Luke's Great Commission

"Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." That is the evangelistic core of Jesus's final words to his disciples in the book of Luke.

Then we start wondering how the disciples could even start to understand that message. Sure, we hear plenty in Paul's letters about Jesus as God's sacrifice for sin and the call to tell that good news to everybody, everywhere, but Jesus has not really been preaching a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; that was John. And as for their readiness, just last chapter, the disciples were scared and scattered. How could they possibly be ready?

Remember Me

What an incredibly touching and intimate conversation we have the privelege to view between Jesus and the thief on the cross. The two thieves had come face to face with their wrongs and with death itself. One mocks out of his pride; the other humbly finds Christ.

The thief speaking with Jesus is dying. He has lived a life deserving his punishment on the cross, but certainly never expected to be crucified next to someone like Jesus. He realizes Jesus is innocent, and the more we look into the face of Jesus and see a glimpse of his holiness, the more we realize our sinfulness and feel a need to ask his mercy for our own sins.

"Remember me when you come into your kingdom." He is not striving for some last ditch effort to save himself. He is not asking for a sign like Herod did. He asks only that Jesus would remember him. That is enough.

Among You As What?

It was not a trick question. The difficulty is that so much of what Jesus says goes against conventional wisdom and our earthly habits: love your enemies, the first shall be last, or Sabbath being made for man.

The disciples know Jesus's mission is about to hit the climax, and their minds are still stuck on who of the twelve is going to be the second in command. This is the Last Supper. Jesus is not trying to be cute, pithy, or even wise. This is his last chance to drive home, yet again, the real meat of his message, even though the disciples keep missing the point.

"For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table?" They have been trying to figure out the answer to this question for the past few weeks, and Jesus finally gives them some kind of an answer. There is just one problem: "But I am among you as the one who serves."

The Testimony of Persecution

On no other point is the Chinese church and the Western church more different than the theology of persecution. The Chinese house church has even asked the Western church not to pray for an end to persecution, because it is the purifying fire of the Lord.

They have a point, actually. Not only do we see Jesus here in Luke 21 preparing the disciples for persecution to come, but within a few months it was already starting, and we see Peter and the apostles "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name" (Acts 5:41). Not only is it purifying fire, as the Chinese church states, but Jesus says here that persecution "will be your opportunity to bear witness".

Persecution is far from the minds of most of us. We struggle to even know how to approach the topic. Yet, many of the Dong are "hated for my name's sake". How can we pray for them? If we do not pray for an end to persecution, what do we pray for? Jesus himself gives some prayer pointers.

By What Authority

Mankind is all the same. We all strive to set up our own earthly laws because God's law is too much for us. We write our own set of rules so the game will go our way.

The chief priests strived to apply their rules to Jesus in asking him by what authority he spoke. If he says "by God's authority", they have him, because they know that they are the official priests of God's covenant on earth and some country rabbi cannot possibly supercede that.

In yet another witty and knowledgeable answer, Jesus not only confirms that God speaks through all kinds of people, but also establishes the true foundation of the priests' authority. Jesus brings up the example of John the Baptist, who was widely accepted as a prophet of God, yet was just some crazy guy in the desert. If the priests dared say he was not from God, the people would have mobbed them.

So, on what authority do the priests really speak if they fear the people's response? It is a dangerous game assuming God is on our side or that we have ascertained the mind of God. Mankind loves to set up little kingdoms, as if God was going to share some of his power and dominion with us.

When the Impossible Happens

In the last chapter, we heard Jesus say that it is next to impossible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. The rich man walked away rich but lost. In this chapter, the same story comes to a different conclusion.

The chief tax collector, rich on other people's money, seems to have a complete change of heart. Before he even talks to Jesus, before he hears any wise or challenging words, the short man who everybody hates completely forgets himself and climbs a tree just to sneak a glimpse of Jesus.

Then, for some unknown reason, Jesus pays attention to him and says he wants to visit his house. Unlike the previous rich man story, Zacchaeus was not hunting for a free ticket to heaven. Jesus did not need to talk about the commandments or give any teaching at all.

