The Lutheran Hour
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"Orders Is Orders"
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Text: Luke 10:25-28
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Because the crucified and risen Christ has done for us what we could not, our sins are forgiven and we are saved. May the Spirit grant hope to our hearts and transformation to our lives. May that be this Lord’s Day prayer. Amen.
The other day I came across a list of the simple pleasures of life. On that list were things like: soft pajamas – holding hands – a light snow on Christmas – watching a first-grader suddenly understand something – not having to set an alarm clock for tomorrow morning – taking a family picture where everyone’s eyes are open and every smile is sincere. The person had apparently spent some time putting together the 100 items on their list. I agreed with some, didn’t understand others. There was one item which I thought was noticeably absent. You may disagree with me, of course, but I think most people would put on their list – finding out an expert was wrong.
Fifty plus years of human observation has convinced me there are few things which give greater pleasure than seeing an expert proven to be wrong. Yes, it’s probably petty, and just a little juvenile, but it’s true. Think, what is your reaction when you hear experts predicted train travelers would get nosebleeds if they exceeded the blinding speed of 15-miles-an-hour? Don’t you smile? Don’t you get a little grin knowing that when women were first offered typing lessons, the experts predicted the delicate female constitution would be unable to withstand the strain? Well, maybe not everyone’s amused by that one. But you might smirk when I tell you Joshua Coppersmith was once arrested in Boston for selling stock in the telephone. Why was Coppersmith arrested? He was arrested because the experts knew the human voice couldn’t be carried over a wire.
Most people find it makes them feel good when an expert is proven wrong. Years ago I was invited to attend the 65th wedding anniversary of a really neat couple. Both were healthy, sharp, able to do just about everything they wanted. They were pleasured as their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren eulogized and congratulated them. I remember, as if it were yesterday, how the groom of three-score-years-and-five got up and said “Thank you.” He continued: “This has been a most satisfying day. It has been satisfying for us to have so many of you gathered here. It has been satisfying to hear the kind things you’ve said. But it’s most satisfying to know our parents were wrong when they told us our marriage wasn’t going to last.”
People like it when an expert is proven wrong. Numerous times I have visited with someone who could hardly contain himself as he told how he had now outlasted all the medical folk who had predicted he only had six months to live. I’ve watched a normally serious and sober man dance around in glee because he had managed to get his jalopy going – after the mechanic had said the vehicle was dead. I’ve seen the joyful tears of a mother who gazes upon a newborn baby sleeping by her side. The mother cries because the experts have been wrong in telling her she would never have children. And you know what? The experts, the ones who had given her that sad news, cry right along with her. The experts are just as glad as the mother that they’ve been proven wrong.
Proving an expert wrong, really is one of the simple pleasures of life. That’s because most of us like to be right and most of us like to prove the experts wrong. That was probably the motivation of a lawyer who once visited with Jesus. The tenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke tells of a legal-eagle, a Scripture expert who came to dialogue with Jesus. Well, actually, dialogue is probably a pretty poor choice of words to describe that meeting. Luke says the lawyer came to “test” Jesus. It may be of some help if you think about the meeting as being much like a high-noon shootout which was once so popular in old Hollywood westerns. On the one side of the street there was Jesus – a fellow who spoke with authority; who showed He had power to heal the sick as well as forgive sins; a teacher whose thinking and actions could hardly be called “conventional.”
On the other side of the street there was this lawyer; most probably the man was an educated individual – a student of the Old Testament – a man who stood solidly on the status quo. Now the Bible is silent as to why the lawyer challenged Jesus. I’m guessing when I say he might have been trying to make a name for himself, or maybe he was just trying to show everyone Jesus didn’t deserve His reputation. I can say the showdown, where blazing guns were replaced by Old Testament Scripture, must have been something to see.
The lawyer drew first. Knowing the Old Testament prophecy of Daniel 12:2 which said “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt,” the lawyer asked: Jesus I’d like to have some of this everlasting life stuff. Tell me what I have to do to get it. It was a good beginning; a beginning designed to shoot the Savior down before He ever had a chance to draw. If Jesus answered, “You don’t have to do anything, I’m going to do it all for you;” the lawyer could sarcastically say, “And who do You think You are… the Son of God, or something?” If Jesus answered, “Follow all the laws in the Old Testament,” the lawyer would counter, “Then why aren’t your disciples doing that?” It was a question designed to make the lawyer win and Jesus lose.
