04-23-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 23, 2024
This one is a long one… my apologies.

Have you ever noticed that when someone summarizes what they’ve heard, what they offer as a summary is what they heard through their personal filters? Like many of you, I have gone to hear a speaker with some friends, and then afterward, we grabbed some dinner or coffee. The conversation around the table has often been fascinating as what I heard and what others didn’t hear said a lot about the filters through which we were listening. Something said early by the speaker might have struck me profoundly, and everything after that moment did not influence me enough to get me past those opening words.

This is where I find the closing words of Luke’s Gospel to be a fascinating experiment in what people heard and what they assumed was being said. In Luke 24:44, Jesus said:

‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ 

The only words of the resurrected Jesus that we have spoken to the disciples in Luke’s Gospel are words of peace, an invitation to look at his hands and feet, and then a statement of expectation that his disciples focus on the words of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, specifically those words written about Jesus.

Here is where one’s summary is extraordinarily important. What words from Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms are we to focus upon? What words was Jesus referencing? I could provide a quick summary based on passages I like from Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, but was Jesus referring to Bruce’s favorite Biblical hits? How a person summarizes what Jesus was specifically referencing will dramatically shape what a person thinks the church’s purpose and witness are. 

Now many will probably disagree, but I believe Jesus, as it is told in Luke’s Gospel, is wanting us to reflect on the clearest purpose statement Jesus would provide his followers. In Luke 4, Jesus referenced the Prophet Isaiah, while also giving a nod to the Jubilee teachings of Moses and the community’s remembrances of God’s librating power in the Exodus story as shared in the Psalm. Jesus does this in Luke 4:18-19, 

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

How might someone seeking the fulfillment of those words from Luke 4 differ from someone who focused on, perhaps, the “woe” statements by Jesus in Luke 6?

But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry. 
Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.

You can see how those would be very different.

It sure would have been nice had Jesus said during his resurrection appearance, “Let me summarize for you the top six items found in the words of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms that you need to know. Start with these…” But he did not. 

For that reason, we are left struggling and arguing over where to begin. In this, I will offer another idea. In Luke 9, Jesus said, 

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

Maybe a measuring stick in determining the specific words of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms that Jesus was referencing might be, “‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-24). If your summary of the key words from Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms requires nothing of you in any sort of profound or challenging way, then maybe your summary of the key words is off a little? But if your summary pushes you, even with some trepidation, to pick up the symbol of self-sacrificing love, then maybe your summary is on the right path. There is always room to grow, but this following Jesus will include some unpleasant and some not so easy-going moments.

Help me, Gracious God, to filter the key teachings and challenging instructions through a lens that honors your self-giving upon the cross. I could easily filter out anything that is demanding or might cause me discomfort, but I’m pretty sure such a life would not reflect Jesus or the life he was hoping his followers would live. Continue to put before me his life-witness as a way of measuring my own life of faith. Amen.