give to...

 Luke 20 

20 Watching for their opportunity, 

the leaders sent spies pretending to be honest men. 

They tried to get Jesus to say something that could be reported to the Roman governor 

so he would arrest Jesus. 

21 “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you speak and teach what is right and are not influenced by what others think. 

You teach the way of God truthfully. 

22 Now tell us—is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

23 He saw through their trickery and said, 

24 “Show me a Roman coin. 

Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

25 “Well then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, 

and give to God what belongs to God.”

26 So they failed to trap him by what he said in front of the people. Instead, they were amazed by his answer, and they became silent.

Zacchaeus

Luke 19 

1 Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. 2 There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. 3 He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.

5 When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”

6 Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. 7 But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.

8 Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”

9 Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. 10 And I, the Son of Man, came to seek and save those who are lost.”

children

Luke 18 

15 One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus 

so he could touch and bless them. 

But when the disciples saw this, 

they scolded the parents for bothering him.

16 Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, 

“Let the children come to me. 

Don’t stop them! 

For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. 

17 I tell you the truth, 

anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

a servant of the Lord

 We have such middle class attitudes about being "a servant of the Lord".

We have a success orientation to it - iow, if we're a servant of the Lord, we have a guarantee of success.

Uhm... most of the time we don't know if what we're being & doing is making an impact.

We also think God owes us an explanation as to why we're being or doing what He's told us to be or do.

Most of the time, there is no explanation.

Servants serve - they don't have input into the decision making process - we middle class Christians think God should make us a part of the process - that ain't gonna happen.

Servants have no rights - we obey.

Anyone who says in a quiet, wistful, sanguine voice, with their hand over their heart, "all I want to be is a servant of the Lord" has never been one.

Here's what Jesus said one time about the whole thing...

Luke 17

7 “When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, 

does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? 

8 No, 

he says, 

‘Prepare my meal, 

put on your apron, 

and serve me while I eat. 

Then you can eat later.’ 

9 And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? 

Of course not. 

10 In the same way, 

when you obey me you should say, 

‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”

question

Over the years, I've read this parable.

I've never quite understood what Jesus was trying to say.

Can any of y'all offer an opinion as to what this is all about?

Luke 16 

1 Jesus told this story to his disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. 2 So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired.’

3 “The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. 4 Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired.’

5 “So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ 6 The man replied, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’ So the manager told him, ‘Take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons.’

7 “‘And how much do you owe my employer?’ he asked the next man. ‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the manager said, ‘take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.’

8 “The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. 9 Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.

10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. 11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? 12 And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?

13 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”

notorious

1 Thessalonians 5 

1 Tax collectors 

and other notorious sinners 

often came to listen to Jesus teach. 

2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain 

that he was associating with such despicable sinful people...

even eating with them!

Okay... think about these different things...

tax collectors were the BIG social pariahs of that day - they collaborated with the Romans (thought of as big time heathens & conquerors) & grew rich from overcharging the Jews.

I don't know what exactly the identity of "other notorious sinners" might have been, but we can use our imaginations...

These people usually had nothing to do with the religion or religious leaders of the time - all they got from them was vilifying condemnation.

So, these "despicable" people often came to hear Jesus speak.

I wonder what it was about Jesus that made these jaded sinful people WANT to hear what Jesus said?

And another thing... Jesus clearly wanted to be around these outcasts, because He hung out with them with such familiarity that He even ate with them - which drew a lot of emotional criticism from Jewish religious bigwigs.

And Jesus obviously did not care what the religious leaders thought or felt.

So, here's the obvious upshot from all this...

We claim to be followers of Jesus - does He so inhabit who we are that "notorious sinners" want to be around us?

And...

Has the Spirit that is Jesus become so much a part of the DNA of our personality that we WANT to be around these "despicable" folks?

If the truth be told, we're probably thinking that we're too holy to hang with sinful people like that.

And we want to keep our "witness" untarnished - people will think "birds of a feather..." kind of things about us.

Which begs the question that maybe we're more concerned about what our uber-holy friends might think if we're seen hanging with people of dubious character?

Yeah... think about all that...

Here's a moment of transparency...

A lot of the time, I'd prefer to hang out with "notorious sinners" than people who are so holy - the holy ones are usually just so cranky & no fun to be around...

count the cost

Luke 14 

25 A large crowd was following Jesus. 

He turned around and said to them, 

26 “If you want to be my disciple, 

you must, by comparison, you must love me more than everyone else;

your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters;

yes, even your own life. 

Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. 

27 And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.

28 “But don’t begin until you count the cost. 

For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? 

29 Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, 

and then everyone would laugh at you. 

30 They would say, 

‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’

31 “Or what king would go to war against another king 

without first sitting down with his counselors 

to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? 

32 And if he can’t, 

he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace 

while the enemy is still far away. 

33 So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything.

(dan note: As my friend, Beth White, says, "Salvation is free - everything else costs you everything.)