Volume 46, No. 7
Luke 18:9-17
Sermon prepared by Rev. Len Batterink, Duncan, B.C.
Proposed Order of Service
Call to Worship: Philippians 2:5-11
Hymns: #420 "Breathe on Me, Breath of God"
#483 "How Great Thou Art"
#480 "Jesus, the Very Thought of You"
#440 "Children of the Heavenly Father"
#461 "Beautiful Saviour"
Scripture reading: Luke 18:9-17 (esp. v. 17)
Sermon: "Upside-Down Kingdom"
Sermon
Has anyone every told you about the "Upside-Down Kingdom"?
That’s how people sometimes talk about following Jesus. They
say that when you follow him, ordinary life is turned upside-down.
And if you read through the Bible for a bit, that sounds right.
Over and over we see things getting turned around, turned backwards,
turned upside-down. Jesus said that in his kingdom the first will
be last and the last will be first (Matt. 20:16).
He said that whoever wanted to be great would have to be a servant
(Matt. 20: 26).
The apostle Paul said that God chose the foolish things of the
world to shame the wise, that he chose the weak things of the world
to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27).
According to Paul, Jesus was equal to God, and then he emptied
himself and made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant
(Phil. 2:6-11).
Jesus was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that through
his poverty we would become rich (2 Cor. 8:9).
After a while, you get used to the pattern. Things that make a
person important in our world become unimportant in the Upside-Down
Kingdom. And the things that seem weak and humble and poor —
they make us better people and take us closer to the heart of God.
And yet this Upside-Down Kingdom has surprises. We would think
that giving would be more important than receiving. That’s
the slogan we hear over and over — "It is better to give
than to receive." We would assume that selfish people have
a bad time in the Upside-Down Kingdom. They’re full of need
and desire, and it eats them up all the time. They’re jealous
every time a friend has a new car or a new house. They buy a rack
of new clothes and charge it on their cards and before they’ve
paid down their debts — at those wicked interest rates —
they’re already thinking about the next big buy. Giving? They
don’t know what it means. Receiving? They can’t do enough
of that. They have a hunger for more, and it’s the kind of
hunger that grows with the feeding — the more you get the
more you want.
We would assume that givers are the lords and ladies of the Upside-Down
Kingdom. They’re unselfish. They sacrifice. They give money
and time and talent to make the lives of other people better. They
have to be the greatest of the followers of Jesus, right?
And yes, we need givers. We need people who sacrifice, who give
money and time and talent to make this world a happier place. Without
givers we’d have to retire all the missionaries, call the
relief workers home, stop all shipments of food and medicine to
the developing world, and hope that somehow everyone will survive
in our "me-first" world. But not everyone will survive
in a me-first world. We can’t do without givers. Following
Jesus has to mean sharing with those who have less.
But here’s a surprise — we first need to be receivers.
Before we give, we need to take.
And then another surprise — it’s harder to receive
than we think. In some ways, receiving is worse than giving.
As Cornelius Plantinga says, receiving makes me look weak and
giving makes me look strong. If I have something that you need,
I look stronger than you. When I give, I look generous. That feels
good. We offer somebody a willing hand or a word of encouragement,
and it’s like we’ve done God’s work. God wants
us to be kind and compassionate, generous and giving, like him,
and that’s what we’ve been.
Of course, we can mess up our giving. We can give all our attention
to people who don’t really need it and ignore people who do.
We can give a lot to people who are already full and scrimp with
people who are hungry — people who might need only a word
of praise. We can give but do it in a totally patronizing way and
make the other person wish we hadn’t bothered. Our giving
isn’t always done just right. Still, to have something to
give is to be a little bit like God.
So then, what if you’ve got nothing to give? What if you
have to be on the receiving end all the time? You’d feel passive.
You’d feel dependent. You have to hold out your hand to other
people. If you think that sounds easy, think again. Many people
worry about becoming dependent. What if I get so sick that strangers
have to give me a bath? What if I get paralyzed and they have to
feed me like a baby? What if I get caught in some disastrous sin
and have to depend on the grace of others just to get out of the
mess?
Years ago Theodore Minnema, Professor at Calvin Seminary, gave
a convo-cation speech called "Human Dignity and Human Dependence."
It began with a newspaper report about the death of June Spencer
Churchill, the daughter- in-law of Britain’s prime-minister.
It seemed that a coroner’s court had decided that her death
was a suicide. She wanted to die, they said, "because she knew
she was riddled with cancer." For years she had had cancer,
and for years she had been a member of the Euthanasia Society. And
finally, when she had cancer in all her bones, when she was looking
at the prospect of paralysis, she took an overdose of heroin. The
coroner said that she wanted to die before she became totally dependent
on others — she couldn’t stand that.
