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Luke 18:1-19:10
! Introduction
When I was in high school, there was one person who was kind of my ideal.
The things that were valued by most people in the school were good looks, popularity, athletic ability, musical ability and good marks.
Some kids were goof offs, but had great athletic ability.
Some were good in music, but were not popular, but there was one guy in our class who had it all.
His girl friend was one of the prettiest girls in the class, he was a starter on the basketball team, he played in a band, he got good marks and was liked by everyone.
Since I have become a pastor, I have often wished I could be like the pastors who are super successful.
Pastors whose churches grow rapidly, who preach exciting sermons and to whom people come for counselling and are able to give wise and gentle advice.
We admire strength, ability, competence and success.
On the other hand, we look down on those who are at the opposite end of the scale.
Our first church was a store front church in The Pas.
One of the things we did was offer coffee and cup-a-soup to people who came into the store.
We ran a kind of drop in center.
Most of the people who dropped in were alcoholics and I have to admit that I did not always care for them.
Sometimes they became a nuisance.
Especially when they came in quite drunk and I had to ask them to leave or force them to leave.
It was hard to look positively on them.
In one of the churches we had a lady attend who was really needy.
She didn’t have a job and found it hard to keep one.
She had been in a series of poor relationships and at the time we knew her, she was separated from her husband.
She had trouble making ends meet.
Some of the people of the church helped her financially, with counselling and in other ways.
It was hard to keep on helping her.
It became tiresome and some wondered why she couldn’t begin to get her act together.
These are the values we often have.
We admire strength in others and present our best features to other people, we question weakness and hide our own weaknesses from others so people don’t know we have them.
Are those the same values God has?
How does he look at people?
What does he want of us ability or need?
!
I. Stories From Luke
There are six stories in Luke that help us understand what God wants of us.
!! A. The Persistent Widow 18:1-8
The first is an illustration which Jesus told his disciples.
It seems there was a judge who was no respecter of persons.
He had no concern to do what God wanted nor did he care what people wanted.
He handed out justice according to what he wanted.
A certain widow, who had a claim on justice in the sight of God but who was weak before men, came before this judge to plead for justice against some kind of an adversary.
The judge had no inclination to do the morally right thing because he did not fear God.
He had no inclination to do justice on the human plain because the woman could not pay him anything to help him make up his mind.
Yet, Jesus says, eventually the judge relented because he did not want to be bothered with her constant complaints.
The point of the story is to tell us that God is not like that at all.
God is a judge who hears the requests of his people and is certain to respond to them.
!! B. The Pharisee and the Tax Collector 18:9-14
In another story, Jesus tells about two men who went to the temple to pray.
One of them was a Pharisee.
He knew that he was pretty good.
He had observed the law carefully and expected, because of his strength of spiritual character, that God was quite pleased with him.
Not only did he meet the expectations of the religious community, he exceeded them.
Fasting was expected twice a year, but he fasted twice a week.
Tithing was expected of some income, but he tithed out of all his income.
The other man, the tax collector, had come to realize that he was a nobody.
He had nothing with which to come to God.
All agreed that tax collectors could not be trusted, that they were greedy, grasping, dishonest men.
He accepted everyone’s judgement of him and knew that he was not a good man.
The Pharisee prayed out of his strength rejoicing before God at his goodness.
The tax collector prayed out of his deep need and humbly asked God for mercy.
!! C. The Little Children 18:15-17
One day as Jesus was teaching, parents began to bring their children to him so that he could bless them.
The disciples saw the important things that Jesus was doing and chased the parents away.
In the social scheme of things, men were of first importance, women second and children third.
If Jesus was teaching men, children were in the way.
But Jesus did not have that perspective.
He welcomed the children and invited them to come to Him and experience blessing from Him.
!! D. The Rich Ruler 18:18-30
A certain rich ruler was keenly interested in eternal life.
He came to ask Jesus how one could gain it.
Jesus pointed to the second part of the ten commandments and quoted four of these commandments.
The rich ruler was pretty confident that he had satisfied all of these requirements, but had a sense that that was not enough.
Then Jesus pointed to the heart of the matter for this man.
He was a man who depended on his wealth, which was substantial.
He did not follow Jesus because he was not prepared to give up all that he had.
Jesus concluded by saying that it is hard for a rich man to get into the kingdom of God.
He indicated that it is “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
When we read this, we need to read it at face value.
Jesus was talking about a real camel and the eye of a real needle.
What he was describing was an impossibility.
When the disciples heard this, they were affirmed by Jesus because they had left everything to follow Him.
!! E. The Blind Beggar 18:35-43
In the next story, Jesus is being yelled at by a man who cannot see him, but has been told that Jesus is walking by.
With insistence and persistence, in spite of the shushing of the crowd, the man screams out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Jesus agreed to meet with him and as a result of this meeting, healed him of his blindness.
!! F. Zacchaeus 19:1-10
The last story in this series is the familiar story of Zacchaeus.
Here was a man who was more than a celebrity hound.
He wanted to meet Jesus for good reason and that was because he needed His help.
In a curious way, he made sure that he had a good view of Him by climbing a tree.
As a result, Zacchaeus had supper with Jesus and Jesus concluded, “Today salvation has come to this house.”
What is the common thread in all these stories?
When we had sharing during the Tuesday evening deeper life meeting, Levi Kornelsen started his testimony by admitting that he was a needy man.
That is the common thread in each of these stories as well.
The widow, economically and socially weak, is an illustration of one who is helped because she asked for help.
The tax collector who came in humility and need went home justified rather than the Pharisee who came in his strength and goodness.
The children are welcomed and lifted up as a model of those whom Jesus receives.
The rich ruler walked away empty because he had so much that he did not need God, whereas the disciples who had given up everything to follow Jesus are promised blessing both now and in eternity.
The blind beggar came blind and begging and received sight because he knew that he needed help.
Zacchaeus came with deep spiritual poverty and humbling himself before the Lord He received forgiveness.
This is the principle of the Bible from beginning to end.
It is those who need God, who seek Him, rather than those who are strong and able who receive blessing and help from God.
!
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