We believe that when your Word is truly preached, that your voice is really heard. We want to hear your voice, Lord Jesus, and it’s in your name we pray. Amen.

Well, we’re looking at this little section here in between these two stories of rich men that Jesus has told in Luke chapter 16. For those of you who are visiting, we’re going through Luke’s Gospel, and we’re in the sixteenth chapter, and we dealt with each of these parables in turn: the story of the rich man which begins in verse 1 and then the story of the rich man which begins in verse 19. And we said that there was a small section to which we needed to come, and here we are at it now.

Sandwiched in between these two stories, we’re told by Luke of the reaction of the Pharisees to Jesus’ teaching and also, in turn, what Jesus said in response to their reaction. Despite the fact that Luke tells us in the opening verse that Jesus was addressing his disciples, it is clear that the Pharisees had remained within earshot. They certainly had heard enough of what Jesus was saying to conclude that they did not like what they’d been hearing. And as a result, their response is no longer disguised. They’re no longer, as in the beginning of chapter 15, muttering under their breath, but they’re actually “sneering” now. And it has developed from the kind of recalcitrance that you may find in a disgruntled teenager to the open and outright defiance which may then emerge from a life unchanged.

The Pharisees had never really come to terms with the fact that Jesus was, in their perspective, hanging always with the wrong crowd. They fully anticipated that if he really was the person he claimed to be, then he would always be with them in their little circle. They thought that he probably should have dressed like them, and he didn’t. They thought that he would’ve been engaged in the kind of activities with which they were most familiar, and by and large, he wasn’t. It would have been one thing if he’d been simply absent from their events, but what made it even worse was that he was spending time with people like toll collectors, who were notorious for fiddling the books. They were swindlers. He hung around with people who were open and defiant sinners. And it wasn’t unusual for him to be found attending a party in somebody’s house, and it just wasn’t the kind of party that you would expect a good religious boy to be going to. And so they were annoyed.

Back when he had called Levi—and it’s recorded in chapter 5—Levi had opened his home to many of his friends. Levi himself had been a tax collector, and Jesus had called him to himself, and Levi had got up and left everything and followed Jesus. And as a result of that, his commitment to Christ was so radical that he invited a whole host of his friends and neighbors back with him. Of course, the kind of people who were his friends and neighbors were all of these socio-undesirable types. And when it became apparent that Jesus had gone over to Levi’s house to eat, the question the Pharisees asked was simple: “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”[1] “How can you possibly be, Lord Jesus, an upholder of the law when you apparently violate it in relationship to separation so consistently and so openly?”

Jesus, of course, had told them a truth that they obviously didn’t care to really wrestle with. He said, “You know, it’s not the healthy people who need a doctor—rather, the sick. And if you think about it for a moment,” he said, “I haven’t come to call the righteous, but I came to call sinners to repentance.”[2] “I’m not here,” he said, “simply to make you religious types feel comfortable in your religion. I’m here to call those who realize that by dint of their own endeavors, they cannot make themselves known and acceptable to God. I’m here to call these kind of people.”

And, of course, when he finally hit their pocketbooks, that was the last straw. There is something about the Bible and money which gets to the core of the matter. I remember one of my friends who was being asked for guidance and counsel in a legal matter by another individual, who told the person, “I’ll be glad to see you, and please come and meet me at my office at such and such a time.” He was a member of the Christian Legal Society. And as the man was leaving, he said to him, “By the way,” he said, “bring your checkbook.” And so the man said, “I didn’t realize you charged.” And the gentleman said, “No, I do not charge, but I think if we go through your checkbook, we can find out exactly how your life is going.”

And, of course, that’s the fact. Our money will be expended as our time will be expended: on that which is a priority to us. And so, when the Pharisees heard Jesus give this instruction about money, the things he’d already said—you know, the rich fool was crazy because he put it all together for himself,[3] and Jesus had said, “This is what it is like when a man is rich towards himself but isn’t rich towards God.”[4] He most recently said, “You can’t worship at the shrine of money and worship at the shrine of God.” He said to these people who loved to put big parties together for all their friends and neighbors, he said, “If you really want to put a party together, put it together for the poor and the blind and the crippled.”[5] And, of course, nobody was inviting these individuals to their party. And so this, like a gigantic stone that was beginning to gather moss and roll towards them, was in danger of simply rolling right over these Pharisees. And so they sneered at him.

