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Palm Sunday - Luke 18
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Jesus is saying that if an unjust judge can be pestered into giving you what you need, then how much more would an unjust God extend grace where it doesn't belong? Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 1:Today is Palm Sunday though. And if we haven't met, my name is Jeremy. I'm part of the team here at Commons. But we have just finished up our Lenten series on the parables of grace. Now we're actually sticking with parables right through Holy Week, but I do want to look back at where we've been so far.
Speaker 1:Because every year during Lent, we try to pick a series that we think might help us prepare well for Easter. And this year, it was a focus on the stories of grace. And grace is one of those words that I feel like can't be used enough, and yet at the same time, sometimes I worry will become too comfortable. Because the way that Jesus talks about grace is scandalous. In fact, that's the point of grace.
Speaker 1:It's shocking and subversive and transformative, and this is why I think Jesus tells stories about grace. Because if the arc of history bends toward justice, then it's inevitable that any one example of grace will eventually become normal. What once was scandalous becomes ordinary, and then grace pushes us to see where we can be scandalized all over again. So examples get fixed in time, but stories, they have a way of enduring. That's what makes parables so powerful.
Speaker 1:They are eternal. As I said on Twitter this week, every word of every parable is true, especially the bits that are made up. This is one of the things that I hope you get from our approach to the Bible at Commons. Facts and history and context are vitally important, but actually learning to read with an open heart. And with fresh eyes and with creative intention, this is what enable us to mind the most from these gifts that Jesus offers to us.
Speaker 1:And so there are many layers and levels and possibilities to the parables. And even when we think we get them, we can still spend a lifetime turning them over in our minds. And that's actually exactly what I want to call back to from last week. Because last week, we looked at the story of a mustard seed, a well known parable, but one of the things we did was look at the particular social context that Jesus is speaking into. The way that that story calls back to the Hebrew scriptures.
Speaker 1:To connect the image of a mustard plant, a scrubby scraggly bush with the national image of a grand cedar. And what's fascinating here is that if you are just one of the crowd, perhaps an uneducated subsistence farmer come to hear Jesus or maybe to find healing, and what you hear is a beautiful story about how the grace of God begins small and grows uncontrollably. You hear a story about how God welcomes you in and provides a shelter, a story about how just how deeply loved you are. And yet, if you are one of the religious leaders, if you are steeped in the imagery of the Hebrew scriptures, then you are absolutely aware of the illusions that Jesus is making. Because if you are one of those people trying to shoo others away and ensure that the kingdom remains respectable, then what you hear is something very different.
Speaker 1:Because in that same story, you are confronted by a Jesus who upends your expectations of kingdom and challenges the boundaries that you put around it, that pushes you to see a kingdom that was never yours to control to begin with. The grace that will show up wherever it wants, welcoming whoever it wants, regardless of whether you or anyone else approve. That's what makes Jesus so brilliant. That his message is at once simple enough for a child to grasp, and yet at the same time complex enough for nerdy religious scholars like me to debate for centuries. And so today, we have a new parable, but also one that moves us toward Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Speaker 1:So let's pray, and then we'll dive in together. Lord, who enters our lives, often from left field in ways that we are completely unprepared for. Might we notice you with us this day in palm crosses, in children's faces, in moments of grace extended between strangers. In a thousand ways, may we see you with us leading in quiet confidence, humble on a donkey in grace and peace amidst a world that clamors for volume and strength and power. As we return to your parables today, and as we rehearse your entry this morning, as we approach your final steps toward your cross, would you awaken us to the truth and beauty of your life?
Speaker 1:Not simply that you came, but how and why and for whom you were willing to give your life away. Might we now be inspired to follow those steps in humble service to all we encounter with grace and peace and confidence that you are our God, humble on a donkey in grace and peace. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen. Okay.
Speaker 1:Today, we have some good stories. Lightning bolts, how much more than, and one final parable. But a quick story to start. My son and I pulled out our trampoline this past week. And look, I know they can be dangerous, and every nurse I know told me that this was a bad idea.
Speaker 1:But come on, times have changed. And now we've got nets and padding, and I'm sure he'll be fine. But let's be honest here, this is the best investment we have ever made as parents, because he loves this thing, and it's a better babysitter than an iPad. But last week, we set it up after the winter, and we were going out to play on the trampoline. And he turns to me and he says, okay.
Speaker 1:In this game, I am Iron Man, and I have repulsor beams, and they do 4,500,000,000 damage. And you are Captain America, and you can throw your shield. And I said, okay. Captain America's pretty cool. How much damage does my shield do?
