Exploring God’s Word with Brad Thurston

Compelling, Confronting, Costly Love

Episode Summary

Luke 20:19-21:4 How do we see Jesus in our minds eye? What kind of person is he? Sort of like, what does a pastor do, or ought a pastor to do? I discovered with my first assignment everybody’s idea is different. Sometimes, I think, that the Jesus in our minds, is just as varied. Some see him as someone who loves and cares and likes to make people happy. Some see him as someone who supplies all my wants and needs. Others see him as judgmental with no sense of humor. To others he is unattainable and too exalted to approach, someone to be feared. I prefer to think of him as love: compelling, confrontational, costly Love.

Episode Notes

Three parts to this encounter with Jesus: the beginning and end are illustrated with money. The middle two focus on the reality of eternal life, and the warning against those who seek earthy recognition as opposed to the rule of God in life..

1. The spies and their craftiness to catch Jesus with an impossible situati
     Jesus response is astonishing, creating a direct confrontation with
     Their hypocrisy in using money while wanting the removal of a god
     Their misunderstanding of the Kingdom of God
     The Kingdom of God: Psalm 24: The earth is the Lord’s and all it contained, the world and all who dwell in it.
2. The bigger issue here is the understanding of what the Kingdom of God is about and why Jesus is about to fulfill all the prophecies. But the expectations of the religious leaders is vastly different.
3. For them the Kingdom of God is linked with political aspirations
   The king is to bring secure borders, prosperity to all the Jewish people
   It is like the Kingdom of David, and thus bringing freedom from the political oppression of a bloodthirsty nation that suppresses them.
4. To this end, the encounter with the Sadducee is critical.  Their belief in no eternity, and no angels was from the time of Zadok the priest, who was an advisor to King David, was the more orthodox position in the philosophical gatherings of messianic understandings.  Yet their concepts blinded them to the reality of who Jesus really was and still is:
   The focus on the resurrection and eternal life is critical to knowing the real purposes of God! So Jesus confronts them while all the people are listening, and not only uses Exodus 3 and the burning bush with their tendency for exact interpretation of words, but also focuses on the prophecy of the son of David being greater than earthly kings!
5. The final bit is, Jesus lifting his eyes and showing that the one who gives all for others has greater understanding of the Kingdom and more faith in the activity of the King than others do.