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An example of things
being hidden from the wise
Yeshua
really is the King Messiah! He really is the Son
of God who was sent from Heaven to Earth to enable
us to gain eternal life! It was ordinary men and
women who were attracted to Israel’s anointed
Prophet, Priest and King. For the most part, Israel’s
religious and political leaders opposed and rejected
the Son of God.
In a fallen
world that is demonically controlled and is opposed
to God and Messiah and wrongly suppresses the
truth; in a world where many rise to the top of
the religious and political power structures and
gain influence and wealth through pride and arrogance
and by abusing power and cutting moral and ethical
corners, it is great to know that it is simple,
humble followers of the Jewish Messiah - men and
women whom the world ignores, even rejects, who
are truly praise-worthy. Better an ordinary man
or woman with faith in God and Messiah and the
Scriptures than a great scholar without it! Yeshua
knew that, and that made Him very happy!
At
that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy
Spirit and He said, "I praise You, O Father,
Lord of Heaven and Earth, that You have hidden
these things (things like the truth that leads
to salvation; the way to enter Heaven through
simple faith in the Messiah; how to be genuinely
reconciled to God; how gain eternal life) from
the wise and intelligent and have revealed them
to infants (to the humble, to those who respond
to the truth, who end their self-will, who end
their rebellion against the King of the universe,
who allow God and Messiah teach them and correct
them and redirect them in the ways He wants them
to go.). Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing
in Your sight.
Messiah
knew that it is God’s plan to humble the proud
and honor the humble; to raise up the righteous
afflicted ones and lower the faithless arrogant
ones. So, you had better humble yourself before
God and Messiah before it is too late; before
you leave this world!
Fallen
human beings are confused about God. The world’s
many religions, including Judaism, are proof of
this. We don’t know God the way we need to know
Him. We may know a little about Him, but we don’t
know Him - personally, intimately, in a saving
way. We need to know Him! We need to know the
path He has chosen for our salvation. We need
to know His principles of atonement. We need to
know what He has chosen, what He approves of and
what He disapproves of. We need to know how to
end our rebellion against Him, how to be reconciled
to Him, how to genuinely acceptable to Him, how
to have real peace with Him, how to live forever
with Him.
Yeshua
of Nazareth alone - not Mohammed, not Buddha,
not Einstein or Marx or Freud or Darwin - can
help us do this! The Son of God understands His
God and His Father completely and perfectly. He
knows the Father’s mind and will and heart. He
knows the Father’s ways. He knows how to perfectly
please the Father. He knows how to help us please
the Father! He knows the way to the Father’s eternal
kingdom. You want the Son to help you know the
Father the way you need to know God!
God the
Father and God the Son are both involved in the
salvation of human beings. Therefore, if you are
wise, don’t offend the Son! Believe in Him! Treat
Him with the greatest possible respect! Don’t
ignore Him. Don’t pretend He isn’t important!
Don’t distrust Him! Humble yourself before Him,
and learn about Him. And do it soon, and don’t
delay!
Next Luke
gives us an example of an expert in Jewish law
who is an example of what we are not to be like.
He represents the danger we need to avoid - religious
human beings who are far from God and eternal
life. And an expert in Torah stood up and put
Him to the test, saying, "Rabbi, what shall
I do to inherit eternal life"? Even though
he was an expert in Torah, and Israel’s Messiah
was standing in front of him, he wasn’t able to
recognize the One through whom the Earth, the
sun and the moon and the starry galaxies were
made. He had rejected the Seed of the Woman. He
was opposed to the Prophet greater than Moses.
He was testing the Star who came forth from Jacob.
He wanted the Scepter who rose from Israel to
be seen as ignorant; he wanted to be seen as smarter
than the young Rabbi from Nazareth who didn’t
go to any of the yeshivahs.
Yeshua
didn’t fall for his trap. Instead, He answered
his question with a question. And He said to
him, "What is written in the Torah? How does
it read to you? The Supreme Religious Authority
among mankind acknowledged that there is a way
to inherit eternal life. That is a real possibility
for human beings! But Rabbi Yeshua was also teaching
us that human beings, even those among the Chosen
People, are not automatically headed to eternal
life. We must do something to inherit eternal
life. Eternal life can be gained or lost - depending
on what we do, or do not do!
For the
definitive answer to this all-important question
about gaining eternal life, Israel’s greatest
Rabbi, who is never wrong, directed this man,
and all of us, to the Torah. That Book of Books
alone, and no other book from any other world
religion, contains the roadmap to eternal life.
The Word of God has the wisdom that can lead us
to salvation. We must go to the to the divinely
inspired writings of Israel. We must find out
what they really teach. Then, we must apply the
truths we find there.