Speaker 1:And he looks at me, and he pauses, and he says, four. 4,500,000,000 versus four. And so I said, I think you're underestimating Steve Rogers a bit. And he said, well that's because in this game, you're the bad guy. I said, fair enough, but I think you're in for a surprise because this bad guy is going to teach you a lesson in equitable power distribution, and then I attacked him.
Speaker 1:This week, we have got a parable from Jesus where he wants us to learn from the bad guy, and sometimes as my son learned that day, the bad guy has actually something to teach all of us. So let's look at what Jesus says here in Luke chapter 18. Now, this is Luke 18 starting in verse two, and we don't have the words on the screens today because they're obstructed, but there are bibles in the pews, and you can always look it up on your phone. Biblegateway.com is a great resource. Luke 18 verse two starts this way.
Speaker 1:In a certain town, there was a judge. And a quick note here, in Greek, what it actually says here is in a certain town, there was a certain judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And I know why the NIV has streamlined that a bit. It's redundant, except that it's not. Jesus isn't trying to be efficient here.
Speaker 1:He's trying to tell a good story. And this opening line lets you know that you're about to hear something like a fairy tale. Once upon a time there was a certain judge who lived in a certain town. He cared not for what God or people thought. And I think sometimes we forget what a good storyteller Jesus really was.
Speaker 1:I mean, yes, of course, Jesus wants to say something about the divine, but Jesus seems to know that first he needs to get our attention. And here's what I would say about that. Sometimes, I think we have this tendency to imagine that if God wanted to say something to us, it would come at the end of a lightning bolt. And yet often I find the divine voice comes instead at the end of what you're interested in. So when something grabs your attention, when a story gets you, when a movie grips you, when a song strikes a chord with you, or when some idea gets a hold of you and won't let you go, then maybe that's something you should pay attention to.
Speaker 1:Because sometimes God is sneaky like that, and sometimes a good story is more than just a story. But notice here that Jesus has obviously never been to seminary. Because as great as this story is, notice that God is compared to the bad guy. And I went to seminary and I was taught you never make God the villain in your sermon. That's rule number one.
Speaker 1:But thankfully, Jesus doesn't have to play by the rules that I was taught. Because not only does Jesus compare God to the villain, God compares God to a guy who doesn't believe in God. I mean, how meta is that for the opening line in a parable? But this is another good point about parables because parables make a point, they do not make all the points. And so it is important to recognize that every parable breaks down eventually if you stretch it too far.
Speaker 1:So is there some way that God is like an unjust judge? Yes. I think there is. Does that mean that God doesn't care about people? Well, no.
Speaker 1:Of course not. So we have to see how the story unfolds. It says a certain judge in a certain town cared not for God or people, but there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea. Grant me justice against my adversary, she said. For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself, even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually come and attack me.
Speaker 1:Now, this is kind of lost in the translation here, but this is meant to be funny. A judge is one of the most powerful people around in the ancient world. A widow, the complete opposite. And the term that Jesus uses, literally means to wear out, but it's actually a term that comes from the boxing world. Paul uses it and there it gets translated pummel.
Speaker 1:The image here is supposed to be this little old lady cornering the judge in a dark alley somewhere and just wearing him out with body shots until he gives her what she wants. And you're meant to laugh at least a little. It's okay. But then the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?
Speaker 1:Will God keep putting them off? No. I tell you, God will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? And this is a really tricky little parable because it starts with an unjust judge, it moves toward a compassionate God, and then it ends with a question about Jesus.
Speaker 1:And so we need to look at each of these stages and how they flow one from the next and how I think they launch us along with Jesus toward Jerusalem in the next chapter. So, let's go back to the unjust judge. Because I think probably the easiest way to understand this parable is similar to what we saw in the unhelpful friend. If you remember that parable from two weeks ago, Jesus talks about a friend that won't get out of bed to help you in the middle of the night. But then he says that even though he won't get up to help you because of friendship, he will because of your audacity.
Speaker 1:I think the best interpretation there is that Jesus is actually making a contrast between your friend and your God. A friend may or may not respond to you based on how close you are, but God is different. God responds not because of how well you know God but simply because you stand there unashamed to need help. And here a lot of us see the same kind of contrast. An unjust judge may finally give in to give you what you need, but God is not like that.
Speaker 1:Because God doesn't need to be pestered or pummeled. God doesn't need to be badgered. God is already always on your side. I think that's right. I think this parable actually reinforces how we read that parable.
