Good morning! If you have been here for a while, you know we are continuing the series called Learning to Live Like Jesus. It is a sermon series based on what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. We are getting close to the end. We are actually on chapter seven. Last week, Austin introduced the topic of judging others. This week, we are going to continue on with chapter seven with somewhat of a strange, interesting passage. A passage that is a little bit cryptic. It is only one passage, so I thought rather than having somebody read it, I would just read it from the screen. It says “Do not give dogs what is sacred. Do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under your feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.” This is one of those very strange verses and a verse that I think I could have probably skipped over and would have gotten no objections. We know in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all scripture is God-breathed and it is useful for teaching and rebuking and correcting and training in righteousness so we can believe in faith that we can glean a couple lessons even from passages like this. One thing we know off the bat is that Jesus is not being literal here. As much as it would not be advisable to give pearls to pigs or sacred things like a Bible to a dog, he is not being literal. But he is suggesting that there is something so valuable out there that we really have to be careful of who we give it to and how we give it out. This is one of those passages that is really tough because Jesus doesn’t seem to give us a lot of clues as far as how this passage should be interpreted. Consequently, you have a lot of different commentaries that seem to take all sorts of views on exactly what is going on here. The challenge as a pastor is to look at all the commentaries, listen to the Holy Spirit, and come up with some interpretations that we think would be beneficial for you. There is a lot of disagreement on exactly how to read this passage, but one thing that is in agreement is that Jesus is talking about something of really, really high value. When he is talking about something of high value usually he is referring to something that has to do with God or his kingdom. This isn’t the first time we would see this association between something like a pearl and the kingdom. If you were here last year, you might remember Austin preached on a passage out of Matthew 13 that compared the pearl to the kingdom of God. Matthew 13:45 says “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” If we were to look deeper into Revelation, the last book of the Bible, we would see that the gates of heaven are described as gates of pearls. It is where we get the idea of the Pearly Gates. Revelation 21:21 says “The 12 gates were 12 pearls. Each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was a pure gold like transparent glass.” When you see the word pearl in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, it always has a positive connotation, unlike the dogs and the pigs.
When Jesus is using the term dog, he is not talking about a house pet. He is talking about street dogs. He is talking about scavengers, wild dogs that would roam the streets looking for any morsel of food that they could get their hands on just to survive. If something was to try to take that from that wild dog, the wild dog would pretty much go on the attack. These were unclean animals. They were animals that were mean. What would happen is that the word dog would often be associated with unworthy people. So unworthy that some suggested they are excluded from the gates of heaven. Reading again in Revelation 22 it says “Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.” He is talking about believers here. Outside are the dogs. Those who practice magic arts. The sexually immoral. The murders. The idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. So again dogs weren’t given a very positive light in the New Testament but neither were the pigs. Pigs also were considered unclean scavengers that would roam the streets and countryside. They were often associated with the Gentile population because the Gentiles would often keep them in large herds. You may be familiar with the story where Jesus went into the Gadarenes region where there were people that would have this large herd of pigs and Jesus encountered the man with an unclean spirit. Jesus cast out the unclean spirit from the man and cast the spirit into the herd of pigs. An association with the unclean animals. The word dog and pig were often used in a derogatory way especially in the New Testament. So that is a little background on that.
But the question remains, who is Jesus talking to? What is he referring to here? Because people scholars would associate dogs and pigs with the non-Jewish people, some people think that Jesus is saying the pearl, the kingdom of God, the good news, should be restricted to the Jewish people. They would be the only ones that would have access to this pearl. The problem is that leaves little application for us today because we know following Pentecost we were called to go out and share the Great Commission teaching everybody what Jesus said. Not only that, we know that Jesus would often be found in crowds of non-Jews talking about the kingdom of God. So instead of that interpretation, I tend to lean towards two other interpretations. The first one has to do with the idea that the words dogs and pigs were actually derogatory terms that spoke of people whose hearts were hardened. So hard they could not receive the pearl of the kingdom. The second interpretation is a little bit better in the sense that he is not using the terms dogs and pigs to refer to people in a derogatory sense. Jesus is just trying to paint a picture of what it looks like when we try to give something to an animal that is difficult to digest. If we were to give it in some more acceptable form, the person would be more likely to receive it. These are two interpretations. We are always forced to choose which one we like. I thought since they both have merit that I would briefly address both.
Thinking about this idea of the words dog and pig being derogatory terms. We know that there are people that have such a hardened soul that it looks like they aren’t going to receive the gospel. They want nothing to do with the gospel. What happens is we cast out those sacred things of God to these people and they stomp all over it. Their response ranges from dishonoring, abuse, to outright hostility and sometimes even death. We know that in America we don’t have to experience that type of persecution but in third world countries when somebody shares their faith, they are risking their life. Many of you here have shared your faith with people and have experienced some blatant hostility towards the gospel and possibly an outburst of anger. We should expect that this is going to be the case because we are told in the very first chapter of John that “He (being Jesus) came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” This passage makes clear that the message that Jesus brought and really himself as the word of God was going to be received by some and rejected by many. There is some indication there that you are throwing out those pearls to some people and they are not responding whatsoever. The appropriate response may simply be to walk away. I know that is hard, but Jesus was the example for that. You think about Jesus when he was about to be crucified and he was facing Pontius Pilate. He is bruised and bloody and he tells Pilate that he came to testify to the truth and anybody on the side of truth would listen to him. Pilate gave a sarcastic question: What is truth? If you are somebody who likes to share the good news of Jesus Christ or we call it evangelism, this is the ideal question that you would be asked. It opens the door to all sorts of things. When somebody says tell me about truth. Do you want to know the truth about God? Do you want to know the truth about Jesus? Do you want to know the truth about man and his sin? Do you want to know the truth about the gospel? There are all sorts of opportunities to talk about truth. Jesus had that opportunity. He had Pilate staring him in the face and he said what is truth? Jesus didn’t give him an answer. He didn’t give him the benefit of an answer. There is no record that he made any response at all to Pilate. Likewise, when you are in a situation where you are giving out the gospel and you are experiencing blatant disrespect from somebody or you are feeling the sense that somebody is just trying to pull you into some sort of a trap in order that he or she can berate or belittle our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it might be time to just get out of there. You can do it without feeling guilty because Jesus himself when he told his disciples, if anyone will not welcome you in this town or listen to your words, then shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. When he says shake the dust off your feet, he is saying basically I want nothing to do with you. I don’t even want to be part of your city anymore. This is the idea that when you are sharing your faith and hitting a wall and pushing and pushing and pushing and you are just not getting anywhere, sometimes the appropriate response is to walk away and be okay with it.
As a side note, when I am preparing my sermon and I have a passage that is very hard to interpret like this one about the dogs and the pigs, I send them out to people in the congregation just to get their two cents as far as how they would read it. One of the people I sent it to is our local skateboarder Brian Buck. You never know what Brian is going to say when you text him a passage out of the blue. Especially one that has to do with dogs and pigs. He texted me back an hour later. At first I read it and didn’t quite get it. I just thought it was Brian given me one of his off-color translations. As I read it, I said this make sense. This is what he texted, “Attempting to tenderize the hard heart of an object of wrath might be like trying to tunnel out a cave in a mountain with our bare hands. God says enough already. Don’t kill yourself. I already did.” Words of wisdom from our resident scholar Brian Buck. As I thought about it, this is a perfect picture of what I think Jesus is talking about here. We have these people that we want to see saved so badly. Yet they are hearts of stone and we are pounding the gospel at them. We know that one day they are going to turn. One day they are going to accept Jesus. All the while you have all these other people, friends, associates, employees, neighbors who are sitting back ready to receive that gospel but you never get to that person because you are focused on this one mountain. God is standing there saying what is going on here? Let it go. Just go ahead and let me take over. You don’t have to kill yourself because I already did. We know that when Jesus died on the cross that made everything so much easier because when he died on the cross he opened up the heavens totally wide, opened up those pearly gates and our job is simply to go out there and say here is an invitation. Come on. It is open. Do you want to come? Some people then have to make a choice. Some people no matter how many invitations you give them, they are not going to come in. Their hearts have been hardened. At some point, I believe that when your heart gets to a point where you are not going to accept it, I actually think God sometimes hardens your heart so much that you can’t accept it. I really do. I think we can give scriptural evidence for that. There are times that I think it is wise to quit casting those glorious pearls of the kingdom in front of pigs or sacred things to dogs. That is one way to interpret the passage.
A second way to interpret the passage has to do with the idea that Jesus is not using those terms pigs and dogs to be derogatory. He is just trying to give a picture of what it looks like when you try to force your good things on people who really aren’t capable of digesting it in the manner that you give it. If we were feeding pigs and decided we have a handful of pearls and we threw it in front of the pigs, the pigs might look at it, sniff it, and a chance they might eat one or two, but they would probably figure out pretty quickly that this isn’t food and they can’t digest it. So they would spit it out and trample on it. Or if you took one of your Bibles and you threw it on the street and there was a wild dog there, the dog isn’t going to eat it. He is going to look at it. He might sniff it. Then he is going to give you a dirty look and possibly might come after you. That is what he is saying. Jesus is saying they are not able in their given state to digest what you want to give them as good as it is. The point is that in your zeal to share your faith, because we are supposed to share our faith, what happens is we get to a place where we are giving people something that they are unable to digest so they push back on us. We come across as pushy salespeople. We come across as a pushy person. Somebody who has been exposed to a great project or a new diet and feel like everybody should buy this product or be on this diet. In my case it has to do with books. I love reading books and I read a great book and I know the book is really good, so I think everybody should read that book. What happens is I get rejection because the reality is some people are not ready to read that book. But it is the same thing with your faith. You are out there casting all these pearls to somebody, and the reality is they are just not ready to receive it. If you come on too strongly, it looks like you are trying to control that person. And you can’t control. God has given everybody freewill. That means they have the right to choose or not to choose. You can’t take that right away from that person. It does mean that you need to give space to people to make the decision. When I say space, for most of us that means doing more listening than talking. I would suggest a rule of thumb if you want to evangelize. Do 20% talking and 80% listening. Most of us have a hard time with that. We just want to talk and talk and talk. If you give 80% of your time listening to people and you listen to their story or their timeline, if they talk enough, you are going to uncover a need. You are going to uncover a desire that you know that the gospel can address. When and if you have the opportunity to share the gospel, the thing you share will probably be more easily received because it is something digestible. It connects to the heart level. It connects to the person’s soul. They are going to be less likely thinking that they have to protect themselves from you or come on the attack.
