Having Jesus' heart.

Luke 9

The Bible reveals to us how much God loves us and helps us to understand His nature and character. The Gospels give us to opportunity to see how, ‘God in the flesh”, Jesus reacts to situations revealing what is truly important in God’s eyes. Throughout history men have interpreted the Bible to fulfill their own needs or to fit into the culture. Negatively these interpretations have given us the crusades, Salem witch trials, and the inquisition. Positively, we have the pilgrims, John Hus, the reformation, Dietrich Bonheoffer, and any revival or renewal.

Theologically there are major differences among people of faith. One key example is predestination. To simplify this concept, some believe that God chooses only certain people to make it into heaven. He has “predestined” them from the beginning of time. There are scriptures that can be used to support this belief. AlI Presbyterians believe this way and so do many Baptist, Lutherans, and Episcopalians. I believe this theology to be in error. I believe that Jesus did for everyone and that we choose, not God. Whether we will spend eternity in heaven. God knows who will make the right choice but Jesus died on the cross for every man woman and child. That being said, I have many friends who believe in the doctrine of predestination who I love, believe they are people of God. They are not limiting God’s power to save they simple believe they know who will receive Jesus.

I don’t believe that anyone standing before the Lord is going to here God say, “great theology!” I believe, as Paul said, we all see through a glass dimly. As long as our theology has multiple strong scriptural support and our application does not deny the basics of our faith then we can stand on it. It is called loving with grace.

Jesus is addressing that in this chapter. In verses 46 – 56 Jesus is challenging his disciples way of thinking. Childishness is not condoned in the kingdom but childlikeness is! Jesus is saying be as loving, kind, humble and faith-filled as a child. They trust that you as the authority in their life, they love you just because you are you not for what you do; they believe you at your word. They do all of this until you teach them otherwise. When we are looking at others and talking with or about them we should act as a child, loving, trusting, kind, humble and faith-filled.

A group who are not part of the “Jesus group” apparently heard Jesus or His teaching and began to apply it. Because they were part of the “Jesus group” directly the disciples wanted to shut them down. We do this! If someone doesn’t act exactly like we do, talk like with do, align their theology exactly like we do we tend to shut them down in our hearts and minds. This is were grace comes in, I don’t mind people having differing opinions about non-essentials but I will take the time to discuss with them why they believe what they believe and will want to understand their interpretation of scripture. What has happened today is many make theological decisions based on their feelings or experiences rather than God’s word. In this case, Jesus wants all to come to know Him and the disciples “felt” they were protecting Jesus and His word. They misunderstood Jesus’ heart for the world.

Jesus next challenge for the disciples to understand His heart came in the form of prejudice. The Jews hated the Samaritans, so when they rejected Jesus coming they “felt” doubly justified in condemning them. Often we will hear about some one and make immediate decisions about them not based on the truth but misinformation, the on darkness of or hearts (we often make judgments about people based on our own sin issues or pain), or a lack of the full truth (the Aesop story of the blind men and the elephant, each describing the elephant based on the part they are touching). It is part of our sinful nature to always want to hear the worst. Watch the news or listen to talk radio to prove this point. Jesus saw the hearts of the people. He ended up spending quality time among the Samaritans. He understood some needed to hear in a different way and some need more patience than others. Love hopes all things, believes all things, endures all things, is patience…(for the rest go to 1 Corinthians 13)

It is easy for us to get on a spiritual “high horse” if we are not in the Word or spending time with the Lord. You might argue, the disciples were doing all of that and they still missed Jesus heart. You would be right! They did learn the lessons, look at their lives after the crucifixion. We will make mistakes along the way, that is part of learning. Simply learn the lessons well when they come along, learn Jesus’ heart and you will, as the disciples did, “turn the world upside down”!

Tomorrow - Luke 10