Get ‘em While They’re Hot!
We can clearly see that Jesus is
post-transfiguration and on His way to Jerusalem to die. Most of this chapter has the tone of “get
your life lessons while you can get them.”
Jesus is preparing His disciples for the time when He is no longer
physically accessible to them – although we know that in truth He’s never far,
thanks be to God!
Forgiveness
Lesson number one is on
forgiveness. Notice that the emphasis
here is not actually on sin but on our interactions those who lead us into
sin. First, Jesus tells us that those
who lead others into sin are in deep trouble – one might presume even more
trouble than those who sin out of their own faithlessness.
This really hit me hard today. What are Christians supposed to do? We are to profess Christ, God’s grace, and teach
God’s ways. So then, what would an
anti-Christian be? Well an
anti-Christian would profess against Christ, against God’s grace, and teach
against God’s ways. What is more against
Christ, against God’s grace, and against God’s ways than sin? Those who lead others into sin are quite
literally being an antichrist. {Not necessarily The Antichrist,
mind you … but an antichrist nonetheless.}
That’s deep stuff right there.
Second, Jesus tells us that when we
come across these antichrists that we are to be in the habit of forgiving them as
long as they genuinely repent. That’s
the difference between being an antichrist versus being The Antichrist. We all may be occasional antichrists when we
sin and lead others into sin. The Antichrist
will have no repentance. But look at
this. Jesus doesn’t just say forgive
seven times here – or even the oft quoted “seventy times seven.” Jesus says we are to forgive seven times a
day if our brother sins against us that often.
That’s not just a lot of sin – 2,555 instances of forgiveness per year –
that’s actually habitual sin coming our way.
Yet Jesus tells us that if the other is genuinely repentant we must
forgive. We are to be in the habit of
forgiving. No wonder the disciples
respond with the cry of “Increase our faith!”
Who can faithfully forgive that much sin except for the truly faithful?
Faithfulness
Jesus gives the disciples a story to
introduce the second teaching of this chapter: faithfulness. But do you notice the context that Jesus puts
faithfulness? Jesus puts it in the
mundane. The faithful one is the one who
does the master’s work. He tends the
fields, cooks the dinner, and eats only after seeing that the master is
satisfied. Sure, faithfulness can say to
the mulberry tree to get up and move.
But that isn’t where faithfulness shines at all. Faithfulness shines in the mundane tasks of
the master. You know, like forgiving
sins when a person is repentant – or even leading people to repentance in the
first place.
We like to think of spirituality as
access to miracles and supernatural effects.
But in reality spirituality is best seen in the mundane ... you know,
like being faithful in prayer, worship, reading God’s Word, serving, relating
spiritually to others, and giving of what God has first given to us.
Thankfulness
The third lesson of this chapter is on
being thankful. Here again we see a
story where a healing serves a greater purpose than simply easing the life of
some human being. In healing these
outcasts (lepers), Jesus turns them from outcast into socially acceptable.
But who is the one who gives
thanks? Only one person returns to give
thanks: the foreigner. The lesson is
simple. Few people in this life care
about the other person (or God) enough to genuinely give thanks for what they
receive. Human tendency is to rejoice
and move ahead with life – often not even looking back to thank the
beneficiary. That is the way of the
world; it is what it means to be human.
But it is not what it means to be in relationship with God. Being in relationship with God is about
thanking Him for everything and thanking those who allow God to work through
them in your life.
Prepare
The last lesson seems to be on getting
oneself ready. Jesus clearly tells us
that we will not know when the Son of Man returns in judgment of the whole
world. But rest assured that He is
coming and if we are not prepared by the time of His arrival it will be too
late.
This is a great warning against
spending too much time studying prophecy, actually. How many people pursue a topic when Jesus
tells us the answer will never be found – all the while they ignore doing God’s
work of teaching the world, forgiving the repentant, and displaying God’s mercy? One does not get oneself ready by studying
the Day of Judgment. One gets ready by
studying all of God’s Word and then putting it into practice.
Vultures
I am struck by Jesus’ concluding
comment. I have no doubt read this
passage many times in my life. Yet, I
don’t ever remember reading Jesus’ saying that “where the corpse is the
vultures will be gathered.” Oh, how true
it is.
Look around you and see where sin is
most evident. Will you not find people
so engrossed in the sin that they are seemingly feeding off of it? It’s funny that spiritual death attracts so
many people, but it does. So many people
– myself included from time to time in my life – will seek any kind of
spiritual death rather than seek the life God offers. Life in this world proves Jesus correct. Vultures (people in this world) gather where
the corpse (spiritual death) can be found.
And that makes me mourn for this world, because those places of death
bring nothing permanent and especially nothing truly fruitful. So many people spend their life lapping up
death and thinking nothing of it.
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