We humans have a lot in common with lemmings. Lemmings - you know, those little furry creatures that are so herd-centric that if one of them runs off a cliff the rest will simply follow until they are all dead. One wonders if they are too stupid to know they are about to fall to their death or so trained to follow the leader in front of them that it doesn’t matter. In fact, the people at the beginning of Luke 12 are literally acting like lemmings or a herd of cows - crowding so close to Jesus that they nearly trample each other.
The truth about lemmings is not quite as interesting as the myth - lemmings (2-4" mammals like voles and muskrats - in the rat family) have such terrible eyesight that they can’t distinguish a small creek from a fjord. But the idea of the suicidal lemming has become legend - and is emblematic of a human tendency to the crowd mentality. Our blindness to our true spiritual condition makes us prone to following the crowd straight to hell!
If you don’t believe me then think for a moment about what is cool to you - and I don’t mean temperature. What is in-style, what is hip, what is hot, what are you down with, what’s the bomb? For every generation - really every decade now - there are standards that are developed by someone or a group of someones that everyone else wants to emulate. In the 1960’s it was James Dean - "Rebel Without A Cause." Later it was John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever," and so on. Today I suppose its Tom Hanks or Johnny Depp - rated the #1 and #2 most popular stars in America in a January 2006 Harris poll. Denzel Washington, by the way, dropped out of the top ten this year.
Especially when we are younger we like to think that we are so individual and yet if you spy a group of high school students on campus you notice that they all tend to dress, act, and talk alike - depending on what group they associate with.
This is also true when it comes to our philosophies and beliefs - even our faith. Right now post-modernism is in-vogue. We want something to hang our hat on - especially if that is something different than what came before. The people in Jesus’ day were no more immune to that tendency than we are. But what Jesus tells everyone in every age is that He is not just another philosophy, another leader, another persuasion to be discarded when something cooler comes along. Out of this we learn three principals from the first 21 verses of Luke 12:
Who you are matters - integrity (what you do and say - is it integral-solid?)
Who you know matters - the real power lies with God and Jesus is the real key
Who you serve matters - don’t let anything own you other than God
Verses 1 - 3
Jesus has just left a blistering encounter with the Pharisees and lawyers where He blasted the theology of creating and placing an unbearable legalistic system on people, then not doing any of it themselves.
So just to make it clear, Jesus tells them to watch out for the doctrine of the Pharisees because once you ingest it its like yeast: spreading and invading other areas of your life. Its basic legalism - that is: pleasing God through your own efforts. You can’t do it. "There is none righteous, no not one" (Romans 3:10).
Legalism at its root is basic selfishness:
"The way I look to others is more important than the way I look to God"
"Having what I want is more important than knowing God, loving God, and being like God"
"Obtaining and keeping power is to be sought no matter the cost" (killed the prophets)
But the Pharisees were the power brokers - they were the ones everybody paid attention to. They were the ones that held all the cards and if you wanted to get ahead you needed to heed what they said. Jesus is saying - they might appear to be righteous on the outside but you don’t realize that everything they (and we) do or say will be revealed. All the "masks" will come off. That’s very freeing and very scary.
You mean every thought or careless word I’ve spoken will come back to haunt me? Yes - unless you have those things cleansed by knowing the real power broker - God. Here He is saying that the hypocrisy of the Pharisees will be exposed.
Verses 4 - 7
The Pharisees were both revered for being "cool" and feared for the power they held. We fear many things - embarrassment, rejection, punishment, hunger, etc. Our biggest fear as humans is death - getting killed. That’s the worst another human or external cause can do to us. But that’s not the worst thing that can happen to us. Far far worse is being separated from God for all of eternity - now that’s something we should avoid at all costs.
We get our priorities all wrong when we become more fearful of displeasing men than our sins separating us from God who is the true source of everything good. And yet even as Jesus says this - He also reveals the character of this person we should fear - a Being so loving that he has the hairs on our head numbered. It should be wonderfully good news to us to place ourselves in His hands - unlike the Pharisees.
And that’s the problem with the world and even worldly religion - you break your back to please them and then they don’t even notice or, worse, get angry because you have become a threat to them.
Something else to consider: often we talk about Satan as the enemy-and he is one. But for the pre-Christian Satan is more of a prison warden, holding us captive to sin. Our real enemy is God. Why do I say that? Hebrews tells us that God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). For us to stand in God’s presence without Jesus would be akin to jumping alive into a nuclear reactor core. God’s holiness destroys anything evil. While we should fear God as a mortal danger to us, He is also that which provides the solution. Amazing!
