Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:01]
Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. Let's jump into Luke chapter 17, 18 and 19. We are right at the point where Jesus is about to enter into Jerusalem. Remember, like, I don't know, a couple episodes ago I said that from chapter nine to chapter 19, there's this long journey towards Jerusalem and we're finally gonna like, we're on the doorsteps of Jerusalem. So Luke chapter 18. Hey, if you haven't done the reading today, then you can pause right now and go do the reading. We're reading Luke chapter 17, 18 and 19. Go ahead, do the reading and then come back for my overview of what's happening in the chapter. Okay, we're gonna kind of skip chapter 17 a little bit. Not that it's not important, but I want to jump right into chapter 18, verse 9. We're going to get two people who are going to show up to pray to the temple. To pray. Two men. One's a Pharisee and one's a tax collector. I want you to see like, what Luke has been doing through the whole book. Right back in chapter five, there was a banquet at a tax collector's house. Levi. Actually, to be specifically in chapter seven, there's a banquet at the Pharisees house. And so now a Pharisee and a tax collector both meet at the temple. One person represents your classic insider. One person represents your classic outsider. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed. God, I thank you that I'm not like other people. Robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. Verse 13. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, I'm a sinner. I tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all those who humble themselves will be exalted. Right here we get to the crux of Jesus's issue with the Pharisees. A lot of times we create a caricature of the Pharisees as if they are just legalists, right? And legalists are people who believe that you have to work for your salvation. But that's actually not the fullness or the biblical picture of. Of. Of what it means to be a Pharisee. Phariseeism in the Bible means that you're a lover of money. It means that you're a hypocrite. It means that you see everybody else's sin, but can't see your own sin. And so this Pharisee and this tax collector both stand in the temple before God. And of course, the Pharisee has something to say about who he's not. But the tax collector acknowledges who he is. He knows that he's a sinner. And one of them goes away justified before God. Then we get a story about a rich man, and Jesus says to him, you still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. When the rich man heard this, he became very sad because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Indeed, it is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of the needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. Verse 26. Those who heard this ask, who then can be saved? Because for the audience who's listening to Jesus, wealthy people are on the inside, but Jesus sees them on the outside. So, like, if wealthy people can't be saved, who can be saved? Jesus replied, what is impossible with man is possible with God. And then Peter said, well, we have left all. We have to follow you. No one who has left home, wife, brothers, sisters, parents, children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, will fail to receive many times as much in this age and in the age to come, eternal life. Now, that story, I want us to hold that story where the rich man goes away, sad because he's wealthy, okay? Jesus says, sell everything you got, and it's very hard for wealthy people to come into the kingdom. I need you to hold that right there because that's chapter 18. And now we're literally just going to flip the page to chapter 19 of the book of Luke. So we go from chapter 18 and chapter 19, and here's what it says. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I'll stay at your house today. Tons of grace for Zacchaeus. She came down at once, welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, he has gone to the home, to the guest of a sinner. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, look here, now, I give half my possessions to the poor, and if I've cheated anyone out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Today, salvation has come to your house because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and save the lost. Now, here's what I want you to see. At no point does Jesus say to Zacchaeus, hey, you've got to give up everything and sell it to the poor. Zacchaeus decides that on his own. So we have a passage where Jesus said, very difficult for the wealthy to come to God. And then we have a wealthy man come to God. This is like, just on a narrative level, you have to appreciate what's going on here. Again, Luke is going to give an incredibly nuanced perspective. Still harsh. Like Jesus still has harsh things to say to those who are stuck in the idolatry of wealth. However, we are going to get glimmers and glimpses of hope that just because you're wealthy doesn't mean you're doomed. It means that there is a challenge. And then we get a parable that kind of again, throws you for a loop, because at one place, God says, blessed is the poor, and. And then goes into what that actually means. But now, in chapter 19, we're going to get a story of a parable of Minas, okay? And there's a king, and he called 10 of his servants and gave them 10 minas. Put this money to work, he said, until I come back. But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, we don't want this man to be our king. He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent his servants who had given money in order to find out what they had gained with it. The first one came, said, sir, your minas earned me 10 more. Well done. And finally we get down to the last servant, and the servant says, this here's your mina. I've kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you because you're a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow. His master replied, I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant. You knew, did you, that I'm a hard man, taking out where I did not put in and reaping what I did not sow. Why then didn't you put my money on deposit so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest. The theme of this entire parable is stewardship. That God demands or assumes that, that whatever he gives us, that we