Exploring God’s Word with Brad Thurston

Babies, Camels, and other Impossibilities

Episode Summary

Luke 18:15-34 Missing the point leads to misunderstandings. My wife often shows me how I can be thrown off course by following rabbit trails. Indeed, the older I get, the more often I start a story and forget what the point was about what I wanted to say! Quite a problem for a preacher! Then there is the problem about the folks listening: they are more concerned about their own thoughts, that they miss the key issue of what is being said and misconstrue the point of the conversation! In our text this morning, the conclusion is: “The disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.” This could be true about others who read this text as well.

Episode Notes

Cultural Complexities:

  1. Jews thought riches are a sign of the blessing of God: referring back to Abraham who received the covenant from God: Gen. 12:1-3 and in 13 he is described as “very rich”. Issac inherits his father’s riches, is described in 26:12,13: “Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundred times as much. And the LORD blessed him, and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy;”. Wealth was interpreted as the blessing of God missing entirely the true purpose of God being redemption and reconciliation which are the true blessings of His Kingdom. The riches of this world cannot be compared to the riches of eternity.
  2. If we misunderstand the purpose of God, and the power of God and the love of God, then we will attempt to find a way to rationalize what Jesus says in order to make things more acceptable to our way of thinking. So here is this strange saying of Jesus about rich people entering the Kingdom of God: in the fifth century, some scribe changed the word camel to rope to make the task easier.  In the 15th century, an idea began to be shared about a camels gate in Jerusalem where the burdens had to be laid down in order for the camel to enter.  Great way to make money off of tourists! Issues of war, issues of camels, issues of misinterpretation of the scriptures are all ignored with this idea.

Contextual considerations:

  1. The constant back and forth between Pharisees, lawyers, scribes and rulers to disciples and Kingdom principles.  Jesus is constantly comparing Kingdom values to the misrepresentations of the ruling leaders: in chapter 11 Jesus points out the flaws in the leaders approach showing they like what is going on on the outside but their inside is totally corrupt. In 16 he points out that the Pharisees were lovers of money, and in 18 he has just nailed their prayer life as being based on pride and arrogance. His dialogue here with the ruler varies from Matthew’s account as he is not young, nor is he specifically pointed out as being “loved” by Jesus. Rather his stumbling block to recognizing the Kingdom of God and it’s value is made strikingly clear.  He has a heart conflict with loving the things of this world as opposed to loving God.
  2. The immediate context is the comparison between infants and their total dependency on their parents and the ruler who is proud of his self sufficiency.
  3. The primary focus here is on the word “impossible”. Salvation is not possible with any person. It is only possible with God!  Notice Jesus is not concerned about the wealth issue, especially since in the next chapter he goes to eat with a rich man who repents, and uses hie wealth for righteous purposes. The question has to do with eternal life! The same as the lawyer in Chapter 10 asks about salvation and hear to keep the commandments and Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan and instructs him to Go and do likewise!  The greatness of his wealth is reflected in the greatness of his sorrow as he leaves.
  4. The comparison between the dependent child and the independent ruler cannot be more crass.
  5. The comparison then moves to a new dimension of instruction to the disciples: the instruction concerning giving and receiving more is not comprehended by them.  Look at all they have given up, and wonder what the future holds.  Jesus uses this opportunity to explain the passion to them more fully, and is asking them to follow him in what he does:  look at what Jesus gives up for others…. This is the core of the Gospel and not understood until after the resurrection. We get so caught up in our own thoughts that we miss the focus of what Jesus is saying, even as we look at babies and camels we miss the key information about all of the riches Jesus surrenders for our benefit.

What do we do with our riches? How do we invest in God’s kingdom? Where do we need to repent of which sins? Or do we have sorrow as a result of our abuse of what has been entrusted to us?  Have we misinterpreted the purposes and the focus of God’s love for us? Don’t go away sad, come to Jesus and get it right.