The Pharisees didn’t care a wit about the individual-only those who held power and were a possible threat to their power. But the One who holds all power is also caring about you who have none. Take comfort in that.
Verses 8 - 12
This is really the nut of it - who do you belong to? If you belong to Jesus you need to admit it - "confess with your mouth" the Apostle Paul will later say. There are no secret Christians. Jesus promises that if you acknowledge Him here He will acknowledge you in heaven. And by the same token, if you deny Him here He will deny knowing you there.
The part about blaspheming the Holy Spirit I think is a little less mystical than we like to make it. If you say "The Holy Spirit is bad" you are not blaspheming the Spirit. The idea is that - if you don’t understand Jesus because of ignorance, that can be overlooked - like saying "Jesus - just a Jewish radical - nobody special." If you don’t understand who He is and what He has done for you can be corrected with more information, time, and the Holy Spirit drawing you. But if you consistently fight the prompting of the Holy Spirit drawing you to God through Jesus - then there is no forgiveness because you have rejected the only forgiveness available to you.
Titus 3:5 tells us that it is actually the Holy Spirit who renews us at salvation.
So - give public allegiance to Jesus - but how? Jesus says not to worry about it. At the time the Spirit will give you the words to speak. That doesn’t mean you don’t prepare for teachings or learn the Word or anything like that. But if you are in the bookstore and someone sees you buy a Christian book and asks you about that Jesus stuff - the Spirit at that time will give you what to say, you don’t need to fret about it.
You should think about why you believe, though.
1 Peter 3:15 …always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; ESV
Be prepared, just don’t be anxious.
So we need to choose who we serve, we also need to choose what we serve.
Verses 13 - 15
Do you ever run to God after you think you are getting shafted, only to find out that the problem lies not with the injustice but with the condition of your heart?
I think there is a good tie-in here with the previous part of the passage. Not only are we easily ruled by "the crowd" or "leaders" we are also ruled by the fleshly desire for things. It’s called greed, of course. You don’t have to be wealthy to be greedy. If you count every penny - demand payment back from even the smallest of loans, get mad when you get shorted at the grocery store, are not willing to lend anyone anything - or get mad when someone hurts your stuff accidentally - all these could be signs of greed.
Jesus here is approached by a man who wants Him to side with his version of the truth in an inheritance dispute. This wasn’t uncommon for rabbis to decide such issues - but Jesus has a much more important mission and He uses this statement as a good time to talk about the higher problem of greed.
Greed’s cousin, of course, is selfishness. And the parable describes that perfectly. This man had more than he ever needed but it never occurred to him to give the extra to the poor. Instead he just builds bigger barns.
Verses 16 - 21
It’s foolish because he cannot store up those riches for after he dies. We are fooled by the enemy into thinking that material things are what matter - food, property, money, big screen plasma HDTV’s and the like. Jesus is not saying that we should never pay attention to the material - what He is questioning is our focus and our worry. Notice too that it was the land that produced. What he got and what we get are from what God has created. We should never take the credit or rely on it but only on God.
In the next part of the chapter He is going to talk about relying on God for what we need and not worrying so much about things. It’s okay to own a house, it’s not okay if that house owns you more than God. It’s okay to have money for retirement but it’s not okay if in putting that money away you ignore becoming rich in the things of God.
The question we need to ask ourselves is: who do we serve? And I think there is also a corollary here - the person who serves God is not greedy but generous. We see this lived out in the church in the giving of freewill offerings numerous times.
In fact, Paul has some good advice for the rich - and for all of us:
1 Timothy 6:17-19 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. ESV
We’ll talk more about How to avoid covetousness, greed, and jealousy in our Wednesday study.
Conclusions
Let me just reiterate the values from this part of the chapter:
Who you are matters - integrity (what you do and say - is it integral?)
Don’t be a lemming but have good spiritual insight through God’s word. Don’t go with what’s "cool" but what is right and true and draws you close to God.
Who you know matters - the real power lies with God and Jesus is the real key
Know who the real power broker is and that He will love and care for you if you acknowledge Him.
Who you serve matters - don’t let anything own you other than God
Don’t let things rob you away from He who is the giver of all good things.
"May he burn love into us for this world is dieing for love."
