A woe for me?
Luke 11:46 Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them."
I was reading this today and realized that maybe I was missing something or maybe I need to be careful as a minister myself and as a teacher and discipler of students. At first glance it seems that what Jesus is coming down on here is that the experts in the law were making loving God and following His ways a total burden. Jesus had yet to die and rise again, and so the context could not yet be the new covenant, but the principles probably apply. Since we are reading these words after Jesus provided a way to God through Him, totally based on grace and not works, we so often stress the relational grace elements, and downplay the religious works side.
Now I believe that if we make following Jesus a system, or something to do because you are supposed to or have to, then something is missing, and the passion and love and joy of following Christ gets replaced with duty, guilt, and work and eventually that leads to resentment, misery, and a frustrated life. But I think we need to find a way to not ignore the fact that Christ wants us to, in fact according to Ephesians 2:10 we are saved so that we can live out the good works we were created for! That is a glorious thought not a burdensome one. The King of the universe has laid aside things for us to do, and doesn't just forgive our sins, but invites us into bringing life and blessing and doing the work of the Kingdom. How cool would it be if the President of the United States called you and gave you a special mission, some extremely important task. That would actually be something to brag about to see as a highlight of your day, or year, or life. But when we take those good works and make them a boring, dead, burden they become something so different.
I think we don't know what to do with works as Christians now a days, and so we tend to avoid them altogether or just do them all wrong. I feel like there is great wealth and wisdom in spiritual disciplines for example, but in so many areas they are lost or looked down upon because they got misunderstood or misused or miscommunciated. But as a result there is something wonderful lacking.
I believe we are to teach people how to follow Christ and to obey all that he commands. The problem that Jesus had with the experts above though is not just that they put a religious burden on people, but more importantly that they themselves weren't willing to help. In other words, the greater sin was not that they were teaching laws, but that were doing so without love. To love people you teach is not just to tell them what to do, but help them carry there burdens, to help them accomplish good works, to help them live out there call to follow Jesus.
This is where I come in. I have to ask myself, as I call people and teach people to follow Christ, and do good works, am I also doing whatever I can to help them live that out? What exactly does that look like? Am I willing to just speak truth, or am I willing help someone live out truth even at a cost to me?
I hope so.
I was reading this today and realized that maybe I was missing something or maybe I need to be careful as a minister myself and as a teacher and discipler of students. At first glance it seems that what Jesus is coming down on here is that the experts in the law were making loving God and following His ways a total burden. Jesus had yet to die and rise again, and so the context could not yet be the new covenant, but the principles probably apply. Since we are reading these words after Jesus provided a way to God through Him, totally based on grace and not works, we so often stress the relational grace elements, and downplay the religious works side.
Now I believe that if we make following Jesus a system, or something to do because you are supposed to or have to, then something is missing, and the passion and love and joy of following Christ gets replaced with duty, guilt, and work and eventually that leads to resentment, misery, and a frustrated life. But I think we need to find a way to not ignore the fact that Christ wants us to, in fact according to Ephesians 2:10 we are saved so that we can live out the good works we were created for! That is a glorious thought not a burdensome one. The King of the universe has laid aside things for us to do, and doesn't just forgive our sins, but invites us into bringing life and blessing and doing the work of the Kingdom. How cool would it be if the President of the United States called you and gave you a special mission, some extremely important task. That would actually be something to brag about to see as a highlight of your day, or year, or life. But when we take those good works and make them a boring, dead, burden they become something so different.
I think we don't know what to do with works as Christians now a days, and so we tend to avoid them altogether or just do them all wrong. I feel like there is great wealth and wisdom in spiritual disciplines for example, but in so many areas they are lost or looked down upon because they got misunderstood or misused or miscommunciated. But as a result there is something wonderful lacking.
I believe we are to teach people how to follow Christ and to obey all that he commands. The problem that Jesus had with the experts above though is not just that they put a religious burden on people, but more importantly that they themselves weren't willing to help. In other words, the greater sin was not that they were teaching laws, but that were doing so without love. To love people you teach is not just to tell them what to do, but help them carry there burdens, to help them accomplish good works, to help them live out there call to follow Jesus.
This is where I come in. I have to ask myself, as I call people and teach people to follow Christ, and do good works, am I also doing whatever I can to help them live that out? What exactly does that look like? Am I willing to just speak truth, or am I willing help someone live out truth even at a cost to me?
I hope so.
posted by Ken | 11:19 AM
1 Comments:
Man great thoughts Ken. It is so easy for me to be a truth-speaker I think (maybe that is our sinful nature) and then not do anything about it. I too see that Jesus didn't call us to a lazy life, in fact I know He said that if we don't do good works we can be assured we are not in Him (1 John). Yeah, I need to check myself on this, I want to have a heart that helps people, that has grace on people, and that rejoices and weeps with them in triumphs and falls. And maybe it starts with just seeing what Jesus commanded us to do. Yeah, good thoughts dude.
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