Rules or Relationship

"What do I do to get eternal life?" The rich man is asking the same question all of us ask. What do we DO? How do we earn heaven? How good of a person do I need to be? We want easy answers, a step-by-step process, or a procedure to follow.

Jesus first tells the man to follow the commandments, to which he replies that he has followed them from birth. The rich man thinks of the commandments as a set of rules, but the Ten Commandments (and all the Law) are really about relationship. Just take a look; every one of the Ten Commandments speaks to relationship, whether with God, our parents, our wife, or neighbors.

Pay Attention to Yourselves

The way of the world, and the easiest way indeed, is to keep a very accurate record of everybody's sins but our own. We tend to downplay our own faults, but talk through every detail of everybody else's.

In verses three and four of chapter 17, Jesus keeps our involvement in other people's sins to a bare minimum. "If your brother sins, rebuke him". He spends many more words and explanation on forgiving. The opening phrase to these two verses sums up the key thought, "Pay attention to yourselves!"

Managing Earthly and Heavenly Resources

How do we begin to approach Jesus's affirming words of the shrewd money manager in chapter 16? Use money to make friends? We do not hear too many sermons on that one.

Not until we dig into the last few verses of Jesus's explanation of the parable do we begin to understand his point. Worldly wealth (mammon) in itself is neither good nor evil. Our use of it, however, is what is good or evil. Jesus tells us to use this world's resources to accomplish truly eternal purposes.

The Love of the Father

As much as we may try to understand it, the love of the Father remains a mystery to us. Even if we see a perfect example, our view of love is distorted by our past experiences with humans, who rarely love fully and unconditionally.

In chapter 14, we saw Jesus dining with the Pharisees, which did not go so well. Whether they were trying to persuade Jesus over to their side or just to figure out where he stood, by chapter 15, they have a much better idea of what they think of him. Now, they are grumbling about his choice of friends.

In answer to their questions, Jesus gave them three illustrations, not of the Father's laws, justice, or equality, but of the Father's love: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. The last story, that of the prodigal son, is so personal and applicable for all of us.

Is It Lawful

Here we see Jesus going to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. As much as they hated him and he preached against them and their ways, we would not expect them to dine together as many times as they do in the Gospels.

In one word, what was Jesus's point of contention with the Pharisees? Legalism. They had spent lives in the pursuit of knowledge of their God's Scriptures, even if they had accidentally missed getting to know God himself. God speaks to this many times throughout the Old and New Testaments.

In Hosea, as Jesus quotes a verse later, the LORD says, "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." The whole point of the new covenant with Jesus was to fulfill and complete the spirit of the Law, which was not the rituals and traditions practiced by "good Jews", but was the search to know God himself.

Encouraging Fruit

Sure, we are expected to grow in the Lord and bear fruit, but the more we stress the expectation, the more we turn it into a new law to follow, a new law by which to judge each other. So, if judging is not our job, what is?

In Luke 13, Jesus tells the story of a fig tree that has not borne fruit for the three years since it was planted. If it does not bear fruit, the owner can find a better use for the ground it is taking up. So, he tells the vinedresser to cut it down and plant something new. He is the rightful judge.

Evaluating Our Motives

In Luke 12, Jesus reminds us, "Life is more than food and the body more than clothing." Birds have all they need and the flowers are so beautiful, but neither does anything to make it so.

We all so easily lose sight of our loving Lord. We feel blessed when we have good clothes, a nice house, and a little extra stored away in savings. Those things are fine, but Jesus tells us in these words to store up our treasures above instead of here on earth.

"Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail...For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Our Dong brothers and sisters struggle with this just like we do.

Learning to Pray

"Lord, teach us to pray." After Jesus had just prayed, one of the disciples voiced this request. Did the disciples see something wholly different about how Jesus prayed? They must have recognized something they did not have in their prayers if they asked him to instruct them.

