Reading: Luke 12-13, Psalm 118

At one point in my life I injured one of my knees fairly badly. Not so badly that I couldn’t function, but badly enough that it made a change in how I walked. At the time I was working at a job in which I would spend a majority of my day on my feet, walking on what amounted to a concrete slab for eight to ten hours a day, as well as climbing ladders. It was not a recipe for knee recovery. Still, I did okay for a while. But eventually I found that the injury to my knee was causing me to have pain in my back, and realized I needed to do something about it. So I went to a doctor, and wound up in the office of a physical therapist. Now, let me just say that while I wasn’t happy with back pain or knee pain, it was manageable. It was familiar. I knew what was coming. None of this applied to the physical therapy. Some of it hurt much, much worse than the daily pain of walking around and climbing ladders. It was unfamiliar, unexpected, and really uncomfortable. In the long run, it paid off, but in the moment it was a terrible experience.

Jesus addresses the long term injury of the people of Israel, and in fact all of humanity, in his teachings in the gospels. In the book of Luke we find some of the most difficult language that Jesus ever uses. He talks about deep divisions that he is causing. He responds to questions in ways that are hard to read as anything other than frustration, at the petty concerns of materialistic people. He must deal with the concerns of even his own disciples over who will be given authority in his new Kingdom. Jesus has brought the new life of the Kingdom into the world, but it is like physical therapy for an old injury. The injury is comfortable and easy to predict. This new Kingdom life is uncomfortable and scary. It is exciting, but it hurts worse than the problems it addresses, at least in the short term.

It hardly seems worth it. But there is a major catch. Some injuries just limit your movement or cause occasional pain. Jesus leaves us no doubt that this one will kill you. He tells stories of a rich man who dies before enjoying his wealth. Of a fig tree that is cut down for not producing fruit. Of a servant who ignored his master’s order and so received a severe beating. The remedy that Jesus brings is for a really dangerous disease. This is not a minor malfunction that will make you uncomfortable, it is life threatening. Living this way will lead to death, and to a life lived like death. Even if the message Jesus brings is uncomfortable and difficult, it is worth it, because it leads to life.

Let’s look at the message. Jesus speaks of loving your enemies. He speaks of not worrying about the future but trusting that God cares enough about you to supply what you really need. He speaks about obedience to an absent master. Jesus is presenting a new kind of life that is abundant, generous, full, and beautiful. It sounds like many peoples, from many times, imaginations of paradise. Why is it so hard to accept? In terms of the Story of the Scriptures, Jesus is presenting a way back into the Garden. But his own people won’t go in.

There is a great deal more to say about today’s reading, especially how it ends with the appearance of Herod’s threat to kill Jesus, and how Jesus practically dares him to do it. Jesus and Herod are playing at two kinds of power, which will continue as a theme in Luke, as it has in the other gospels, right up to the confrontation with Pilate. On our theme, though, is Jesus’ follow up to the castigation of Herod’s threat- his lament for the city of Jerusalem. Jesus has just gotten through blasting the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, the people, and in some ways even his own disciples with the terrible news that not everyone who thinks they are living the new Kingdom life is really doing so. It sounds harsh. But then he turns and laments over this rebellious city that is about to put him to death. Jesus somehow is able to carry the anger and wrath of God against rebellious humans right along with mercy, love, and a desire that everyone come live in his new Kingdom. The harshest messages of Jesus are paired with pictures of his radical compassion. The new life that Jesus proclaims does not leave the injury in place, and so there will be pain and suffering and loss. The new life he proclaims will also restore even the most broken human, even those rebellious servants who knew what their master ordered and ignored it.