are going to work it and, and give it back to him with a return on his investment. That if God's given me a preaching gift, that when I die and I give it back to him, that it is more than what he actually gave me. So at no point is Jesus like a communist. Like, at no point is Jesus like, hey, like, I think in our current world we hear like, no, like, elevation of the poor, care for the poor, and we just think like, socialism, communism. And then again, like, Jesus is not like in our boxes. So Jesus says, yeah, like give to the poor. And if you don't give to the poor, you can't come and follow me. Then the next story is Zacchaeus. That's not the commandment to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is just allowed to already has a heart of repentance. And then we get a story about straight stewardship like it, who those who have will be given more and those who didn't steward what was given to them, what they have will be taken away. And this is the radical nuance of what it means to follow Jesus. That if I want to interpret the Bible based on the simple categories that the secular society around me has created, then I'm never, ever, ever going to actually follow Jesus in all the complexity and all the nuance that he's trying to get me to see. And so next we get into Jesus actually approaches Jerusalem. And everything about the scene means that he is approaching Jerusalem as a king. Jesus actually gets to the temple. And I'll end here. What if I told you that what you're learning in this video was just the tip of the iceberg? The Bible department is actually powered by arma. What is arma? I'm so glad you asked. ARMA is an online subscription based platform that we design to help people, everyday people learn the Bible for themselves. We started ARMA so that anybody, anywhere can have access to trustworthy and entertaining Bible and theology content. In addition to this podcast, we have over 60 courses on individual books of the Bible, on theology topics, and on some hot topics like homosexuality, tithing and women in ministry. But really, ARMA is a community. A community of people that I've gotten to know. A community where thousands of people are currently finding family, asking questions and nerding out on the Bible together. If you want a community community to read the Bible with you this year, or if you want to dive into some deeper theological content. Or if you want more exclusive access to me and the entire armor team, how about you go to thebibledepartment.com I'll be sure to post the link in the description of this video. Let's make this your year to become a Bible. Verse 45 of chapter 19 when he entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. It is written, he said, my house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of robbers every day. He was teaching at the temple, but the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they did not find any way to do it because all the people hung on his words. So what's the issue with the temple? The reality is that you had to exchange money and exchange currency and people had to buy like whatever they were going to use to sacrifice in the temple. I think that Jesus's issue with the temple is twofold. Number one, the system was corrupt. Remember way back in the beginning I said that it's kind of interesting that the Bible tells us that Zechariah is a righteous priest, because priests were actually pretty corrupt. In this historical context though, the priests ran the temple and a very small group of priests called the Sadducees ran the temple. And the temple was a money making machine. Like this just is what it is. And I think that the corruption of the priesthood is actually here at play. Like. Like this is a den of robbers. But I also think that the temple had run its course. Like the time for this being the mode in which salvation or justification comes to people had just run its course. A trailer isn't bad, but once a movie comes out, we don't continue to watch a trailer. And so the temple is simply a trailer of future attractions. And that future attraction is Jesus. And Jesus is the temple. He is the high priest and the sacrifice all in one. And remember, we go all the way back to the beginning of Luke. The shepherds who were preparing lambs for slaughter in the temple. They see that the temple system is coming to an end because the reality to whom the lambs they'd been raising was pointing has now come into the world. And so there's conflict between Jesus and the temple because it's outdated. But there's also conflict between Jesus and the leaders of the temple because they were using their power and their status and their religious authority to generate massive amounts of income for themselves. Again, nothing wrong with income, but there was something wrong with their motive. And so I dive into that a lot on our course on Luke and Axe on the Arma platform. So if that's something that, like, interests you, then you can become an armor subscriber and figure out, like, what is, like, why was the priesthood corrupt? All right, the timeless truth for the day. The timeless truth for the day is that verse 22, I will judge you by your own words. I've always loved this parable of the Minas because not everybody sees the king the same way. And how you see the king actually determines how you then act and how the king is going to respond to you. I was on staff for a really long time, and not everybody saw our senior pastor the same way. And some of us who saw him in a positive light began to act in accordance with that light. And then we got a certain response. And so my Thomas truth for the day is this. You'll be judged based on your own words. You'll be judged based on what you think. You can always assume the best about God. You can always assume the best about leaders. You can always assume the best about people around you. And when you do that, it actually changes the way that you begin to interact with them, and then it changes the way that they respond to you. All right, love you guys. Peace. Thank you so much for joining me on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, it would mean the world to me if you'd give us a follow rate and review the show. And don't forget to share. You can learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and find us on Instagram at the Bible Department. If you want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.