Speaker 1:But there is another layer here. Because I'm fascinated by the way that Jesus brings judgment and grace together in this story. In judgment and grace are ideas that often seem diametrically opposed in our minds, and yet they are also ideas that we often simultaneously associate with the divine in our minds. And sometimes that creates some cognitive dissonance for us. Can God actually be graceful and judgmental at the same time?
Speaker 1:And I think what Jesus is saying is no. At least not if what we're picturing in our minds is an unbiased judge who carefully weighs the merits of our case and renders us an impartial decision because if that's judgment, that's not God. You see, this parable is structured in a rhetorical style known as how much more than. And Jesus uses this a lot. It was a very common form of argumentation in the ancient world.
Speaker 1:The basic idea was to give an example of something that we can obviously all agree to and then say, well, how much more true would that be if we were talking about God? And here Jesus gives an example of a judge that we expect to be fair and impartial but who isn't. And at first we don't like that. It seems unfair. I mean, why won't he listen to this poor widow?
Speaker 1:But then all the story and the story flips. And the judge decides he wants to respond to this woman. Now granted it's because he's annoyed and potentially afraid of being pummeled in a dark alley by an old lady, but still, He never becomes a just judge. In fact, he doesn't even listen to her case. He just simply decides to stop judging and extend unmerited grace.
Speaker 1:Now listen to what the unjust judge says, Jesus adds. And will not God bring about justice for the chosen ones, those who cry out day and night? Will God keep putting them off? I tell you, they will see the justice they need and quickly. So the how much more than here is not about the righteousness of the judgment, it's about the rapidness of the response.
Speaker 1:In other words, Jesus is saying that if an unjust judge can be pestered into giving you what you need, then how much more would an unjust God extend grace where it doesn't belong? Jesus' argument here is actually that God is the ultimate unjust judge who cares nothing about our cases or arguments and responds only with grace and quickly. In fact, what I think Jesus is saying is that God's image of justice looks radically different than ours. And if that's what he's getting at, then all of a sudden this final question, however, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Well, then that finally starts to make some sense to me.
Speaker 1:Now, without getting too far into the weeds, this is a line that most scholars are really confused by because it does seem at least a little bit disconnected from the parable that precedes it. And so I'll read a section from John Nolan who is a very well noted Lucan scholar. He says that despite some elaborate defenses of the place of the second half of verse eight in the original parable from Jesus, There is a broad consensus that this is a Lucan edition, possibly on the basis of a detached saying of Jesus from somewhere else. While there is no difficulty unifying the thought of the saying with Jesus, these new and unprepared for ideas make it quite unlikely that this saying formed any original unity with the preceding parable. Now all he's saying is here is that he thinks, along with what he calls a broad consensus of scholars, that the writer of Luke has simply taken two different sayings of Jesus and mashed them together.
Speaker 1:That may be true. But I've been thinking about this parable for a long time in the light of Palm Sunday. Because you see, in the very next chapter of Luke, we see the image of Jesus entry into Jerusalem. And there Luke says that they brought a colt to Jesus. They threw their cloaks on it and put Jesus on it.
Speaker 1:And as he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road before him. When he came near to the place where the road goes down to the Mount Of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory to the highest. Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, teacher, rebuke your disciples.
Speaker 1:But he said, I tell you, if they keep quiet and even the stones will cry out. And yet as he approached the city of Jerusalem and saw it, he began to weep over it. And he said, if you, even you, had only known on this day what had come to bring you peace, but now it has been hidden from your eyes. And the days will come when your enemies will build an embankment against you, encircle you, and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground and they will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.
Speaker 1:However, will the son of man find faith on the earth when he comes? See, we've talked about the politics of Palm Sunday before. And we're in election season in Alberta right now, but our attack ads have got nothing on ancient Rome. Because this image of Jesus entry into Jerusalem, his path to Good Friday, this is as political as it gets. See palm branches were a sign of national sovereignty in Israel.
Speaker 1:And the image of a king on a donkey, that was drawn from the Hebrew story about a conquering king returning. And the songs that they shouted, Hosanna, that means God save us now. And in the decades before Jesus, that had become a political slogan aimed at the Empire of Rome who occupied Palestine. And Palm Sunday is really the image of a crowd, a mob that thinks that Jesus is coming to face down Caesar for them. To conquer their enemies, to put his boot on the throat of Rome, and bring justice to Israel.