Without any lengthy, lofty prayers, without wordy dissertations on the aspects of prayer, and even without much explanation, Jesus gives them a brief, but loaded model prayer. It is so pivotal to the Church that even if we have never tried, most of us have it memorized, and well we should.

Not only does it have all the aspects of prayer built in, but it has the purpose of prayer, aligning us with the will of the Father as we seek to see his kingdom established here on earth.

The Dong Man and the Samaritan

If, in the parable of the Good Samaritan, a Jew was asking Jesus who his neighbor was, then why did Jesus not make the injured man a Samaritan and the one who helped him a Jew? Would that have not been a better way to show the Jewish listener a good example of who his neighbor was?

If he had not switched the story around and it was a Jew doing the good deed, it would much more easily have just been a story with another Jewish hero, enough to evoke pride but not a humble and repentant response in practical life. Instead, Jesus wants the listener to feel he is in the place of the one lying on the road, not the hero but the victim.

Of course, if lying half dead on the road, few of us would cringe about who helped us, we would just accept the help. So, when we are not the ones lying on the road, we should use the same distinction in determining who our neighbor is.

Wealth in Their Hearts

In Luke 9, Jesus makes the statement, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." He was a homeless wanderer, a ragamuffin, and though he does not call all people to that same ministry, he does call us all to live with the same ruthless trust in him that we are willing to give up all these things for him.

The state of our hearts is the important matter. Jesus looks past whether we are technically obeying the law (which, by the way, is usually made by man, not God) and looks instead to our hearts. Christians should be homeless deep in their hearts, trusting not in the roof over their heads, but the Lord over their hearts.

Most of the Dong young people have spent years longing for something better. Very few are content in what they have, much less content in even less. They want to move to the cities, make money, have a car and a nice home, and not have to continue a seemingly demeaning life of working the earth for their daily rice.

A Spiritual Reality

How many of us really feel like the countless stories of Jesus casting out demons really apply to our daily life? It is truly outside the understanding and experience of many of us, but for the Dong people, stories like the one in Luke 8 is much more of a reality.

It is easy for us to read right past yet another story of Jesus casting out a demon, yet there is a wealth of information in each one. For us who seek to pray with understanding for the Dong people, these stories make up an excellent training course in the spiritual realm which can inform us of some aspects of the slavery and trickery under which the Dong people live.

What a Relief

Everybody needed a little clarification about the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus, even John himself. Though Jesus gave yet another riddled answer to John's inquiries, it seems to have brought up a topic Jesus had wanted to talk about.

When the people hear Jesus's glowing words for John, confirming he came to prepare the way for the Messiah, they seem to be very relieved. "They declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John" (7:29). They had accepted the message of John and now are accepting the message of Jesus, but did not quite know if that was ok, as if to say, "Are these two guys in agreement or have we accidentally switched sides."

It is much like the situation with the Dong. They do not quite know who is with who, which message is right, or whose message is more important. "Do I listen to this foreigner or that Chinese guy?" "Are they preaching the same message?" It is all a little weird to them, really.

Plain and Simple

"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil."

Now, who of us does not have a problem with this? "You mean I am supposed to continue to loan my money to that guy who never pays me back? That's bad money management." "I should be kind to that lady in the office who just spreads lies about me?" This is why the Gospel is polar opposite to every other religion out there.

We want to be praying for specific requests for the Dong people, and this is most certainly an issue for Dong Christians, just like it is for just about every Christian on this planet. Though incredibly simple, this message is probably one of the hardest things we will ever attempt, for we have to go against the very core of our sinful, selfish nature to follow the way of Christ.

Seen Enough to Know

Simon and partners were tired from another all-night fishing job, extra tired because it had yielded nothing. They may not have caught much, but at least they can use their boats to provide a service by giving Jesus a more comfortable speaking platform.

It was a community service; Jesus did not need to pay. Still, Jesus directs Simon to head back out in the boat and drop the nets again. We know the rest. Or do we?