The expert
in Torah answered Yeshua’s question. Here is what
he said: "You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your strength, and with all your
mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
And you know what? The expert in Torah was right!
And Yeshua said to him, "You have answered
correctly; do this and you will live." There
are 613 commandments in the Five Books of Moses.
The two greatest and most important commandments
are the commands to love God with the totality
of our being, and love our neighbor in the same
way we love ourselves. This is the essence of
the Torah. This is the basic message of the Word
of God. This is what is essential to know, to
understand, to focus on, to apply to every aspect
of our lives.
And, the
two great principles, if put into practice, will
result in eternal life. If we love God properly,
the way we should, the way we are expected to;
and if we love other human beings the way we should,
the way God wants us to, Messiah assures us that
we will live - forever! But, since we are part
of a fallen race that is confused and in great
spiritual darkness; since darkness covers the
Earth, and a deep and profound and impenetrable
spiritual darkness covers the peoples of the world,
it is not clear to humanity how to love God with
the totality of our being; and it is not obvious
to us how to love our neighbor the way we need
to love him. We are not even sure who our neighbor
is!
How do
we love God the way we need to? To love God the
way we need to, He must be our highest priority.
He must come first. There must be total commitment
to the Creator, devotion, adoration, priority
in love and affection, consuming zeal for God
above all other things.
To love
God the way we need to, we must humble ourselves
before Him. We must end our self-will, and yield
to His will. We must break off our rebellion against
Him, and submit ourselves to Him, and allow God
to teach us in the ways we are to go.
To love
God the way we need to, we need to have a close
and intimate and personal relationship with God.
To love
God the way we need to, we must love the Messiah
that the Father loves and approves of and sent
into this world to be mankind’s only Savior.
The reality
was that this expert in the Torah did not love
God the way he was expected to. He fell far short
in fulfilling the commandment to love God.
And, also
part of gaining eternal life is loving our neighbor
as we love ourselves. Those who will gain eternal
life must not be selfish, self-absorbed creatures.
It must not be all about us, and our success and
wealth and power and happiness. We must not be
building ourselves up by hurting, or even ignoring,
those around us. We must be loving, caring human
beings. We must be helping suffering and hurting
human beings. We must be our brother’s keeper.
But, we
must really be helping them. We must really be
doing what is best for them. Loved is based on
the truth. If our efforts to help others are not
based on the truth, them we may wind up harming
them - not helping them. That is not love.
This expert
in the Torah believed that he loved God enough,
and loved his neighbor enough, especially if his
neighbor could be define in a very narrow way.
But wishing to justify himself, he said to
Yeshua, "And who is my neighbor?" If
we narrowly define our neighbor to mean those
few who live close to us, and we don’t bother
them, and occasionally help them out a little;
or if we define our neighbor as those who attend
the same synagogue as we do and are just like
us, then sure - we can think: I love my neighbor
the way the Torah commands. Therefore I am OK.
But, Yeshua tells us that our neighbor is not
to be defined so narrowly.
Yeshua
taught this expert in the Torah that the neighbor
we are to love must be defined very broadly. He
did so by telling a story about a Priest, a Levite
and a Samaritan: A man was going down from
Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers,
and they stripped him and beat him, and went away
leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest
was going down on that road, and when he saw him,
he passed by on the other side.
A priest
was expected, among all human beings, to know
God and the Scriptures the best. He was expected
to love and help people the most. After all, the
job of a priest is to bring human beings closer
to God, and bring God closer to people. His life-work
was about helping people. But, this priest did
not help his fellow Jew who was suffering and
needed help.
Likewise
a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw
him, passed by on the other side. Levites
assisted the priests at the Temple. They too were
expected to know the Scriptures. They too were
involved in helping human beings. But, this Levite
did not help this Jewish man who was hurting.
But
a Samaritan (and the Samaritans had very serious
religious differences with the Jewish people;
and there was antagonism between the Jewish people
and the Samaritans), who was on a journey,
came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,
and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring
oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own
beast, and brought him to an inn and took care
of him. He inconvenienced himself. He went
out of his way to help this man. He showed a lot
of care.
On
the next day he took out two denarii (two
days wages for an average worker) and gave
them to the innkeeper and said, “Take care of
him; and whatever more you spend, when I return
I will repay you.” The bill could have been
another couple of days wages, or more. That is
a lot of money for the average person. That too
showed a lot of selfless, loving care. Which
of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor
to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?
And
he said, "The one who showed mercy toward
him." Then Yeshua said to him, "Go and
do the same."
Those
who live in our neighborhood are our neighbors.
