Frequent Targets
It’s been over a decade since we’ve spent significant sermon time together in one of the Gospels. I’m really looking forward to going through Luke.
And with that, it will be hard to miss who Jesus was the hardest on. The gospels are full of good news for sinners. Jesus came for the “repentance and forgiveness of sins” (Luke 24:47 bibrefluke24 bibrefluke24v47). And the group that Jesus confronted the most were the group that considered themselves the most righteous.
In Luke’s Gospel the most frequent target of the Son of Man’s exhortations are the hypocrites. They are the ones who thought other people needed to repent (Luke 13:1-5 bibrefluke13 bibrefluke13v1 bibrefluke13v2 bibrefluke13v3 bibrefluke13v4 bibrefluke13v5). They were the kind who cleaned the outside of the cup but inside were full of greed and wickedness (Luke 11:39 bibrefluke11 bibrefluke11v39). They loved to get the best seat in the house of worship (Luke 11:43 bibrefluke11 bibrefluke11v43). They made others feel bad about their laziness while they themselves didn’t touch the work at all (Luke 11:46 bibrefluke11 bibrefluke11v46). These are the kinds of people who grumbled at Jesus.
Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32 bibrefluke5 bibrefluke5v31 bibrefluke5v32)
Sinners were included among those that today we’d recognize as celebrity pastors, the social media culture warriors, the published scholars, the ones who quote Bible verses. But their great knowledge didn’t always include great knowledge of their own sin. There was much hypocrisy, religious pretense, self-righteousness. If we would avoid that, we must not be offended by Jesus (Luke 7:23 bibrefluke7 bibrefluke7v23). Let us hear the word of God and do it.