Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Jesus's verbal spars with the religious leaders always leave the religious leaders at a loss. It was no small insult to relay the parable of the tenants as well, since the religious leaders stood in defiance of those whom God sent to correct them, a parallel that would have been hard to miss in this story.

Jesus takes up a heavily prophetic role in this passage: for starters, he rides into Jerusalem on the back of a colt, almost ridiculing the practice of riding on large war horses in victory. Once he reaches the strong edifice of the city, he again works in irony, predicting that it would soon be torn down (and that is exactly what happened). All in all, if you're trying to look like a big shot, this was a major failure. Luckily, Jesus had something other than his own ego in mind: he was about bringing the Kingdom of God.

Jesus now uses money as a parable, as an example of faithfulness and faithlessness. (Be careful, money isn’t the main point!) God has established a covenant with his people through Abraham to call them his own, but that people were supposed to bless the other nations of earth. This is like the money gained by the faithful servants: God never intended his people to take the blessing and sit on it, but to pass it along.

“Lord have mercy” is a great prayer. It’s woven through both of these passages. The man who is healed asks for it directly, and Zacchaeus asks for it indirectly. The blind man has nothing to give back other than discipleship, which is a fitting response. Zacchaeus, on the other hand, receives mercy and immediately gives it back. This is a great opposite for yesterday’s passage about the rich man who couldn’t lay aside his riches.

Jesus flips the definition of “good” upside down even as he seems to shy away from the definition for himself. Pharisees and the wealthy would have certainly been highly respected in that time and place, and to say that they were less than perfect must have caused a bit of a stir. Jesus, of course, didn’t come to pat everyone on the back and assure them they were doing a good job. He came to give us the picture of a better Kingdom.

Why should anyone have been looking for more than the Jesus before them? Nonetheless, Jesus is not only the man that was among them. He will come again, and his coming will look very different. The best policy? Keep looking for him, because the Spirit remains among us.

The Kingdom Jesus brings is about give and take. None of us should only do one of those things, and we must also be careful not to live as we did before we became aware of what Jesus brings. Things will still come and cause us to stumble, but we cannot make ourselves the cause of someone else stumbling. To endure as a community in Christ, we must encourage one another and also forgive.

There is a lot to unpack in Jesus’s stories in this passage from Luke, and coming up with a single thread that runs between them might be a bit difficult. Both the passage on divorce and the story of the rich man and Lazarus point to a need to protect the vulnerable. Jewish law allowed men the right to divorce their wives, but not women their husbands. This put women in a vulnerable position, and Jesus would have certainly been an advocate for the vulnerable. So also with the story of the rich man, where Jesus once again spares no rebuke for the powerful: enjoy your riches here, but do not overlook the poor.

The story of the prodigal is probably one of the most-used parables for preachers delivering sermons. The picture is so poignant: a wayward son, taking more than he should, coming home to a father who accepts him with open arms. Pastor and author Tim Keller has an interesting take on this story, though. The word "prodigal," according to Keller has more a meaning of one who recklessly gives away money. In that case, the meaning might just as easily be assigned to the father. And of course this is accurate for who God is: lavishing his best on his children, true to his word, and always more full of love than we can imagine.

The word “hate” in terms of family shouldn’t be taken as a visceral loathing of your mother and father. Obviously, a God of Love doesn’t operate like that and wouldn’t ask us to. Instead, this is an escalated challenge to any who would follow Jesus: he comes first. Not even earthly family should come first. Of course, it’s even better for an entire family to follow Jesus together.