Celebrating Forgiveness

T his week's lesson continues the study in Luke, Luke 15:1-32 (with some deletions.) Last week, Jesus was teaching us about prayer. This week about compassion, forgiveness and self-righteousness. In last week's note, we looked at a little about the Book of Luke; this week, a little more detail about the book will help enlighten the words.

The great Dispensationalist, Dr. Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Chairman of the Department of Systematic Theology at Dallas Seminary outlines Luke for us. The mere outline is quite instructive because it lays out where Luke believes Jesus was going with His life, ministry and mission. Ryrie tells us that Luke's theme is to show the humanity of Jesus, the Son of Man. As I stated last week, Luke's interest in the human may well be related to his caring nature as a physician, the Beloved Physician, and to his artistic nature.

Ryrie outlines the Book, in para materia:
1.Method and Purpose of the Book
2.The Identification of the Son of Man with Men (1:5 - 4:13)
3.The ministry of the Son of Man to Men (4:14 - 9:50)
4.The Repudiation of the Son of Man by Men (9:1 - 19:27)
5.The Condemnation of the Son of Man by Men (19:28 - 23:56)
6.The vindication of the Son of Man before Men (24:1-53.)

Today's session is right in the middle of Section 4, the Repudiation. In this section, we see Jesus systematically rejected by various groups including the Scribes and the Pharisees. Then we come to a subset of Dr. Ryrie's outline at 12:1 - 19:27, entitled: "Instruction in light of rejection," ie. how the followers should behave while being rejected. In this subsection are found Jesus teachings, sometimes via parables, on hypocracy, covetousness, faithfulness, repentance, hypocracy (again,) forgiveness and several others.Luke tells us that Jesus was the Son of God, but also a man: that He ministered to men but was rejected by the very men to whom He ministered, rejected unto death; but that ultimately He andHis Message are vindicated as He arises from the grave as He said He would do.

Throughout the repudiation period, the leaders of the repudiation were the leaders of the Jewish people, the Scribes and the Pharasees.The Scribes were a professional class of men, a learned group schooled in the Law of Moses, the Torah and the Talmud, which amounted to the "regs." as we bureaucrats would say, developed during the period of the Babylonian captivity in the Fifth Century B.C. It was their job to know the law, every *"jot" and "tittle," and to interpret it strictly. They worked closely with the priests and thus exercised great political authority over the people.

Likewise the Pharisees had great sway over the people. They were a group that began to develop in the captivity but grew afterwards. They started as men who wanted to, themselves, live holy and pleasing lives before God; a noble ideal - but it went awry when many became so self-absorbed with their own righteousness, that they lost the concept totally. The were the "Democrats" to the Scribes' "Republicans." The two groups didn't agree on much, especially theology which is why their union against Jesus was so interesting.

Jesus loathed the practices of both these groups and He was most critical of them both. He decried their control of people's lives and self-centered nature. What He disliked most was that these two groups were leading the People of God astray. "Blind guides," He called them, "you lead the people into the ditch with you!" "Woe to you, lawyers (scribes,) hypocrites!"One school of though concerning Jesus' ministry is that as He observed these things, He purposefully set out to lead the people away from their teachings and leadership. Many others had tried, and all failed. Thus, so this school of thought has it, Jesus set out in calculated manner to take on these two groups until their own evil ultimately manifested against Him would be their own undoing. If that is so, then his comments against the Scribes and Pharasees were designed to lead them to the conclusion to which they reach about Him and thus seal His death. In death, He knew that God would overcome their evil as He conquered death, Hell, the grave and the leadership of "blind guides."

These two groups figure in today's lesson - in the background, but they are there. Today shows us two of three parables Jesus taught in this passage which illustrated the lostness of the common man, the love of God and the hypocracy of these leaders. The deleted parable is that of the "Lost Coin." Of this trilogy, Barclay says that there is no more loved chapter in the Bible. He calls it the "Gospel of the Gospel." These parables arise, as Barclay says, out of a real life situation that was unique to Jewish culture - the dichotomy of the "sinner" and the "righteous" as they defined sin and righteousness. We have already discussed the orthodoxy of the Scribes and Pharisees, but now we look at the "sinners." Don't think here in terms of what we in the 21st Century might call sinners, that is to say, people who do evil deed, criminal or immoral persons. No, to the "righteous" Jew, "sinners" were "the people of the land," the unorthodox. The Talmud (remember, the "regs.) held that if you wanted to righteous, there must always exist a separatin between the righteous and the "people of the land." There should be no socialization, no conversation, if possible no business dealings. There was a deliberate teaching to avoid those people at all costs. And who were those people? Their "sin" was not keeping the "regs." It is true that numbered among the sinners were the criminals and immoral, but those men existed among the so-called righteous as well. These were as a group, the people who were excluded from the temple because they were sick or lame or blind or in some way ceremonial impure. Further, many occupations by their nature rendered one a "sinner" because they were unable to keep the laws. For example - shepherds.