You know, when I find people sneering at the instruction of Jesus, it’s not my favorite response, but I like it better than “I’m going to sleep under the instruction of Jesus.” I’d rather deal with a sneering teenager than with a sleeping father, because at least the teenager is recognizing that the instruction of Jesus brings him or her to a crossroads. And the reason that the Pharisees were so set upon was because Jesus spoke in such categorical terms. It was clear that they either went Jesus’ way, or they went their own way; but they couldn’t go their own way and Jesus’ way simultaneously. And money—the use and abuse of wealth—was crystallizing this for these people, in the same way that it actually may crystallize it for some of us today. In fact, the melody line that is running through this extended section, if you were looking for what the recurring theme might be, then I think you can say that it is the matter of wealth and how the use and abuse of wealth indicate where a man or a woman is in relationship to the things of the kingdom of God.

Now, the irony that is expressed in the hostility here between the Pharisees and Jesus ought not to be missed by us. Because we read that “the Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.” Now, the reason they were sneering at Jesus is because they regarded Jesus and his disciples as a motley crew. They held far too loosely, as far as they were concerned, to the issues of the law of God. The table companions of Jesus did not meet, in their minds, the tests both for purity and for holiness. And so their beef against Jesus was that “this Jesus is setting aside the sacrosanct law of God.”

The use and abuse of wealth indicate where a man or a woman is in relationship to the things of the kingdom of God.

Now, here’s where the irony comes in. Because Jesus’ beef with the Pharisees is the exact same. He’s saying to them, “My concern with you characters is that by your fastidious commitment to the externals of the law, you’re actually missing the point, and you’re failing to keep the law in such a way that, understanding what Moses has said and what the prophets have conveyed, you would be concerned for the poor at your gate; you would recognize the obedience to the law would issue in a heart of compassion.” He might have said to them, as it were, offline, “That was the significance of the story of the good Samaritan that I told you. You remember when we concluded that we should love our neighbor as ourself, and one of you bright characters said, ‘Excuse me, who is my neighbor?’[6] Do you remember what I told you on that occasion?”

And, of course, they would recall:

A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his raiment, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance a Levite came down, looked at him, and kept moving. And a priest came down, had a look, and kept moving. And a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and he bound up his wounds, and he put him on his own donkey, and he brought him to an inn, and there he cared for him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two coins, and he gave them to the innkeeper, and he said, “This is in order to provide for this poor character, and if you happen to extend this budget, don’t worry about it, because when I come back, I will repay you.”[7]

Jesus says, “Did that penny drop?” And, of course, it made them squirm. It made them uncomfortable. Because what they were doing was a kind of hop, skip, and a jump through the law of God. They were taking the parts that they wanted, and they were rejecting the parts that hit them.

If the melody line is wealth, its use and abuse, then there is a kind of contrapuntal motion, a subcategory here, which introduces us to this question of the law of God. So you’ve got these two factors, and they’re being woven together. Of course, they’re woven perfectly together in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, because the problem with the rich man was that he did not listen to what Moses and the Prophets had to say, and he realized too late that he had ignored the teaching of the Law and the Prophets. If he had been really paying attention to what Moses and the Prophets said, then he would never have been able to drive his car past the poor man at his gate day after day.

So Jesus says to them, “Listen, guys: Don’t tell me that you are keeping the law of God unless your submission to the law of God reveals itself in a heart of compassion”—because the law of God, as we’re going to see again tonight in Ruth, has made provision for the poor. That is why the law of God determined, for those of you who are not in our evening studies, that when a man gleaned in a field, when the harvesters went through the field, they were not to pick up everything; they were to leave bits and pieces lying around. They were not to sweep up all the corners of the field. Why not? In order that the poor and the alien and the foreigners may be able to come behind and pick up for their own nourishment and well-being the provision[8]—if you like, the crumbs from the rich man’s table.

Now, if God has so revealed himself with a heart of compassion for those who are in such a predicament, then how can a man or a woman claim to be doing God’s thing while abusing those who are in need of his care? And so the Pharisees, instead of saying, “You got us,” began to protest and to sneer and to say, “You know what? This is a bunch of bunk.” And again I say to you: I’m quite glad when people say, “This is a bunch of bunk,” because at least they’re trying to process the information.

Now, there are three pointers I want to give you, and I’m going to spend very little time on each of them.

The Pharisees Exposed

First of all, I want you to notice that in this little section, the Pharisees are exposed. The Pharisees are exposed. Jesus in the previous parable, remember, in verse 9, said to his listeners, “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yoursel[f], so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”[9] And when we studied that, we realized that this ties in, of course, with this instruction for putting together a party list. If you put together a party list just for the people that can welcome you back to their house on the same level, what reward do you have in that?[10] He’s really dealt with that in Luke chapter 6: “If you love those who love you, what reward do you have? There’s no big deal.”[11] If you invite people to your home who can invite you back, there’s no big deal in that. You certainly shouldn’t be looking for a star or a flag or something to identify you as some special person. There’s nothing in that. So instead, use the resources that you’ve been given in order to gain friends for yourself.

That’s what the man fails to do in the second story. Instead of using the vastness of his resources to make a friend of the beggar at his gate, he ignores the beggar at his gate. And this was an expression of the Pharisees’ preoccupation with money. Instead of using their wealth to make friends, they used their friends to get wealth. Instead of using their wealth in order to provide for their eternal inheritance, they so focused on making a friend of money itself. Any concern they may have been tempted to show to the poor was quickly gobbled up in their interest in being seen in the right places and with the right people.

They would’ve been quite happy to ban, as others did in the late ’60s, one of the best lyrics ever written in a country-western song, by Ray Stevens, in his song “Mr. Businessman.” The Pharisees would have been glad to get this off the radio. They don’t want to be driving along in their carriage and listening to words like this:

Spending counterfeit incentive,
Wasting precious time and health,
[Spending] value on the worthless,
Disregarding priceless wealth,
You can wheel and deal the best of them
[And] steal it from the rest of them.
You know the score; their ethics are a bore. …

You [gotta] take care of business, Mr. Businessman.[12]

No, they don’t want to hear that stuff about “wasting precious time and health”—because, we’re told, the Pharisees “loved money.” And if you love money, whether you’ve got a wee drop or a big drop, you and I are in danger. Money is not the root of all evil, but “the love of money is the root of all evil.”[13] The distractions of this life and the anxieties about worry, as we saw in the parable of the sower early in our studies, are enough to choke out the maturing process in the lives of those who’ve decided they will follow hard after Christ.[14]

Now, there is no doubt that the Pharisees did what they had to do, and when they did what they had to do, they expected to be afforded all kinds of applause. And so when they gave alms, when they gave, in the process of the law’s requirements, their tithe, they made a great display of it. They wanted it not to be concealed. They wanted people to be able to say, “There’s old Mr. Levi, and I see he’s done a wonderful job of giving again to the Salvation Army this year. There’s Mr. So-and-So, and I see that his contributions to the public funds have gone up again. I noticed in the society papers that he has given something to his alma mater, to Northwestern University in Chicago.” They loved when all that kind of stuff happened. And that’s not wrong, to give. But if the motivation of our hearts is in order simply to receive the applause of men rather than is an expression of our gratitude of God, who has given us everything, including the ability to make money, then the whole thing is short-circuited, and we’re no better than the Pharisees here exposed.

Now, before I move to the next point, let me just say this: At first when I read this, I said, “Well, you know, the Pharisees are long ago and far away.” And then I said, “But what are the characteristics of these individuals?” Well, I looked at it again—just what we’re told here in verses 14 and 15. They are men who lived with a value system that was focused on the now rather than on the then. “Well,” I said, “that has a contemporary ring to it.” They were living with their focus on the now with little thought for the then. They were focused on the quest for man’s applause rather than God’s approval. “Well,” I said, “that kind of hits.” Indeed, they were public figures who got their jollies out of public approbation, and they were religious individuals who rejected the clear, incisive teaching of Jesus. “Oh,” I said, “well, this is very close to home. Clearly, the Pharisees are not as far away as I thought. Indeed, I think I saw one in the shaving mirror this morning.”

Parkside Church is populated in some measure by religious people who continue to reject the clear, incisive teaching of Jesus. You come, and you’re religious, but you determined that you are having a religion of your own contriving, of your own design. It’s a very contemporary idea: You can create your own course, you can create your own this, you can create your own that, so why can’t you just create your own little religion—put into it the things you like, remove from it the things you don’t like, and if there’s anything that’s particularly distasteful or may turn your life upside down, why don’t you just take that out immediately?

So people say, “Well, how are you?” Say, “Well, I’m religious, and I’m giving to the various things, and I go along routinely, because I have a segment in the portfolio of my life that is marked ‘Religion,’ and I need to do something with it. And so what I’ve decided to do with it is I spend an hour and ten minutes once a week taking care of the religious element of my life.” Well, your life has never been turned upside down. You reject the clear, incisive teaching of Jesus. You’ve never repented of your sins. You’ve never bowed down before him and asked him to save you. You’ve never stood up and followed him in the waters of baptism. You’ve never attached yourself to the family of a local church by identifying in membership. And really, there is no indication hardly at all in the course of your life that gives any indication why anybody should believe that your religion is anything other than some kind of arm’s-length deal. So the same exposé of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day exposes the Pharisees in our day.

You remember, Saul of Tarsus was a great Pharisee. He was proud of what a great Pharisee he was. And when did that change? Well, on the Damascus Road, when it suddenly dawned on him that this Jesus whom he had been persecuting was actually Lord and Christ. And brought to his knees before the Lord Jesus,[15] he cries out under his lordship, and his life is radically changed.

I hope nobody misunderstands what’s happening here at Parkside. It is our express concern to see unbelieving people (by nature we are unbelievers; we do not believe in God; we do not trust God; we do not seek God; any interest in God is God engendered)—to see unbelieving people become the committed followers of Jesus Christ; not to build a crowd wandering aimlessly in his track, not to put together a religious association, but just to see men and women take Jesus at his word. Have you taken Jesus at his word?

The Pharisees exposed.

The Law Affirmed

And then notice the law affirmed. The law affirmed. The Pharisees thought of themselves as the custodians of the law, and therefore, they regarded Jesus and his disciples as shaky with respect to its abiding significance and relevance. Jesus, knowing this, says, “I know that you think that perhaps because I let my disciples rub ears of corn out in the fields the other Sunday, that we are somehow or another setting aside the law of God.[16] I want you to know”—verse 17—“that you may disintegrate the totality of the universe with greater ease than you can remove the tiniest stroke of a pen out of the law of God. If you want to know whether I’m concerned about its purity and its exclusivity and its impact, understand this.” And the word that is used there is the word that would be used for one of the little horns that you find in Hebrew characters in writing, which it would be very easy for a scribe to miss. And Jesus said, “If you think I’m concerned about the law of God, I’m concerned down to the tiniest dot, jot, tittle, stroke of a pen.” And he said, “If you’ll hold your fire, I’m going to illustrate it for you in just a moment.”

Although a new era has begun, this does not mean that the revelation of God in the Old Testament, emblematically portrayed here as “the Law and the Prophets,” is to be set aside. People ask me all the time, “Then what are we to do with the Old Testament?” And the answer is: You are to read the Old Testament in light of the fact that God has made himself finally and savingly known in Jesus. The arrival of Jesus is a watershed event in the unfolding panorama of God’s purposes. And therefore, it is not that the Old Testament, the Law and Prophets, are somehow or another from a bygone era, and we can set them aside over in a room somewhere—perhaps put them in a glass case and say, “Oh, there were people who paid attention to the law of God, you know.” No. Rather, they are foundational to all of our discovery of who is this Suffering Servant who is to arrive.

That’s why we’ve said time and again, in the hope that the penny may drop for some, what we say to our children in Sunday school: that the way to understand the Bible is to keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Because in the Old Testament he is expected, in the Gospels he is revealed, in the Acts of the Apostles he is preached, in the Epistles he is explained, and in the book of Revelation he is anticipated. So when we come to an understanding of who Jesus is, the law is part and parcel of that process.

Let me illustrate it in this way. A few weeks ago now, I worshipped in another church far from here—at least a thousand miles from here, for those of you who are always trying to find out where it was. Actually, it was in Florida, but that’s as much as you’re getting. And in the course of the worship, apart from various things involving the large American flag tie, the gentleman, who was a well-meaning gentleman, did a credible job of explaining to the congregation and to me that—as part of the congregation—that God loved me. And then, on the strength of the fact that God loved me—which he tried to make as much of as he could—he then exhorted me to give my life to God in response to God’s love. And he explained that the extent of God’s love was so vast that Jesus died on a cross. I was sitting there thinking to myself, “Imagine that I wasn’t a believer, and I’m listening to this message. How am I supposed to put two and two together here and get four? How do I get from the fact of God’s love, the death of Jesus, to the fact that I’m supposed to give my life to him? There seems to be a missing link.” And there was.

You see, if Susan comes to me and she says, “Alistair, I love you with all my heart”—that’s my wife, for those of you who are concerned—but she comes and she says, “I love you with all my heart, and as a result of that, I’m going to jump off a ten-story building to the ground below to show you how much I love you,” I’d say, “Well what possible value would there be in that? That seems a strange way to express love.” But if she was to say, “I love you with all my heart, and your need is so vast, physically, that I’m prepared to give a very part of my life to you in order that for your potential death you may find in me all your life,” then I can say, “Well, I understand why you would give yourself away: because there is a need.” But until men and women are confronted with the law of God, which shows them to be sinners, the idea of a Savior dying on the cross doesn’t really make sense.

“What is he doing up there?”

“Well, he loves you.”

“Yeah, I understand that. But wasn’t there another way that he could’ve done this? Why die on a cross?”

“Because without the shedding of blood, there will be no remission of sin.”[17]

“Of what?”

“Of sin.”

“Like what?”

“Like stealing, lying, lusting, not loving God with all your heart, and so on.”

“Oh, you mean like breaking some of the Ten Commandments?”

“Yes!”

So the law of God is proclaimed to the well-heeled, middle-class suburbanite in Cleveland, who grades himself or herself on the curve. Driving in my car away from service, I say, “Well, I do have a few little things that probably need attention, but I looked along the row, and I saw old Billy-Boy there, and frankly, he is a disaster zone compared to me. So presumably, however he gets graded, I’m going to be okay, ’cause he’s going to bring it way down, and, you know, I’ll be somewhere. I’ll get through.”

No, you see, none of us can get past the first one: “You shall have no other gods before me.”[18]

Until men and women are confronted with the law of God, which shows them to be sinners, the idea of a Savior dying on the cross doesn’t really make sense.

Now, when I realize, then, that I have broken God’s law and that I cannot get myself in a right relationship with God by playing catch-up in my external religion, then I say, “How in the world do you get out of this predicament?” When a man or woman has reached the point where they say, “How do I get out of this predicament?” then they’re ready to hear about the fact that the love of God extended to the death of Jesus upon a cross, because it was by his death upon the cross that he bore the punishment for the sin that I deserved to bear, that he died in my place, that he took my penalty, and that the filthy rags of my rebellion are more than matched by the wonder of the robe of righteousness, which is a royal robe that I don’t deserve,[19] which he gives to me not because of anything in me but on account of his exceptional grace—thus removing from me any sense of self-aggrandizement. Suddenly, this individual says, “You know, I’m with the group over here. I’m with the sinners group.” Well, that’s good.

