Luke 18:9-14 records Jesus’ parable of the Pharasee and the Tax Collector, a story of a man who trusted himself and who regarded others with comtempt. The Pharasee was standing by himself praing thusly, God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I give away a tenth of my income. But the Tax Collector, standing far off, would not even look up to haven, but beat his breast and said, God be merciful to me a sinner. Jesus said, I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
What a great message from Jesus. One that is just as relavent today as it was two thousand years ago. The temptation in our culture just as in Jesus’ is to imagine that we are autonomous and self-sufficent, and most likely better than the other. Whoever the other happens to be. Against this idea, the text attests that a good life is a gift from God that is lived back to God. The fact is that self-reliance has acute limitations and that the reliance upon God is a bottomless assurance of a well-being we cannot generate for ourselves.
The Hebrew Prophet, Joel, living and working some five hundred years before Jesus helps us understand the joy and confidence of a life lived in relieance upon God.
O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame. Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. (Joel 2:23-32)
What a wonderful assurance and blessing, to know that God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, upon all people, so that we might never, ever be put to shame and that we will dream dreams and see visions. Visions of the Kingdom of God to which we are all invited live and to share.
Blessings and Peace,
Ben Alford
No comments:
Post a Comment