Speaker 1:But remember, Jesus believes in a different kind of judge. One who is fundamentally unjust. One who extends grace. One who doesn't care about cases and arguments. One who forgives sins.
Speaker 1:One who welcomes even enemies to tables. And one who is coming soon. But the truth is, a judge like that is a really hard one to get behind. And so only a chapter earlier, Jesus asked, I tell you, God will respond soon, but when the son of man comes, will he find faith? And the answer is of course, no.
Speaker 1:At least not faith in the way of Jesus. Not faith in an unjust judge who grants mercy and grace wherever he goes. No. What Jesus found was faith in violence and war. And that was of course a misplaced faith because the truth was the Jews were no match for Rome.
Speaker 1:And so less than a generation after Jesus' death, the Jews do rise up against their oppressors. They take up arms and everything that made Jesus weep comes to pass as they get put down hard. Jesus says, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you, because the son of man did not find faith in the way of grace and peace. The alternative is war. And the Talmud records that when the Jews finally did start a war with Rome and the Romans finally did enter the city, they slaughtered everyone.
Speaker 1:Talmud says that the blood flowed from the doorways and the sewers, that rivers of blood lifted rocks and washed them into the sea. And it's terrible and it's horrific and it's graphic but that's the point because when you want war you get war and war is hell. Luke tells us that Jesus wonders if he will find faith on the earth and he weeps over the city when he realizes that he won't. Because he knows that all of our concepts of justice are fundamentally flawed until we encounter an unjust judge. Who gives God's self freely even to God's enemies.
Speaker 1:Who offers God's self to us as a gift we don't deserve. Who rejects our appeals to impartiality and retribution and instead offers grace and peace to the world. You see, think Jesus parable of the unjust judge is absolutely connected to the question of whether he will find faith on the earth because I think Jesus is telling us that God is not who we think God is. And it's this holy week when Jesus will then put everything on the line to see if we really get it. Because that is the power of Easter.
Speaker 1:All through his life, Jesus tells parable after parable to open our eyes to this new imagination of God. A worthless, terrible shepherd who would risk an entire flock to demonstrate the absurdity of grace. The God who leaves everything behind to find just one. A true neighbor, a good Samaritan, one who refuses labels and crosses barriers, one who sees all as worthy of care and compassion. A good king who forgives debt but also knows that grace really only matters when it changes something inside of us.
Speaker 1:An unhelpful friend who shows us what God is really like, not calculating or measuring, never keeping score, but simply waiting for us to show up in the middle of the night with an empty hand. Mustard plant that grows and invites the outsider, that provides shelter for those we don't want, that grows uncontrollably anyway, all of that leading to an unjust judge Who points us to an even more unjust God. Who refuses to hear our case or listen to our argument and instead simply extends grace to us. Who offers welcome regardless of whether we've earned it. Who thinks that even our enemies like Rome are worthy of compassion.
Speaker 1:And so today, we begin now to enter the final parable of Jesus. Where Jesus will say that God is more than a good shepherd, more than just an unjust judge. God is like someone who gives their life for another. God is like someone who is scapegoated and blamed for all the problems in the earth. God is like someone who sees the way of peace and is crucified for it.
Speaker 1:God is like someone who gives their life so that everyone else might see what's really happening. God is like someone who would take all of our hatred, all of our violence, and forgive it anyway. See, God is the ultimate unjust judge because Jesus is the ultimate expression of the grace that none of us deserve. And so on this Palm Sunday as we rehearse Jesus entry into Jerusalem five days before his death and eight before his resurrection, may you encounter an unjust God who loves you always, Who forgives you anyways. Who welcomes you in all the ways.
Speaker 1:On this Palm Sunday, may grace and peace replace vengeance and retribution in our minds. May justice find a new voice somewhere inside of us. And may each of us in some way take new steps in the way of Jesus this holy week. Let's pray. Gracious God, for all the ways that we have misinterpreted you and misrepresented you, for the ways that we have thought that you are like us and that the best you could be is impartial and exacting, Might we recognize in the parables of Jesus a completely new imagination of the divine.
Speaker 1:That you are not just the way that we imagine, but you are graceful. That you are forgiving, that you are welcoming, that you are loving always to the very end. That in your grace, you have extended to us the option, the invitation to move towards you, To have that sink somewhere deep inside of us and for it to change who we are and how we move through the world. May grace and peace. May the humility of a king on a donkey become the narrative through which we encounter our world.
Speaker 1:May vengeance and retribution give way to the grace and peace we are called to extend to everyone around us. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen.