(The art gracing this post is ‘The Prodigal Son in Modern Life: The Return (1882)’ by James Tissot.)

We are a culture who loves and celebrates winners. No home crowd storms the court in jubilation for losers, risking a $25,000 fine in the process.

Throughout God’s Word, however, you find a contradiction. God loves and celebrates losers. That’s one reason why Jesus was so unpopular with the ‘winners’ of His culture:

All the tax collecters and sinners (i.e., losers) were approaching to listen to Him. And the Pharisees and scribes (i.e., winners) were complaining, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!’ – Luke 15.1-2

These verses set the context for three of Jesus’ most well known parables, one of them perhaps His most famous. In these parables we find losers who are:

Lost, but didn’t mean it. (15.4) If you work with sheep enough you know that they don’t know enough. A sheep could easily wander from the herd with no intention of going its own way and then find itself in real danger by separation. The good news is the Good Shepherd knows and loves enough to seek and find the one that is lost.

Lost, but don’t know it. (15.8) In the parable of the lost coin, the coin has no idea of its value. Its value comes from the desire the owner has invested in it. Make no mistake. Your Creator knows how valuable you are to Him whether you know it or not. That’s why He will ‘light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully’ until He finds you.

Lost, but don’t want to be. (15.17) In perhaps Jesus’ most famous parable, we meet a son who disregarded the value his father placed in him and willfully made himself lost. But dining with pigs has a way of bringing one to his senses. Upon his return the son (re)discovered a loving father who was ready, willing, and running to receive him home.

Each of these parables has 3 things in common: a loser, a finder, and a celebration. Whenever the lost is found the angels in heaven rejoice and a father throws a big party. Jesus wanted His listeners to understand that God loves losers.

A concluding word about ‘winners.’ God loves them also. But He expects them to rejoice, too, when the losers come home. Yours, Lee

For more from Pastor Lee, go to 2ten5.

(The photo gracing this post is ‘Faith And Healing‘ by Walter Tatulinski.)

Living in a place like Santa Fe causes you to change your perspective. I sometimes refer to Santa Fe as the ‘Hidden Kingdom:’ It takes time and real effort to discover what living in Santa Fe means and what value it can bring to your life. And while being so immersed in the search for the Hidden Kingdom, whatever happens out in the ‘real world,’ as important as it may be ‘out there,’ doesn’t seem so significant ‘in here.’

For me, ‘perspective change’ in itself is a neutral, benign thing. Its moral worth is determined by how you use it, by what difference it makes in your life. I wish I could say that the ‘perspective change’ that I’ve experienced these past 7+ years has been all for the better, but I’m not so sure. As an explanation, consider Luke 17.11-19:

Dear God, have pity on me! Help me to see that my only hope is – and has always been – Jesus. Help me, Lord, to be that one who comes back to praise you for my healing and salvation. Help me, Lord! Amen.

For more from Pastor Lee, check out his blog @ 2ten5.

Pat Robertson thinks that the Haitians are suffering because of their centuries-old pact with the devil.

A friend of mine recently received a call from his upset granddaughter.  It seems that someone at her church had informed her that ‘all the Haitians are going to hell.’  Not only was the grade-schooler upset, she was confused.  If they’re all condemned, why were people in her church encouraging others to aid the Haitians?

May I suggest that as an alternative we consider Jesus’ response to two tragedies that His popular culture believed would have been the result of sin?  Luke 13.1-9:

At that time, some people came and reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.  And He responded to them, ”Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all Galileans because they suffered these things?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well!  Or those that the tower in Siloam fell on and killed—do you think they were more sinful than all the people who live in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well!”

And He told this parable: ”A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He told the vineyard worker, ‘Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’

If you read carefully (or not even carefully at all), you’ll notice Jesus did not speak to the reason why the tragedies occurred.  Unlike Mr. Robertson, Jesus did not use the occasion as an opportunity to pronounce demonological judgments, though Jesus is the most qualified person to do so.

Instead, He used the tragedies to point to a greater truth and a potential crisis that would be greater than a puppet governor’s unreasonable and bloody rage, a tower’s failure, or a natural catastrophe – heading into eternity without God’s salvation.

Jesus instructs His listeners that what is more important than any personal comment on the mentioned tragedies is that ‘unless you repent, you will all perish as well!’  According to the Holman Christian Standard Bible translation, Jesus repeated the exhortation to repent word for word.  He then followed the call to repentance with a parable about a horticultural discussion on what to do with a fruitless fig tree.  Apparently, the vineyard worker won over the owner.  Give the fruitless tree one more year.  If then it produces no fruit, he’d get rid of it.

The point of this passage is this:  Jesus knows that tragedies will occur in life regardless of how one explains their cause.  What is most important is not why they happen, but are you ready for when your life ends?  God, as the Vineyard Owner, has provided for us a patient Vineyard Worker whose desire is for no fruitless life to end fruitlessly, but desires for each one of us to repent of our sins, believe in Jesus, and be saved.  Remember this, though.  There is a limit to the Vineyard Owner’s patience.

The crisis in Haiti is one of epic proportions.  A greater crisis, though, would be to go into eternity without Jesus Christ.  Repent, therefore, or you will perish as well.  Yours, Lee

For more from Pastor Lee, go to his blog @ www.2ten5.blogspot.com.

(The picture gracing this post is of St. Luke from a Byzantine manuscript.)

(The art gracing this post is ‘Good Samaritan’ by He Qi, a 2ten5 favorite.)

The parable of the Good Samaritan.  What could I possibly say that would add anything worthwhile to one of the most beautiful and well known stories in the history of Western civilization?  Nothing.

But I preach for a living, so of course I’ve got to say something.  So a few observations:

v25: Just then an expert in the law stood up to test (Jesus), saying, ‘Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’
A great question, but not the point of the conversation or the story.  The expert didn’t care about eternal life here.  He only cared to test Jesus and justify himself (v29).

v29: But wanting to justify himself, (the expert) asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’
This is the point of the story that Luke is relating here.  The expert wants to know who Jesus thinks are the ‘neighbors’ we are commanded to love in the first covenant (v27, quoted from Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18).  This is why Jesus tells the parable.

vv30-32: Go easy on the religious folks in this story.  Jesus’ first listeners would not have been too harsh on them because they would have known that the priest and Levite would have become ritually unclean had they stopped to help.  Besides, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notorious as a hangout for bandits and ne’er-do-wells.  Perhaps the injured man on the side of the road was mere bait to trap kind-hearted travelers to relieve them of their possessions – or lives.  How many times have you thought the same thing when you passed stranded drivers standing next to their cars on the side of the road?  Yet, the truth still stands: the religious, law-abiding Jews did not stop to help.

vv33-35: The Samaritan’s primary characteristic was not his kindness nor generosity.  Instead, his kindness and generosity were the result of his compassion (v33): the motivation from the core of his being that someone needed help and he was the one to provide it.  It is this same compassion that inspired the father to run greet the returning prodigal.  It is the same compassion that Jesus feels for those victimized, beaten, and left for dead by their sins.

v36: (Jesus asked), ‘Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’
This is another great question, and the point of the story.  Much to the chagrin of the expert in the law he had to admit the neighbor was the enemy – the hated, half-breed, heathen Samaritan proved to be more obedient to the law of love than the priest or Levite.

Most often I approach this story from the basic perspective of ‘Who is my neighbor/enemy, and how can I show God’s love to him?’  But for me there is also another perspective.  Who is the enemy who has loved me like a neighbor, like a friend, like a stranded traveler on the roadside of life, dead in sin?

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. – Romans 5.10

For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say whether things on earth or things in heaven.  And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach . . . – Colossians 1.19-22

Thank God that Jesus did not pass me by on the other side.  Yours, Lee

For more from Pastor Lee, go to 2ten5.

After months of studies, discussion and agreement, the Bible study group that I meet with each week has finally completed its working document which attempts to answer the question ‘Who is the church?’ from various scriptures, but primarily from a chapter by chapter overview of 1 Corinthians. Starting in the new year we will attempt to answer this question:

If this is who we are, then what should we do?

So here you go:

This is a hard word. And for this message I only considered four phrases from two verses.

Hearing the Word of God with the intent of listening and obeying is a recurring exhortation in Luke’s gospel. Luke uses it again in 6.27 where Jesus says, ‘But I say to you who listen . . .’ Jesus is not speaking to the simply curious. He is speaking to those who have an open heart willing to learn and obey. To the obedient hearer Jesus says:

Voluntarily extend unconditional godly affection toward those you hate. In the philosophical abstract this command may not seem so difficult. For example, in my mind I can conceive kindness towards a terrorist hiding out in Afghanistan or an atheist shouting epithets from New Zealand. But Jesus’ ethic is not about ambiguous generalities. Its about personal specifics. His command is to love the adulterous wife or the abusive father. His command is love the rebellious child and the insulting employer. His command is to love the one you hate. Part of the genius of this command, of course, is that the more you love your enemy, the more your enemy becomes the one you love.

Love who you hate. Do good to those who hate you. This is completely contrary to the American mindset. We learn early not to get mad but get even. From our first days on the school playground suffering at the whim of the upper class bullies we teach ourselves to wait and look for the right time to pay back in kind. Jesus’ command turns this cultural mindset completely on its head. He does not tell us not to get even. He tells us to do good to those who hate us. It is in this context that we find Luke’s version of the golden rule in v31: ‘Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.’ This negates the payback, the revenge, the eye-for-an-eye mentality.

Jesus’ first listeners placed a higher value on ‘the curse’ as a willful desire for a godly destruction upon others than our more sophisticated culture does. But even for us words mean something. So when people offer the 21st century version of a curse the command still applies. Instead of using words to insult or harm, we must speak words of blessing and kindness. In order for us to obey fully this command, our blessing words must come from a sincere heart of integrity. When we bless those who curse us our words must genuinely reflect our heart’s desire for the other to be blessed.

We must be careful not to contort Jesus’ commands into creating a culture of victims. Jesus is not advocating that we allow the abuser to continue abusing, enable the curser to continue cursing, to open wide our hearts to the enemy’s attack. If you discover yourself to be in an abusive relationship of any kind do all you can to get away from it. Likewise, Jesus’ command to pray for the abuser is not a solicitation to continue as a victim. It is a direction to respond with one of the most powerful instruments available to the Christian warrior: pray - turn the abuser over to God in prayer so that He might bring justice and deliverance to your situation.

These are hard words of command spoken from God Incarnate to the listening heart. The words are hard to hear. They are more difficult to obey. But should they be received with a Christlike desire and with the Spirit’s help these words can change your world, one enemy at a time. Yours, Lee

(For an explanation of the photo gracing this post which is of Jesus going the second mile with a Nazi soldier, go here.)

For more from Pastor Lee go to two10five.

(The art gracing this post is ‘The LORD Has Anointed Me,’ by Mark Lawrence, a two10five favorite.)

Which brings me to the title of this message. I don’t think I made it very clear in the spoken message why I felt inspired to give it this title.

According to the context of Luke 4.16-21, Jesus had just completed His desert temptation experience. As He was beginning His public ministry, ‘as usual, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day.’ I think its important to remember that during His time on earth Jesus regularly gathered for worship with God’s people. But that’s another sermon. As Jesus was honored with the responsibility to publicly read the Scripture, He read from Isaiah 61.1-3, then proclaimed, ‘Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.’

By that I believe He meant that He is the Anointed One who came to preach the good news to the poor, to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind, and to set free the oppressed and captivated. Jesus identified Himself as the fulfillment of the First Covenant Messianic prophecies and as the Savior of the world, a primary theme that runs throughout Luke/Acts.

But what I mean by the title of the message is this: maybe this message isn’t for you. Maybe you don’t identify yourself as poor (either economically disadvantaged or spiritually bankrupt); maybe you don’t see yourself as blind (either physically or in your heart); maybe you don’t recognize yourself imprisoned by a foreign occupying force or by the terrorism of your own sins. If you don’t, then you don’t need Jesus. If you don’t need Jesus, then you don’t need to listen to His message. So maybe this message isn’t for you. Luke makes it quite clear that countless people who heard Jesus in the flesh believed that His message wasn’t for them, either, so you wouldn’t be alone in turning a deaf hear to what Jesus said. That’s the inspiration for the title of this sermon.

But maybe you recognize your spiritual poverty. Maybe you’re helpless in your spiritual blindness, not knowing how to find your way out to salvation. Maybe you recognize the chains that bind you, keeping you from the freedom and joy that is God’s desire for you. If so, then today, listen to Jesus. He has come to give you good news, to open your eyes, and to see you free.

For more from Pastor Lee, go to www.two10five.blogspot.com

When was the last time you saw a preacher build a model city then lay siege to it? Or lay on his left side for 390 days, then on his right side for 40 days more? Or shave his entire head, burning a third of the clippings, beating another third with a sword, and scattering another third to the wind? All in an attempt to proclaim God’s prophetic word to God’s people?

Its personal illustrations like this – along with his incredibly described visions – that have helped to create the popular image of the prophet Ezekiel as a strangely odd spokesman for God. But should you investigate the prophet and his message a little deeper you would discover a man deeply in love with the Lord who desperately wanted his fellow citizens in exile to hear God’s word of judgment for their sins and hope for their restoration.

Though perhaps Ezekiel’s best known passage concerns the dry bones in ch. 37, ch. 34 describes a beautiful word of condemnation and promise. The condemnation is directed against the shepherds of Israel. In this context, those shepherds were the kings whom God appointed and expected to look after the political and spiritual needs of His people. With few exceptions, these shepherd kings failed miserably. Not only did they not care for the real needs of the sheep, they had taken advantage of the poorest and neediest, grossly violating God’s sense of justice. So through Ezekiel the LORD declared, ‘See, I Myself will search for My flock and look for them . . . I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a cloudy and dark day.’ (34.11-12) God promised to reclaim the lost sheep who had been scattered through rebellion, war, and exile, bringing them home so they might ‘feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.’ (34.14) As the sheep returned home, God promised to ’seek the lost, bring back the strays, bandage the injured, and strengthen the weak,’ shepherding the flock with His true justice. (34.16)

Throughout this word of hopeful restoration, the echo of the consequences of trusting in human leadership rather than God rings clear. The northern kingdom of Israel and later the southern kingdom of Judah turned their backs on their God of deliverance and sustenance, trusting in themselves and foreign powers for their protection and strength. Their trust was misplaced and their failure was assured because of their lack of faith in God.

But here is the good news of the Gospel: God is the covenant shepherd who keeps His promises regardless of the rebellious nature of His sheep. He kept His promise of becoming the personal shepherd for His people when He sent the Son, Jesus Christ. The author of Mark presents a beautiful picture of our compassionate Shepherd in Mark 6.34-39 when Jesus has the multitudes recline on the green grass in the wilderness so that they may be fed to their satisfaction from a few fish and loaves of bread. Then in John 10.7-10 Jesus Himself said this: