Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple…. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions. Luke 14:25-26, 33 NRSV
So Jesus is walking and crowds are following him to hear what he has to say and I suspect hoping to see a miracle or two.
A disciple is a follower, one who walks behind or sits at the feet of the teacher. Why the hyperbole? I wonder if the clue is in the crowds; were there those jostling to be at the front? Was this Jesus restating the parable of the dinner guests vying for top table place? This is where the story appears in the gospel of Luke so that is possibly true… you may be elbowing others to be at the front, but being my disciple carries a cost.
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. Luke 14:1 NRSV
Well to begin with Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. Something from last week he was want to do. But this time Jesus then focuses on the guests’ lack of humility taking the best seats and chastises them,
For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 14:11 NRSV
And further he employs hyperbole to hammer home that the Sabbath is a time for the people of God to practice radical hospitality,
He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Luke 14:12-13 NRSV
Jeremiah writes of the people of Israel who had forgotten their history, their need, their salvation; whose heritage was the Sabbath,
I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. Jeremiah 2:7 NRSV https://bible.com/bible/2016/jer.2.7.NRSV
And the writer of the Hebrews writes,
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Hebrews 13:16 NRSV
As I read it we are called to radically share our abundance, be humble and as I have written accept those on the margins to the table; a recurrent theme.
By the way there are lots of ways to do good…
The Cadaver volunteers practicing with their dogs at the balance pools in Takeley. Nice bright red shirts emblazoned with Cadaver! Sunday morning?
And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” Luke 13:16 NRSV
Jesus saw a lady bent double, who had been so for 18 years. Without her asking, he healed her and she immediately stood straight and praised God. All the synagog leader could think though was this should not have been done on the Sabbath.
That is the way the faithful servant of God saw things, the revelation he had, God ordained, central to the utterances of God to Moses; a practice that identified the faithful being forgotten.
In the story we see the compassion and generosity of Jesus. We see how God views the ordinances of Moses. We see the failing of a system and the importance of people and that, all that is of God is only good.
The challenge to our hearts might be to ask, what are we faithfully following, which maybe God revealled to us, that is keeping people away from Jesus, bent double and afflicted?
Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. Isaiah 5:1-2 NRSV
Knowing Jesus, tasting and seeing the fruits of his planting, is a joy. If it tastes bitter then it probably is.
Grapes growing outside my back door.
Jesus has called us to discern, let our yes be yes and no be no and pledge only allegiance to him. Any church government that does not embody the hierarchy of the Spirit and how the Spirit is, as the wind and the voice that speaks in the heart, the vineyard of the beloved, is not Christian, is corrupt.
This prophecy was for then and is for now, especially if we believe our selves to be the heirs of Israel.
Levels of authority and models that look more like a corporation, demanding oaths and pledges to doctrines, persons or systems, are not Christian. Though Christ may choose to use them as he would a donkey, churches need to remember that they are as clanging cymbals without love. The gifts are not for status, and the building is the people.
If this sounds a bit reactionary, we’ll it’s what Jesus taught.
Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life and nobody comes to the Father except through him. Jesus is the Word made flesh, the Word that enlightens all and divides Luke 12:49-56.
There is that of God in every person, as George Fox learnt; this I believe is the light that reveals Jesus and brings life not by the power of man but of God. Read the Bible and let God speak. Be still, rest in the peace that is the gift of Jesus, and let God speak. Trust in the faithfulness of God in the promise of Jesus, to yield fruitfulness.
Recognise that what the Bible says of Jesus helps us discern the voice of God in the scriptures, tradition and nature. What Jesus speaks in our hearts will not demand that we hate or do less than love even our enemies. If it doesn’t sound like Jesus, even in the scriptures, then let Jesus speak, the Jesus you know, who says to you,
“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:33-37 NRSV)
We know good fruit when we see it. A good tree bears good fruit. Discern the tree and reject man made hierarchies for Christ’s sake. There is only one hierarchy, one sacred rule in the church, love.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 NRSV
Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:33-34 NRSV
There is a demand in the scriptures. Faith, like grace is not easy; keeping us safe from the ravages of religion but also the weapons of the religious exciting judgement.
Grace is a gift from God and faith trusts God’s faithfulness to exercise grace as we falter in godliness. Each we recieve from God to return to God in what we do and say.
When we feel far away from the ideal, we are reassured that in works of thankfulness, hospitality and generosity, God works in us and through us. Through these works we deepen our knowledge of God. Freely recieved they are freely given.
Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Isaiah 1:18 NRSV
Takeley Chapel 