Reflecting on Luke Luke 8:19-21
"My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice." (Luke 8:3)In this scene Jesus once again stresses what good listening is.
Good listening involves both hearing and doing what God asks.
This is key to living in harmony and fellowship with God.
I was raised to think of the Bible as God’s word to us.
This is both accurate and misleading.
Yes God’s word to people is recorded in the scriptures.
But what God said to Moses was not God’s message to me.
I have no doubt that God spoke to Moses.
But how and what God spoke was unique to him and his time.
God’s message changed, depending on the audience, time and circumstances.
Through those specific messages, God was revealing a core message.
That message, according to Jesus, is love for God and love for neighbour.
“All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:40)
The Law and the Prophets were shadowed and temporary revelations.
They were how God spoke at that time, but were not God’s final word.
Jesus is God’s final word, the fullest and clearest message from God.
In this sense, Jesus is God’s Word who we must hear and follow.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:1-3)
Hearing and following Jesus is the key to belonging to God’s family.
Jesus lives the life of love Adam and Eve were designed to live.
In His teaching, which surpasses the Law and the Prophets, we hear God’s word.
As a follower of Jesus, reading the Gospels is my daily bread.
I find great comfort in the words and ways of Jesus.
He consistently declares and demonstrates the love of the Father.
God is consistently called our Father, not our judge or king.
Those analogies may be true too, but they are secondary to the greatest truth.
God is my Father, I am God’s child, and I belong to God’s family.
I bear my Father’s likeness, and Jesus shows me what that likeness looks like.
Jesus, not Moses, not Paul, is God’s word to me.
Belonging to God’s family also gently convicts me for how I relate to others.
I need to see others as my brothers and sisters, and loved by God.
Jesus speaks of the ‘older brother syndrome’ in Luke 15.
Where the older brother resents the younger brother because of his sin.
The Father loves the prodigal son, and eagerly desires his restoration.
He waits with longing, and quickly embraces him without demanding justice.
Jesus models this with tax collectors, prostitutes and gentiles.
Jesus commands this, urging us to love our enemies like God does.
Am I hearing Jesus, and putting what He says into practice.
Jesus is calling me to love God as my Father and to love others as my family.
When family is healthy, love is the normal way of being.
We normally and naturally love our family, as it should be.
But for some reason we limit this to our immediate family, not to God’s family.
Every person that has existed is a child of God, whether at home or prodigal.
Jesus has taken down the walls that divide us, and made us one family.
Jesus is calling me to take down the walls too – to put His love into practice.
In my experience, Christians have used Moses and Paul to ignore Jesus.
They use the rest of the scriptures to justify NOT showing mercy or grace.
Jesus – not Moses, not David, not Isaiah, not Peter, not Paul – is God’s Word.
Their words served their purpose in their time, but are not God’s ultimate Word.
Jesus is!
If I want to live in, and live out, God’s family love, I need to listen to Jesus.
If Moses and Paul were alive right now, they would say the same thing!
Jesus is God’s Son, listen to Him!
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life! You have welcomed me into God's family, and invite me to live in, and to live out, the love of God. Help me to not only hear and enjoy Your message of love, help me to put it into practice.