One of the verses in the bible that shows God’s matchlessness is found in Isaiah and it says “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways’, declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). If we are true to ourselves, the reality is that we do not fully grasp what that means. We often act as though God is just an extension of ourselves, a better version of us when in fact, He is nothing like us. It’s true that we are made in His image, but we are not Him. We were created to emulate some of His qualities and character traits, but we are really not like Him. He is too many steps ahead of us, in fact He says, that we are not thinking in the same way so there’s that. It’s quite humbling, isn’t it? In the gospel of Luke, it dawned on me that Jesus was indeed the image of the invisible God to us, that indeed God chose the fullness of His deity to dwell in Jesus (Colossians 1:19). We see this in the interactions Jesus had with his contemporaries. He was always different than his contemporaries, in words, in speech, in actions, he was just different! To the point that Pharisees and Scribes could not tolerate him. Whenever people came to Jesus it was always with preconceived ideas, they wanted Jesus to either approve or congratulate. The same goes with us today, we have a way to approach Jesus that is very similar to the way people approached him back in the day. We come to him with our ways and thoughts and expect him to commend us. However, that is not the way to come to Jesus. As he said, “he came to seek and save the lost”, he came for those that recognize their “sickness”. Today, I would like to look at a few passages from the book of Luke where people approached Jesus and draw from it the way to approach him.
The first passage I would like to look at is the encounter that Jesus had with Sadducees where they came to him with a question as it was the custom of many people during that time. Jesus’ contemporaries knew there was something different about him and that he could answer their questions. We know that in the case of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes, their coming to Jesus was often to prove their point or make Jesus fall so they could arrest him on account of his words. In this particular encounter, the Sadducees who we are told do not believe in the resurrection of the dead came to Jesus with a hypothetical scenario and asked a question based on that hypothetical scenario. The hypothetical scenario involved a man who had a wife but no children. That man had seven brothers and he passed away. Because the Law of Moses stated that a man who died without children and left a widow must have the man’s brother marry his widow to bear him children, in this hypothetical scenario, all the brothers married the man’s widow. As it turns out, none of the seven brothers bore the man children so the question is then, “at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” (Luke 20:33). This scenario alone is a mouthful! What caught my attention in this passage was the fact that the Sadducees came to Jesus with a difficult scenario to confirm their preconceived idea on the resurrection. The scenario was meant to show Jesus that the resurrection is a fallacy because “look at this far-fetched scenario we are throwing at you”, “come on, if the resurrection exists as you claim, then tell us whose wife this man will be in the end”. I am not sure if you have ever read this passage from this angle before, but it was too clear to me that the Sadducees came to Jesus with the sole purpose to hone their point. It was not to know if there was another way. I love Jesus. His response blows the Sadducees away. He tells them that indeed there is a resurrection, that marriage after the resurrection will not be what it is on earth and finally he tells them that death would no longer have power. From his response, Jesus showed the Sadducees that their thinking was far-fetched and that their thoughts was nowhere near his. Do you see how Jesus is the image of God in this scenario? He thinks like the Father, Jesus is the only one who can claim that his thoughts are God’s because he is God.
The second passage I would like to look at is that of the Pharisees in the same chapter of Luke 20. In this story, the Pharisees, came to Jesus with the sole purpose to catch him in something he would say. It is important to note here that the Pharisees were in complete opposition to Jesus. Just like the sinful nature is at odds with the spirit. That reality was vivid when you look at the interaction between the Pharisees and Jesus. The Pharisees sent spies who pretended to be honest. In other words, they came to Jesus with hypocrisy does that sound like the devil’s tactics? They asked Jesus whether it was right for them to pay taxes to Caesar (Luke 20:22). The question was a loaded one. The build up to the question is also worth a mention. They first address Jesus as “teacher” and tell him that they know he speaks and teaches what is right and that he does not show partiality but teaches the way of God in accordance with the truth (Luke 20:21). If many of us were addressed in this manner today, we would be extremely pleased and would be very predisposed to respond in the favour of whoever was addressing us. Unlike us, Jesus was not swayed by the compliments of men, he knew men’s hearts. As a matter of fact, Jesus did not need anyone to tell him who he was, he knew who he was and most importantly His Father knew who he was and approved of him! Having set the tone well for their question, the pharisees then dropped the bomb. The way the question was phrased was a dead end. Whether Jesus answered “yes” or “no” would still put him in trouble. But Jesus, seeing right through their duplicity asked them to show him a denarius which was the coin used in those days as currency. Upon being presented the denarius he asked, “whose portrait and inscription are on it?” and the response was “Caesar’s” to which Jesus added the famous words “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Luke 20:25). Once again, Jesus’ answer shut the mouth of his enemies and taught them a lesson. Jesus always pointed people to what is important. In this case, God had to be a priority not doing other things and neglecting God.
The third passage I would like to look at is that of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. In Luke 18, we are introduced with this tax collector who by the way was not a noble profession within the Jewish society at the time since the role of the tax collector was to collect the taxes and give it to the Romans. Moreover, many of the tax collectors charged more to their fellow Jews. Being a tax collector was not far from being an outcast. Zacchaeus is not just a tax collector, he is a “chief” tax collector, and he is wealthy. What an interesting combination. You would think a man like this does not have issues but as we will see in the story he did. The particularity of Zacchaeus is that he wanted to see Jesus. He heard Jesus was in town and he jumped at the opportunity. Nothing would faze him, not even his height! You see, being a short man, he knew he did not stand a chance to see Jesus in the crowd so, he climbed a tree. I don’t know if climbing trees were something people of his rank would do often, but I’d like to believe that Zacchaeus set aside his pride to see Jesus. To Zacchaeus’ surprise, when Jesus got to the tree where he was on, he called him out and told him the best news he could have ever imagined. Jesus was coming to dine with him at his house! Not in a million years could Zacchaeus imagine this turn of events. He thought he came to see Jesus but as it turns out, Jesus was seeking to meet with him. The Father who pursues us did that with Zacchaeus. Before Zacchaeus could love Jesus, Jesus loved him first. Zacchaeus thought he would only see Jesus, but he got to meet Jesus. He got above and beyond what he imagined he would get. Zacchaeus invited Jesus to his house and to his heart. There was a change that happened in Zacchaeus to the point that he vowed to make amends to the people he had hurt; he vowed to live in a manner worthy of the Lord. To that Jesus responded, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:9).
In all these three stories, we see that there is a right way to approach Jesus. When you come to him elevated, you return empty but when you come to him with humility you receive salvation. The Pharisees and Sadducees did not come to Jesus to receive from him because they had it all in their eyes; they were already righteous so there was no need to go to Jesus. In fact, Jesus needed their righteousness and so they came to Jesus to teach him their false ways. How sad. Unfortunately, that is how many of us come to Jesus. We do not come to him with humility, we do not come to him as people who know nothing and are in need of help. Instead, we come to him with a pompous display of our intelligence and wisdom which is actually foolishness, and we want him to think like us and do life like we would. I would simply challenge you to look at your prayer life and the way you address God, do you address him as a “poor in spirit” or do you come to him with answers figured out and just need his stamp of approval? I pray we search our hearts and ask God to search our hearts so that we learn to honour Him in the way we address Him and the way we serve Him for He is first and foremost our King not our buddy.
A Word Aptly Spoken 