1. Show Compassion - The Parable of the Lost Sheep . Luke 15:1-7."Shepherd" brings us to that first story in vv. 1-7. In this story, Jesus makes the shepherd to be the hero of the story. That alone would irritate a good Pharisee. Jesus makes the point more so by being the "Good Shepherd," a phrase that would be an oxymoron to a Scribe. Of course, Jesus, the "Good Shepherd" is the shepherd of the story. Through His bravery and courage, he seeks out at personal cost and finds even one sheep (sinner) that is lost. The picture of a communal herd of sheep, owned by several people perhaps shepherded by more than one shepherd. At the close of the day, the sheep are rounded up to take to the sheep-fold to keep them safe at night from predators - lions and bears (both of which David encountered and killed.) At the head count, one is missing. The Good Shepherd tells the other to drive the sheep home and he will find the lost one. As the other shepherd comes into the village, he would tell the people that there was straggler and his buddy was out looking for it. The people of the village would have been interested in this and would be waiting to see what would happen.

Then we see the picture of the brave shepherd striding over the hills with the sheep on his shoulders, bringing him home to the shelter of the fold. Why on his shoulders? That's the way you carry sheep at a distance - it's easier that way. The people would see this and all be relieved that the one lost is found. It is likewise a cause for applause in Heaven when one of us real-life sinners is brought home, saved from the "roaring lion" by the Good Shepherd.Jesus summarization of the point of the story has a "barb" in it. In the story, the lost sheep is a sinner, but the good sheep are the "righteous" who "have no need of repentance." The point is that there is no such person! "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," says Paul. Thus hidden in the story of the love of the Good Shephered is the kernel of the self-rightousness that will grow and blossom in the final story of the trilogy.

2. Celebrate Forgiveness. Luke 15:11-13, 22-24.
As we said earlier, we are skipping over the parable of the lost coin. However, we should point out that the parable teaches us that while there is joy in Heaven when a "sinner" is brought home, God Himself is jubilant. It is important to note from this the depth of feeling that God has for us - each of us. And like all of us who have loved and lost, God knows to intense feeling of having tlinegiven Himself, His very life, for the sinner, that sinner ultimately choose to repudiate Him. Jesus is sending that message to the Scribes and Pharisees as well - their rejection of Him is a rejection of God, a rejection that breaks the heart of God.

This would have come as a shock to His audience who would not have historically pictured God in that manner.The theme is carried on in the parable commonly called the Prodical Son. Barclay urges that it should rather be called "The Loving Father," as it is all about the love of the Father. This, likewise is a Bible story known and loved by most people, Christian or not. The point for our purposes is that God, Himself loves us enough to allow us to go off and "seek our fortune", giving us , as it were, an advance on our inheritance.

Under the Mosaic Law (Deut.21:17), since the oldest son must receive 2/3 of the estate after the death of the father, the younger would be entitled to 1/3 - entitled after the death of the father.Knowing that we will fail, but knowing that we must choose to come back to Him to really love Him, He all the more rejoices when the prodical returns to the extent in the opposite direction He has grieved when the Prodical was lost. Who is the prodical? Of course he is you and me. Each of us seeks our own self-satisfaction and we go our own way seeking our own way. What's the result? Ending up in the pig pen. The only way out is to humble ourselves by realizing that we cannot save ourselves and turn our lives over to this Loving Father to do with us as He will. And what is His will - that we be a hired hand? No, from the parable we see that God receives as a son. He puts a ring on our finger, a robe on our shoulders and shoes on our feet. Yes there is joy in Heaven when one lost one returns - all the more so, there is joy in the heart of the Loving Father. Lincoln was asked how he would treat the rebellious Southerners after the war. Of course vengeance would be in the mind of most. However, Lincoln replied, "I would treat them as if they had never left." In fact, after the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court House in April of 1865, rather than calling for a great victory ball with appropriate dance music, Lincoln asked the Marine Band, crimson jackets and all to play the song, "Dixie" as a lament for all those who were lost.

3. Reject Self-Righteousness . Luke 15: 28-32.
There is a dark ending to this story. In the background lurk the Scribes and Pharisees who are not jubilant when a sinner comes home. This defies their tradition and thus upsets their theology. That made them uneasy at heart. Perhaps more importantly, it threatened them, their power and their position. This was a point not lost on Jesus when He puts them in the story as the "Other Brother." Jesus pictures this brother as brooding, having fulfilled the Law - every *jot and tittle but wanting complete control. In short, they were selfish and self-righteous. It is this self-righteousness that was perhaps their greatest sin because it keep them separated from God. If your heart is full of you, there is no room for God. The old preacher once said, "you can't get a man saved until you get him lost." In his mind, that is. The Scribes and Pharisees did not know they were lost. That ignorance would separate them eternally from God. Worse for the people, they led the great "unwashed masses" to believe that lie.
Jesus' great point in this is not only that self-rightousness is abhorrent to God, but it does in fact lead us to our own destruction. You see, despite what the Scribes and Pharisees taught, none of us is the other brother, the joyful villager, the "righteous." We are , rather the lost sheep, the lost son and the lost coin - lost. Only when we allow Jesus to find us and carry us back to the Father on His broad Good Shepherd shoulders are we able to accept the "robe and the crown" given to the returning prodical son.Revelation tells us what we ultimately will do what that robe and crown. We will not wear them proudly in Heaven on our chest like the battle ribbons of the brave soldier no, we will "lay them at the feet of Jesus." Only He is worthy to receive them.

End note: "Jot and tittle. These are elements of characters in the Hebrew alphabet. The jot is the little curl mark at the corner of the character and the tittle is the straight line across some characters. They would equate to a dot on the "I" and the cross on the "t."