And incidentally when the law shows us our sin, sends us to Christ for salvation—and then Christ returns us to the law by the Holy Spirit to frame our lives, so that the law of God is now written on our hearts. It’s not an external to us that makes demands upon us that is out there, but it is something that we love from the inside.

And that’s the significance of the eighteenth verse. Why is there so much divorce in contemporary evangelical Christianity? In part, because of an absence of the preaching of the law of God. Why is there such an indication of idolatry in contemporary evangelical Christianity? In part because of an absence of the preaching of the law of God. The people are embracing a form of Christianity which is really a pseudo-Christianity, which says, “You know, all you have to do is believe in Jesus, and nothing else matters from there. Basically, all the bets are off. Everything can happen. You can do basically what you want. It’s not a good idea to do certain things, but there are no laws.” Whoever told you that was teaching from an empty head and a closed Bible. Yes there are. Is this Jesus or somebody else: “It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law”? Who told you there were no laws?

The Pharisees said, “You just are putting aside the law.” Jesus said, “No, no. In fact,” he said, “let me just use one illustration: Why don’t we talk about divorce?” Oh, you can imagine them running for the hills at that point! Do you think Jesus just picked it haphazardly? No, he picked it purposefully. Why? Because of all the fiddling with the law of God that the Pharisees had become adept at doing, they had done no greater despite to it than in this matter of marriage. And they’d become adept at creating a form of marriage which allowed the man out at his initiative for all kinds of reasons, so that in Hillel, it says that a man could get rid of his wife because she burned his dinner; in Akiva, that if a man found a prettier lady, then he can simply come and divorce his wife and go off with a pretty lady. In other words, it was just like contemporary society.

And what does Jesus say? He says, “Well, let me, first of all, place men and women on the same level with regard to adultery, and let me make the point about the abiding nature of the law of God with striking impact: Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery; the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

“Well,” says somebody, “isn’t there any exception to this? I read it somewhere in a book.” Well, yes. This is not all of Jesus’ instruction on marriage and divorce. But it is his instruction on marriage and divorce. And before we go running to 1 Corinthians for the departure of the unbelieving spouse,[20] or before we go running to Matthew chapter 19 for the exception clause of fornication,[21] why don’t we just allow the weight of this verse to lean heavily on our shoulders? Which is what Jesus is doing with these Pharisees.

“You come to me,” he says, “and you say that because I hang around with these publicans and tax collectors and sinners, you think that I’m violating the law of God. Are you kidding me? The whole purpose of the law of God is to show men their sin, and the reason for my arrival is to save men from their sin. You are the violators! If you doubt that, look at what you’re doing to the doctrine of marriage.”

And what Jesus is affirming is that God’s plan from creation is that marriage was intended to be a lifelong union, monogamously celebrated between a man and a woman—for better, for worse, and for richer, for poorer—and that he was not making provision for serial monogamy, so that you may, when you didn’t like this one, move to another one, and if you got tired of that one, then try another one. He was making no provision for that at all, but only on account of the hardness of their hearts did Moses accede to the desire for a bill of divorce.[22] God hates divorce.[23]

The Kingdom Proclaimed

Finally, “I’m exposing the Pharisees,” he says, “I’m affirming the law, and I’m preaching the kingdom.” “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John.” That doesn’t mean they stopped with John, but it means that when John stood on the stage of human history, as we saw back in chapter 3, there was a transition that took place. He was, if you like, the last of the Old Testament Prophets. He was there declaring the good news of the kingdom of God. He was the forerunner to what Jesus would then say as he quoted Isaiah in Luke chapter 4: “The Spirit of the Lord is now upon me. He has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[24] Jesus says, “The kingly rule of God has come. It’s come in me, and the invitation has gone out to men and women to become kids of the kingdom.” That’s the significance of verse 16b: “Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and”—notice—“everyone is forcing his way into it.” Oh, the Pharisees hated the word “everyone.” They wanted it only to be for the Jews. They didn’t like the idea that gentiles were coming in. And Jesus said, “No, you’re not going to be able to keep this to yourselves.”

It’s an enigmatic phrase, isn’t it (as we draw this to a close)? “Everyone is forcing his way into it.” Oh, the commentators have a wonderful time with this. You can stay up late on the night reading all the different views. If you laid them end to end, you couldn’t hardly reach a conclusion. Finally, I threw them all out, and I decided for myself that I think probably what it is—and it’s only what I think probably—is that we need to understand this in light of what Jesus had previously said: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”[25] “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”

In other words, you’re not just going to wake up one morning and be in the kingdom if you’re wishy-washy about it, you see. It demands earnestness. “If anybody would like to be my disciple…” Remember what Jesus said? “If you’d like to be my disciple, then you should take up your cross, you deny yourself, and take up your cross every day.”[26]

“Deny myself? I live for myself. No, I’m looking for a religion where I don’t deny myself. I’m looking for a religion where I please myself.”

“Oh, we have a religion like that! Yes, we have a version of that. Would you like this version? It’s the unbiblical, unchristian version, but it sounds as though it might suit you perfectly. You can do anything you want, with anyone you want, anytime you want, and believe anything you want.” It’s called Unitarianism, in one form.

There are young men and women here today, and you are not in the kingdom, because you have never barged your way in. You’re not earnest. You’ve never denied yourself. You’re flying on the wings of your dad. You’re buoyant on the craft of your parents. Wouldn’t you force your way into the kingdom? In fact, John Knox said, “All who will … press their way into it.”[27]

So, our time is gone. What of us? Do we wish, then, to stay with the religious status-seeking throng, rejecting the words of Jesus and, when they begin to sting, sneering and excluding ourselves from the kingdom? Or are we prepared to bow in the company of those who know themselves to be in need of a Savior?

The Pharisees were exposed. The law was affirmed. The kingdom was preached.

Father, we ask that your Word may take root in our lives today, that anything that is unhelpful or vague may either be forgotten or clarified. And I pray that there will be those who are ready to come and admit before you that they’re more sinful than they ever before realized, and yet they have discovered that they are more loved and accepted in Jesus than they ever dared dream[28]—that they may thank you for paying their debt, for bearing their punishment, for offering them forgiveness, and so that they might turn from their sin and receive all that you have to offer.

May the Lord bless us and keep us. May the Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us. May the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us and give us his peace, today and forevermore. Amen.

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[1] Luke 5:30 (NIV 1984).

[2] Luke 5:31–32 (paraphrased).

[3] See Luke 12:18–20.

[4] Luke 12:21 (paraphrased).

[5] Luke 14:13 (paraphrased).

[6] See Luke 10:25–29.

[7] Luke 10:.30–35 (paraphrased).

[8] See Leviticus 19:9–10; 23:22.

[9] Luke 16:9 (NIV 1984).

[10] See Luke 14:12–14.

[11] Luke 6:32 (paraphrased).

[12] Ray Stevens, “Mr. Businessman” (1968).

[13] 1 Timothy 6:10 (KJV).

[14] See Luke 8:14.

[15] See Acts 9:4–5.

[16] See Luke 6:1–5.

[17] See Hebrews 9:22.

[18] Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7 (NIV 1984).

[19] Jarrod Cooper, “King of Kings, Majesty” (1996).

[20] See 1 Corinthians 7:15.

[21] See Matthew 19:9.

[22] See Matthew 19:8.

[23] See Malachi 2:16.

[24] Luke 4:18–19 (paraphrased).

[25] Luke 13:24 (paraphrased).

[26] Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23 (paraphrased).

[27] Luke 16:16 (Knox).

[28] Attributed to Jack Miller. See, for example, Katherine Leary Alsdorf, foreword to Every Good Endeavor, by Tim Keller and Katherine Leary Alsdorf (New York: Penguin, 2012), xix. Paraphrased.