Those are the two primary ways to interpret this passage about dogs and pigs. One way to interpret it is that it is meant to be a derogatory term about those people whose hearts are so hard they are just not going to ever receive any pearl that you want to give him or her. The other way to translate it is the idea that what you want to give them is just not digestible in its given form. That is okay. It is just changing your strategy a little bit. As we wind this down, I want to suggest a third group that this might be targeted to. That group is people that are near and dear to your own heart: Christians. Specifically Christians who, for whatever reason, have chosen to walk away from the pearls of the kingdom and walk back towards the corruption of the world. Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have been given access to amazing wealth and riches. The deepest mysteries of God. The image of the kingdom of God. The hope eternal that we can all have that people are longing for. We have this phenomenal treasure, this phenomenal pearl. We have tasted the goodness of God. We know what it is like to experience God. Some people would say we have experienced what is called a with-God life. The thing that people desire. We have experienced it. Yet we know there are so many Christian people who choose to ignore that good thing, ignore those pearls and walk away into the corruption of the world. We don’t know why they do it. Some people just can’t handle the pressure. Some people maybe have been sold a bad bill of goods in their mind. They are expecting more. They are expecting their life to be wonderful so they walk away. When things get tough, they just leave. Or some people just get sucked back into the trap of the world and all the temptations of the world. All the things they see that they used to partake in and now they are back into it. They want that old lifestyle because they are not satisfied with the good things that Christ has given them and the good things their faith has given them and the hope of the resurrection.
The apostle Peter spoke directly to these types of people. He spoke directly to them in 2 Peter where he says “If they (meaning former Christians) have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome by it, they are worse off at the end then they were at the beginning. Of them the Proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit’ and ‘A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.’” That is a very graphic picture. It is gross. Some of you are thinking it is just offensive. It even sounds like Peter is judging us somehow. He is not judging you. We talked about last week he is not the judge. He knows who the ultimate judge is. He is trying to paint a very graphic picture of what it is when somebody who is living in the kingdom decides they want to go back to the corruption of the world. That is really what we are talking about. We are talking about pigs and dogs. They would choose that over the kingdom. Because again, what we have talked about week after week, when Christ died on the cross, a spiritual transfer, rescue, escape had taken place. We are told in Colossians that we have been transferred from the dominion of darkness, which is the world and Satan and everything else going on in the darkness of the world, and we have been transferred in some spiritual way to the kingdom of the Son. We are in a brand new place. When we choose to go back into the corruption of the world what we are told in the book of Hebrews is we are in some sense re-crucifying Christ. If you are doing that, you are nothing better than a dog or a pig that would return to its vomit or wallow in the mud. He is being pretty straightforward. What do you want? Do you want to wallow in the mud? Or do you want to live under the king? Do you want to live in this temporal society that is meant to go away and is going to die one day or do you want to live an eternity with your loving Savior Jesus Christ? I am assuming that most of you want to live in the kingdom of God. What we have to do is continue to take in those pearls of the gospel in every way that it fits. In every nook and cranny of our life. Continue to take it in. Don’t get frustrated. Don’t stop. Continue to look forward. Take those things in there, again, to grow into likeness of Christ, which is what this series is all about, and into the kingdom eternal that awaits us.
As we close and shift to this communion table, it is amazing because this is a reminder of what we have been given. People wonder why do you do communion every week. Like I said before, we have short memories. We need to be reminded every week. We need to be reminded of the crucifixion. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and how that event in itself opened the doorway and opened the gates of heaven wide. The pearly gates opened in heaven and allowed us to enter in now and really for all eternity. Reminds us that we are different people. There were those who came that did not receive him, but he says yet those who received him became children of God. As a Christian, you are a child of God. You are a child of the king. As a child of the king, you don’t look backward because what you are going to inherit is all forward and that is the direction you have to go. Finally, we are reminded every week that “The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Let us pray.