The lawyer waited, the disciples waited, everyone waited to hear the Rabbi’s answer. Jesus spoke: “Tell me, Mr. Lawyer, what do you find in the Old Testament? What does it say?” The lawyer, maybe thinking Jesus didn’t have an answer, gave a reply to his own question. He quoted a command God had given to His people in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. There God had said, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). The lawyer wouldn’t have had to think twice about quoting that passage; most faithful Jews spoke those words twice every day. The second passage quoted by the lawyer might have been a little less familiar. From Leviticus (19:18), another Old Testament book, the lawyer recalled: We’re not to take vengeance or bear a grudge against our own people. We’re supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves. The conversation, the showdown, ends when Jesus, without adding anything says: Good answers! Orders is orders. Do these things and you will have eternal life. Well, He said that, or something close to it.
The lawyer might have felt pretty good about the whole exchange until he realized Jesus hadn’t said anything controversial; Jesus hadn’t said anything which could be argued. You can almost see the lawyer’s mental gears overheating as he searched; as he searched for some way, any way, he might come out of the duel looking like a winner. In desperation he asks: That’s fine and well, Jesus, but don’t we have to define our terms? God said we shouldn’t take revenge on our neighbors when they’re God’s people. Tell me, exactly who are God’s people; who is my neighbor? Jesus answered the lawyer’s question by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. You remember the story, don’t you? It’s the beautiful narrative of how an outcast of society, and not its many respected and upper-crust religious types, performed an unexpected act of charity. The Good Samaritan parable was Jesus’ way of saying: “There is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all” (Romans 10:12). Having finished the parable, Jesus concludes His conversation with the lawyer by giving him the encouraging command: Go and be good to everybody.
So there you have it. Jesus is vindicated; the expert lawyer is shown a thing or two and the world is given a great story. Well, my friend, if that’s all you get out of today’s message, I’ve done a pretty poor job of sharing what you need to know about the Savior and His conversation with the lawyer. I’d like to continue. I’d like to continue by asking you some questions. Ready? OK. Question #1: In 1884, in the small town of Decatur, Rhode Island, immigrant shoemaker Ronald Nibock built a shoe factory. What was the purpose of that factory? Do you need me to repeat the question? I’ll be glad to. In 1884, in the small town of Decatur, Rhode Island, immigrant shoemaker Ronald Nibock built a shoe factory. What was the stated purpose of that factory? That’s question #1. Question #2: Well, there isn’t any question #2. So, how did you do? What was your answer? Did you say the purpose of Ronald Nibock’s shoe factory was to make shoes? If you did, you were wrong. The purpose of Ronald Nibock’s shoe factory was to make money. Easy, easy, let’s not get all groany and complainy. Making money was the purpose of the shoe factory – making shoes is how Ronald made the money.
So, how did you do? I’m sure some of you got it right. If you did, and even if you didn’t, let me ask another question: More than 2,000 years ago our heavenly Father sent His Son into this world. What was, and is, the reason Jesus entered this world? Did you hear that? Why did Jesus come into this world? If you, like the lawyer, think that Jesus came into this world to be a teacher, a rabbi, a person who can give us some truths, you would be partially right. Read through the words of the Savior and you will hear Him saying things like, “Love your neighbor,” and “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.” And while it’s true that those sayings teach wonderful God-given truths, Jesus was far more than a teacher, a philosopher, a moralist.
Why did Jesus come into this world? Some religions say Jesus came as a prophet. History verifies that Jesus did speak with a prophetic voice, accurately telling what the future would bring, clearly sharing Divine thoughts which could only come from the heavenly Father’s mind. But Jesus was more than a puny-prophet; He was the Son of God. Look and see: the Holy Spirit-inspired Scriptures clearly ascribe to Jesus the unique names, the special works, the Divine attributes, the honor and glory, which can only be rightly given to the Son of God. Why did Jesus come to this world? Have you come into contact with a church which maintains Jesus came to us as a prototype of what fine fellows we humans can be if we’re really ready to work at being good. If that’s what the experts have said to you, you should know they are terribly, totally wrong.
