Ways of Living with Jesus
Luke 6:39-49
Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz
Luke 6:39 And He also spoke a parable to them: “A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 “aA pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher. 41 “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 42 “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye. 43 “For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. 44 “For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. 45 “The good man out of the good 1treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from 2that which fills his heart.
Luke 6:46 “aWhy do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 “aEveryone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 “But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”
It was shocking to watch one minute of a sermon where the preacher was a young woman, and she proclaimed Jesus would accept abortions even after the baby was born. I couldn't believe that a person, who claimed to have been ordained in a church (although I don't know which church), could come up with something as crazy as that. I know that there will be some progressive people who read this and think that I’m crazy and that’s okay, but I think God placed us on this earth to be fruitful and multiply. More importantly, I think that every life has value. This female preacher was saying to us that life is not precious, and she had the gall to say that Jesus would accept her position.
Yes, I know there are some of you listening to this homily or reading this document and will immediately say that I am completely wrong. Well, that is your right to interpret the Bible and the way you see fit. However, I can’t imagine our Lord and Savior Jesus would be happy with aborting babies. Now I should include my belief that stopping the pregnancy is necessary if the mother's life is in danger or in cases of incest or rape. I must emphasize that we should stop the pregnancy at the beginning. Not at the end.
Let me give you my position and thoughts about this topic. I know it’s controversial. I’ve been leading a group that has been studying the Zohar, the mystical books of Christianity and Judaism, for over 13 years. One thing of the Zohar tells us is that life is precious and valuable to God. It doesn’t matter whether a person knows God, whether we really know Christ, or being an atheist. God will still love you and care about your life. The Zohar also tells us that the greatest gift from God is to have children. I should also note that when Zohar says that it is talking about children from a consummated marriage. Now I have to add a caveat because there are couples out there that cannot conceive children. Therefore, adopting a child because you cannot physically create one, I believe it is also a blessing from God. If a couple decides not to have children, they're still loved by God and Jesus. They just won’t have this greatest blessing, according to the Zohar. There is nothing wrong with being a great aunt or uncle to children that are inside your family.
Please make sure you understand what I just said. Having your own children in a committed marriage is a great blessing from God. If you do not want to have children or if you’re adopting children it is still a blessing if you can work with children inside of your family or, with adoption you can help an orphaned child to grow up to know Jesus. I think this blessing is just as critical as having your own children. God and Jesus value life and that is what these commandments are all about.
Let’s look at Luke chapter 6 verses 39 to 49. This narrative is a collection of Jesus' teachings. When we look at all the ideas that Jesus is expressing in this section, we can see how much God loves us and wants us to stay away from sinful activities. Jesus is saying that God has created blessings throughout his creation for us. One of those blessings built into these expressions is the discussion I had about having children. We acknowledge that God wants the best for us and God values our lives enough to give us these instructions.
I have had church people come up to me after a sermon on this narrative and say how dear you tell me how to live my life. To that I simply respond, I’m not telling you how to live your life. Jesus is telling you how to live your life. A good question for them is don’t you want to please Jesus because he died on the cross for your salvation? If so, don’t you want to follow his ways?
Does a church denomination still qualify as a church if it decides not to follow the Bible? If you throw out the Bible, then you're throwing out these ethical instructions that Jesus gave to us. What kind of morality will society have if it rejects Scripture? Wait a minute, that’s a simple answer. Just look at what’s going on in the United States and Western Europe today.
Each of us must decide how we're going to follow Jesus. Jesus explained the laws of Moses to us in a way that we could actually live by them. I find it disheartening when I witness people completely ignoring the morality and ethical instructions of Jesus in the Gospels and other places in Scripture because they want to do something that sets them apart. This idea of social media has corrupted us. There are videos out on Facebook, tick-tock, and YouTube that are just insane and risky. Why do people want to create videos that are risky to killing them? Well, I’m told because they want attention. The number of likes on their video is more important to them than other aspects of life.
If you live a life in accordance with the Gospels and Jesus' sayings, then you will please God. God will forgive you for the sins that you make because we all make them. And you will have eternal life with Christ. I would rather have Jesus liking my actions than people I don’t know on the Internet liking my videos. Think about it? People in Jesus’ day needed hope, and they needed to feel God’s love for them. Jesus came into the world and show them that God loved them and that they are valuable. Jesus shows us today that each of us has value.
Your life is valuable not only to your family and friends, but more importantly to Jesus. Turn your life over to Jesus and follow his ways. When you do, you will be surprised how wonderful life becomes because you are pleasing God.