Dependency can feel like a terrible thing. Most kinds have some
stigma attached. Who wants to be welfare dependent? How many Christians
want to depend on help from the deacons? Most of us wouldn’t.
We’re told that it’s more blessed to give than to receive,
and we believe it. It’s easier to give too. A giver has power.
A giver has options. A giver can choose to be kind, almost like
God.
But Jesus tells us that we need to be receivers first. "I
tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God
like a child will never enter it" (Luke 18:17).Think of what
he’s saying here. Getting into the kingdom begins with us
holding out our hands. That’s hard. We’re grown-ups.
We’re supposed to take responsibility for ourselves. We’re
not supposed to wait for handouts and freebies. Hard work, discipline
— that’s how grownups get ahead, right? According to
Jesus, though, we first have to roll back our grownup habits and
become like children.
There are a lot of sweet things we can say about children, especially
very small children, babies with chubby hands who make soft laughing
sounds, who smile at us just because we bounce them on a knee. They’re
the perfect picture of innocence. The temptation is to make that
the whole point — that we need to go backwards in time and
become pure and innocent again. After all, we can lose lots of innocence
while we grow up. And eventually it feels like we know too much,
like we’ve seen too much and said too much, and then, it’s
true, it would be wonderful to go back to being a little boy or
girl again.
But Jesus didn’t talk about children because they’re
sweet and innocent. He talked about children because they’re
bundles of need. In his time, people didn’t have designer
children, and families weren’t child-centered. After all,
a child was another mouth to feed, and you had to feed that child
for years before he was old enough to milk a goat or prune a vine.
Children didn’t produce anything. They couldn’t build
a barn or dig a well. They would just lie around all day. There’s
just one thing they are really good at, one thing they do better
than the rest of us, one lesson they can teach all of us. Jesus
points to children because they are such wonderful receivers.
That’s what we need to become. We need to become children
hungry for grace, hungry for love, hungry for forgiveness, hungry
for a new heart, hungry for guidance, hungry for justice, for mercy,
for a humble walk with God. When you’re a hungry receiver,
God will meet your need. He can’t meet your need if you’re
too strong, too independent. He can only give to receivers, like
children.
Here we can see the connection between children and the Pharisee
and the publican. Jesus told their story just before (Luke 18:9-14).
He told about a Pharisee who had righteousness and piety in abundance.
The man said himself that he was not like other men, and he was
probably right. The usual run of people had messier lives. They
were undisciplined. They’d often miss church because they
had "other commitments." The Pharisee was above all that.
And he was a giver too. He gave a tenth of his income to the Lord,
which, if you check the numbers with the Ministry of Revenue, is
way above the national average.
There was only one problem for the Pharisee, and it was devastating
— he couldn’t receive. He couldn’t receive because
he felt no need to receive. What did he need? What could anyone
offer to a man who is "not like other men?" And so he
asked for nothing and he received nothing. And that nothing included
the grace of God, his forgiveness, and a peace that passes all understanding.
From Day One we try to raise our kids to be responsible, to be
respectable. We teach them table manners. We teach them the Ten
Commandments and the Golden Rule. We tell them to work hard and
be honest. We tell them to get a good education. And on and on.
And, obviously, we should. What else can we do? Not bother? Of course
not.
There is a risk involved, though. We can create the impression
that being responsible and respectable is all you need to do, and
when you’ve done that right, you’ll make a great impression
not only on your mother-in-law but also on God, and he’ll
be absolutely delighted with you because you’re "not
like other men." You know something? You are like other men,
other women. So am I. And we all need to be receivers.
God has ways of getting the message across. There are commandments
we can use to check ourselves. There are Christian brothers and
sisters to keep us humble. And sometimes our defeats, our failures,
even our pain — they are messengers sent from God. From Paul’s
thorn in the flesh to Martin Luther’s depression to Joni Eareckson’s
paralysis to the last time you’ve been brought low, God finds
a way to send a message. He says, "You need me. You might think
you’re invincible. You might think you’re self-sufficient.
You’re not."
The Pharisee in Jesus’ story couldn’t be a receiver.
And the publican? He was nothing else. "God, have mercy on
me, a sinner" (v. 13). His head was bowed. His hands were empty.
And they were open. Those open hands — they made him like
a child. And children like that will enter the Upside-Down Kingdom.
There are a lot of ways you can be successful in the ordinary
world. Being the star on a team, getting high marks, looking like
one of those beautiful people in the shiny magazines, making lots
of money, living in an impressive house — on and on there
are ways to quit being a nobody and become a somebody.
When you’re a follower of Jesus, it’s harder, and
it’s easier. Just admit that you need him. Be a receiver —
a receiver of love and grace and faith and hope.
And remember — what Jesus gives will never leave you hungry.
Amen.