Those who are members of our synagogue are our
neighbors. But, those who live far away from us
are our neighbors. Our neighbors also include
those who may strongly disagree with us, and we
with them. Moslems are our neighbor; Catholics
are our neighbor; homosexuals are our neighbor;
those who may be persecuting us are our neighbors;
Democrats are our neighbors; Republicans are our
neighbors; Blacks and Whites and Hispanics are
our neighbors. If they are suffering, with sacrificial
love we are to be compassionate and try and help
them.
This expert
in the Torah did not love his neighbor as he loved
himself, because he so narrowly defined who his
neighbor was. It is not easy to love God the way
we should. It is not easy to love our neighbor
as we love ourselves.
We need
God’s help, God’s intervention, to love God the
way we need to. We need God’s Messiah to love
God the way we need to. Then, only after we have
experienced God’s help, God’s intervention, and
God’s Messiah, and love God and know that He loves
us, only then can we love our neighbor as we love
ourselves. And, loving them and showing compassion
toward them also means declaring the truth to
them! Tell them about God and Messiah and salvation,
and God’s righteous ways, because they are spiritually
suffering. They are far from God! They are dying!
They are perishing! They are headed to death,
not life, to Hell, not Heaven.
Their
greatest need is to be reconciled to God, to overcome
the overwhelming destructive forces of Satan,
sin and death. If we love them, we must help them
with that need. We must not remain silent. We
must not pass them by, knowing that they are spiritually
suffering, and do nothing, and say nothing - like
the priest and the Levite who passed by on the
other side. That is not what it means to love
our neighbor.
This expert
represents a lot of religious people who are in
actuality, far from God. Many human beings think
of themselves as being good enough, religious
enough; that they believe in God enough; that
they treat their fellow human being good enough;
that their sins aren’t that bad; that if eternal
life is a reality, they are headed for it! But,
the truth is that they are not good enough. This
expert knew a lot about God, but knowing about
God, even knowing a lot about God, is not enough.
This expert knew a lot about the Torah, but even
knowing a lot about the Torah, is not enough.
In contrast
to this expert in the Torah who rejected Yeshua,
Luke introduces us to a family who models for
us what we are to do. Most of the powerful and
wealthy and the religious leaders rejected Yeshua.
But, there was one well-to-do family who kissed
the Son - who welcomed Him, who honored Him, who
learned from Him. The family of Lazarus, and his
two sisters Mary and Martha, were a wealthy and
prominent family who lived close to Jerusalem.
Now as they were traveling along, He entered
a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him
into her home. She had a sister called
Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening
to His word. But Martha was distracted with all
her preparations.
Showing
hospitality to guests, and serving them and feeding
them is an important responsibility, especially
when it was an special guest like the young miracle
working Rabbi from Nazareth, this great teacher,
whom some thought was the Messiah. Martha busied
herself feeding and serving Yeshua.
The other
sister, Mary, knew that Yeshua was a Rabbi who
was worth learning from, and that her time with
Him would be limited. So, instead of busying herself
with lots of preparations and service, Mary concentrated
on listening to Rabbi Yeshua. Martha did not like
the fact that her sister wasn’t helping her, and
she came up to Him and said, "Lord, do You
not care that my sister has left me to do all
the serving alone? Then tell her to help me."
But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha,
Martha, you are worried and bothered about so
many things; but only one thing is necessary,
for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall
not be taken away from her." Not all
prayers are good, and will be answered with a
positive response by the Lord. This is an example
of one.
Messiah
“knew that it was with a proper motive that Mary
had withdrawn herself on this occasion from the
ordinary household duties in order to hear the
words of everlasting life from Yeshua’s mouth...
The Lord points out to Martha that she is inwardly
anxious and over-zealous and outwardly restless
amid all her preparations for entertaining Him.
But the most important task of all is not to try
and serve Him by this kind of action, but through
the spiritual exercise of fellowship as practiced
by Mary. Material things and the honoring of Him
through outward means are evanescent matters,
things that quickly vanish, but the soul’s communion
with the Lord can never be removed, not even by
death. Therefore the highest from of service consists
in this” (Geldenhuys, paraphrase).
We need
to be going and doing and serving, but we also
need to quietly hear from the Lord. To have successful
lives and ministries, we need the right balance
of getting close to God, and hearing from Him,
and also going and doing and serving.
May God
the Father, the Lord of Heaven and Earth prevent
us from being wise or powerful, yet have the most
important things hidden from us - like this expert
in Torah! And may He enable each one of us to
have a genuine relationship with the Living God,
like Mary and Martha did, so that saving truth
is revealed to us.
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