Why did Jesus come into this world? No matter what any expert might say, that expert is wrong if he doesn’t say this truth: Jesus came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. That’s the message which comes through loud and clear if you look, really look, at the lawyer’s conversation with the Christ. The lawyer said, and Jesus agreed: if you want to be saved you have to love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and all of your mind; with all of your strength. If you want to be saved, you need to love your neighbor, which means you must love everybody as much as you love yourself. And that, my friend, is something you can’t do. It’s something none of us can do. There has never been a person born, other than Jesus, who can love God with that kind of intensity or that kind of purity. None of us can love our neighbors as ourselves.
As each of us lives our lives, the most any of us can say about ourselves is this: we have successfully managed to develop a finely tuned “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” philosophy of life. Forget about loving someone as much as we love ourselves; we don’t do it. If someone is kind to us, we will, on a good day, most probably repay that person with an equal benevolence, an equal amount of respect, but no more than that. On the other hand, if someone treats us with disrespect, dishonor, or disregard, we feel perfectly justified in doing the same to them – with a little negative interest thrown in for good measure. It’s reasonable, it’s rational; no one can argue against its fairness. And no one can argue that this sinful human quality has allowed hatred, prejudice, cruelty, and revenge to flourish in every century, in every community, and in every human heart. And I caution anyone who might be foolhardy enough to say something like: While I may not be so good at loving my neighbor, I’m pretty solid when it comes to loving the Lord. The Lord Himself dismisses that kind of thoughtless talk when He inspired the Apostle John to write: If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20).
Because, we can neither love God nor our neighbor is why Jesus came into this world. Jesus came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Did He love His Father when we do not? He did. It was love for His Father which first had Him leave the perfection of the heavenly paradise and be born in a stable. As a young man He confessed He had to be about His Father’s business; as an adult there was never a time, a moment, when He forgot that His Father had sent Him to redeem lost and condemned sinners, to purchase and win us with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. It was love of His Father that had Him reject Satan’s false shortcuts to success; it was love of His Father that had Him shoulder the sins of each of us; it was love of His Father which took Him to the cross and which kept Him there until the moment He could say His work was finished. All of this was done so Christ’s perfection might cover our limitations and His faithfulness might erase our infidelity. Yes, Jesus loved the Father.
Why did Jesus come? He came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Look at how He loved us. He heals the unclean leper and puts His love between an adulteress and a crowd set to stone her. He patiently teaches those who seem set on ignorance and holds out the hope of forgiveness to those who seem set on hatred. Does He love you? See the all-powerful Son of God collapse in Gethsemane’s dirt as the weight of our sins was laid upon Him. Look at Him as He is put on trial for His life. Men lie as they try to tarnish His perfection, but He does not defend Himself. Which of us would have remained silent? His love for us is the motivation which keeps Jesus from escaping; from demanding justice. His love for us is why He does not strike His accusers and His false judges dead with a stare; He does not pull the nails out of His hands and send them flying into the hearts of those who placed Him upon the cross. Jesus endured all this because He loved us. Jesus suffered all this so all who believe on Him might be forgiven. Jesus came to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He came to save us; to save anyone whom the Holy Spirit would bring to faith. Did Jesus love us? Look to the manger, gaze upon the cross, stand in awe before His empty and open tomb.
We started out talking about the simple pleasures of life. You know, things like being safe and dry when a thunderstorm is booming outside; things like picking up a friendship years after you left off; things like seeing your dog waiting at the window when you pull into your driveway. As this sermon was being written I began to wonder what heaven’s simple pleasures might be. Then I realized that Jesus has told us. He says this: “There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” So your repentant heart might be forgiven is why Jesus came. By the Holy Spirit’s power repent; and by the blood of the crucified and risen Lord be forgiven; so the angels in heaven might have the simple pleasure of seeing your salvation. Telling that story is one of the simple pleasures for all of us at The Lutheran Hour. If you wish to know of that Savior, call us. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for July 15, 2007
TOPIC: Sleeping Or In Heaven?ANNOUNCER: Now Pastor Ken Klaus answers questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer. And Pastor, today a question prompted by a magazine article.
KLAUS: Mark, the article is about heaven, and it presents several ideas for us to discuss. The first thing it maintains is that people just fall asleep when they die. They awake in the resurrection and then go to heaven. The second thing the article talks about is that, in the author’s view, there are only three people in heaven right now: Enoch, Elijah, and Moses.
ANNOUNCER: Now, the Bible says Enoch was the man who walked with God, and the Lord took him directly to heaven without him having to die first.
KLAUS: Elijah, the Old Testament prophet, was also taken up into heaven on a fiery chariot.
ANNOUNCER: But, as for Moses, the Bible says he died.
KLAUS: Yes, that’s what the book of Deuteronomy says (34: 5,6). Jude talks about an argument between the archangel Michael and the devil over Moses’ body. The reason people think that the body of Moses was taken to heaven is because he shows up on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and Elijah.
ANNOUNCER: And the Gospel writers don’t indicate it’s only the spirit or the soul of Moses that appears?
KLAUS: Yes, there’s nothing in Scripture that makes us think anything like that.
ANNOUNCER: OK, so those are the three fellows listed in this magazine article. Now, do you have any problem with that idea that Moses, Elijah, and Enoch are in heaven?
KLAUS: No, I really don’t. But we shouldn’t take that to mean that there are only three people in heaven right now. That relates to the other question about whether we go to sleep when we die.
ANNOUNCER: Well, that’s what Jesus said when his good friend Lazarus had died. He said, “He’s only sleeping” (John 11:11).
KLAUS: Yes, Jesus did say that, and the disciples misunderstood the Savior’s meaning. The disciples thought: If Lazarus is sleeping, that’s a good thing. If he’s sleeping, that means he’s going to get better. Jesus quickly put that right when He said, very plainly, “Lazarus is dead” (John 11:14). Mark, we should also point out that Jesus said the little girl that he brought back to life was also sleeping.
ANNOUNCER: So… do we go to sleep when we die? And, is this just an opinion or is this something we can know for sure?
KLAUS: Mark, the Bible is the authority we have to turn to for an answer. Jesus said to the thief on the cross: “Today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). When Stephen was being stoned, just before he died he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). The book of Revelation says, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” Paul desires “to be with Christ,” and adds that that is “far better” for him to have that than to have his body keep going on (see Philippians 1:23, 24).
ANNOUNCER: So why does Jesus always refer to death as “sleep?”
KLAUS: Well, I can give a number of answers to that, Mark. First, to the all-powerful Son of God, death is nothing more than sleep. Second, when Jesus talked that way He was fully aware of what He was going to do, He was going to wake up the person who was sleeping.
ANNOUNCER: To wake up and resurrect the person who was dead.
KLAUS: Right. Third point: Jesus’ entire life and death was undertaken to redeem us from sin and death. Because Jesus successfully has saved us, death is no more to be feared than sleep is to be feared.
ANNOUNCER: And who doesn’t enjoy sleeping?
KLAUS: Well, it’s certainly not a scary thing. But that doesn’t mean the person actually is sleeping when we talk about death this way. The souls of believers are in heaven with the Lord. We close our eyes here and open them there to await the Last Day when God will give us resurrected and glorified bodies and make all things new.
ANNOUNCER: Now, I’ve always wondered: did the people that Jesus raised from the dead ever get mad at Him for doing that? I mean, they were already in heaven, and now they’re brought back here again. Eventually they’d have to die all over again. That seems a little strange, doesn’t it?
KLAUS: Others have asked that question, too. Did those people who were brought back from the dead miss heaven? I would think they might have… if they remembered what they had experienced there. If they had remembered, they would have been glad to be going back when they died. If they didn’t, they would, like the rest of us, have to put their trust the Lord that He would someday bring them to the perfect paradise He had promised. And that would be enough.
ANNOUNCER: This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“No Temple Now, No Gift of Price” by Timothy Dudley-Smith and Joseph Herl. © 1984 Hope Publishing Company and © 1998 Joseph Herl.
“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” by Jan Bender. From Te Deum by the Kantorei (© 2000 Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne)
“Fantasia on ‘Lobe den Herrn’” by John Vandertuin. From Glory to His Holy Name by John Vandertuin (© 1999 Artisan Classic Organ, Inc.)