Luke 12:4-13

     Please Note:  After today, the Bible Study will be taking a 2-week break - and will be back on May 4.   
    No doubt because of the gathering enmity, Jesus talks about priorities to his disciples. At this point he may also be addressing the crowds who’ve come to hear him. They need to keep priorities straight. Ones who can hurt or kill the body can do nothing more than that. They need to keep their eyes on eternity and the one who presides over it. Though he uses a fearful image of hell here, he goes on to speak of the more tender compassion of God watching over the sparrows that from a human aspect are sold for almost nothing. Even the hairs on a perso’s head are counted by God. He ends this little teaching by saying they should not be afraid, for people are of more value than many sparrows
    Note the use of the image of fear. Jesus spoke of “fearing” God who has charge of eternity, yet a few sentences later tells them not to be afraid. There are, of course, two kinds of fear. There is the kind we feel at pain or loss or approaching danger or disaster. But fear as the bible speaks of it in relation to God is something different. Respect and aw are closer in meaning here. In other words, we should feel tremendous respect and breathless awe for the lord who made heaven and earth, and who presides over eternity. But we need not tremble with any other kind of fear because of that. We are valuable to that same God.
     Jesus promises to represent his followers to God. His words are difficult to understand about forgiving those who speak against him but not those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, especially as elsewhere the impression is given that a loving God is prepared to welcome and love the returning sinner. One scholar suggests that the attitude of blaspheming the Holy Spirit is to be in a state in which no forgiveness is wanted nor could it be communicated to such a person. That might more sense in the context of the larger picture of God’s love. A person might voluntarily separate him/herself from God and forgiveness would mean nothing to this person in that state. But if the state would change, (as in the prodigal who came home) then a new possibility might present itself.
     Jesus goes on to speak of what seems to be another subject, related only by its connection to the Holy Spirit. When brought before the powerful of the world, they should not worry about what to say, because the Holy Spirit will teach them in that hour how to respond. In its own way, these words of Jesus are equally challenging. Many who have faced a difficult question or confrontation on their faith look back and wish the answers had come more easily and had been more effective or meaningful. Although Jesus could have been directing these words solely to his first set of disciples and the special challenges they would face, it seems unlikely it would have been recorded in the bible if that was the case. We generally have a conviction that what Jesus said to his first followers applies to all those who have sought to be his disciples.
     It is all right to have questions and not neatly package up something from the Bible as ‘understood and dealt with.’ In fact, nothing should be--we should always remain open for further growth and understanding. A passage we never “got” may suddenly gain meaning in certain situations. A passage we have loved but thought had nothing new for us may come to challenge us or raise new questions. It is a process of growth. One of the possible ways to approach these particular words is to remember that we can’t anticipate the times Jesus was saying his followers would meet. Our answers in such situations can’t be canned or said by rote. We can only prepare by trying to grow in God’s spirit and trusting in God rather than ourselves.

What things are fearful to you?
How do you discern the activity of God’s spirit in your life?

Luke 12:1-3

     What Jesus said to the Pharisees was in a private home, though the dinner party likely wasn’t private in the way we think of privacy. Scholars tell us that in a situation where such a dinner was held with a guest like Jesus, the home was open for people to come and listen to the dinner conversation. No doubt it was a mark of distinction if your home was a popular spot for those who wanted to be aware of the intellectual life of the community. And it probably added to the ire of the Pharisees that Jesus’ criticisms of them were not kept for their ears alone.
     Now Jesus has left the home, the Pharisees are looking for ways to catch him up, and the crowds have gathered in large numbers to see him. Jesus speaks first to his disciples, telling them to beware of the “yeast” of the Pharisees. They had not, apparently, been invited to dine along with Jesus, although some of them likely did join those who stood on the edge of the room to listen. But Jesus’ warning gives the impression that others may not have been there, and perhaps without thinking were considering Jesus’ presence in the prominent Pharisee’s house as a climb up the social scale for the ministry. Perhaps they thoug ht it was, by extension, a mark of distinction for them. But Jesus did not want them led astray by hypocrisy, which was common amongst many Pharisees. He told them that things that are hidden or covered and anything secret will become known. He applies it to the disciples saying that anything they have said in the dark will be heard in the light, anything they have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the rooftops.
     Jesus was not all about pointing fingers at other people. It’s easy to talk about other people’s hypocrisy and forget your own. Jesus seems to be seeking to guard his disciples against it by reminding them that you can’t count on anything remaining unknown. If there is something disjointed between what they claim to believe, and what they actually do, then they also will be discovered to be hypocrites.
      There was a time when Christians wanted to guard themselves against charges of hypocrisy or self-righteousness. There was an attempt by any Christians to prove that they were just like other people and didn’t consider themselves any better. One way some did that was to let their public behavior reach some of the lower common denominators. But the effort to prove they were no different from other people as Christians inevitably raises another question. Why be a Christian if Christians are no different from other people? Jesus called his followers to follow--not the standards of other people--but a higher internal one. It isn’t about being better than other people, but about continually becoming a better person than you were the day before.
     One of the more modern definitions of integrity is doing the right thing even when no else knows you are doing it. The words of Jesus here tell us he could approve of that definition.

If someone called you a hypocrite, how would you respond?
Has the hypocrisy of “Christians” ever bothered you?
Have you known people who used the hypocrisy of Christians/church-goers as an excuse to avoid church or active faith involvement?
What efforts do you make to lessen the hypocrisy in your own life and actions?