man, the trouble is
we don't know who we are instead
It’s no easy thing to preach a parable this well known.
After all, you all already know the punchline. Don’t you? You know the answer to the question at the end of Jesus’ parable. And you know the right thing to do, too.
…Doesn’t it bother you, though, that on the lips of Jesus, this parable ends, not with an answer, but a question?
In 1518, Luther defended his burgeoning theological insights at a chapter meeting of his Augustinian order. In his presentation, now known as the Heidelberg Disputation, Luther said everything hinges on one distinction. The distinction between way we think God ought to work and the way God actually works.
And, by the way, there’s only one way God actually works in our lives. But the list of ways we think God ought to behave are endless. They’re religious and secular. Ethical and intellectual. Just take a look at the lawyer and Martha.
The lawyer thinks he can justify his existence by having all the right answers. Martha, on the other hand, thinks she can honor Jesus by doing all the right things. Both of them, though, are trying to get on God’s good side. And you have your pet project, too
And, it should be noted, none of them actually work…
Ultimately, the distinction Luther drew between the way we think God ought to operate and the way God really works is the difference between glory, as Luther termed it, and the cross. In the end, Luther said, there’s the cross, and then there’s everything else. And all this everything else is really the same old thing, some machination of glory or another.
This may all sound overly simplistic, but without the cross, all our ways of trying to get on with God are just one form of glory or another. They’re a vision of us finally pulling it together and justify ourselves to Jesus. Making our home fit for the king.
And the way you can spot a vision of glory, Luther said, is by how visible it is. Just look at the lawyer and Martha. The lawyer might think answers will do the trick while Martha thinks actions are just what the doctor ordered. Both of them, though, think they can look to their preferred course of action and chart a path to Jesus’ good side.
As today’s scripture reveals, though, neither of their approaches get them very far!
The thing about the way God really works is, your eyes will always deceive you. Just take a look at the cross. All there is to see there is shame, defeat, weakness, and death. BUT what God is actually working is honor, triumph, power, and life eternal!
What Luther discovered, as do the lawyer and Martha incidentally, is the way God actually works. And it isn’t on the path to perfection. If anything, it’s in that ditch. Where all our efforts come to nothing. Because it is there that we finally quit looking to ourselves and what we think is right, be it answers or actions, and instead look to the one who is the very righteousness of God. Jesus Christ and him crucified!
…The lawyer and Martha are our kind of people, though. Aren’t they? We, too, are caught up in our own self-justifying projects. We, too, are worried and distracted by many things.
And we have this delusion that if we could just clean up our act enough, we wouldn’t need to anymore. We wouldn’t have to justify ourselves. We wouldn’t need to be so worried and distracted.
That’s a fool’s errand, though! Enough is never enough when it comes to our self-continuity projects. So what Jesus does is bring them to an end.
And, while this may look like the worst thing that could happen, it’s actually God’s best work!
When Jesus encounters the lawyer and Martha, he doesn’t tell them to clean up their act. Does he? No, he takes away the cleaning equipment they’ve been using to try and get their lives looking squeaky-clean.
Maybe that’s where you are this Lent, too. All those tools you’ve been using to try and get your life on track aren’t working anymore. And you’re worried, like Martha, this spells the end of your religious, self-salvation project.
What it really is, though, is the beginning of faith! Jesus showing up in your midst! Not to give you answers, but to take them away. Not to give you cleaning tips, but to he’s making a mess!
And hidden in this work of his, is nothing less than Jesus’ life-giving cross! Jesus, taking away all those ways you’ve been trying to manage your own life, to give you the one thing that won’t be taken away, himself! His word and his cross.
…This Lent, you don’t need to give anything up. And I don’t mean just because it’s such a rotten year there’s not much to give up. I mean, you don’t need to give anything up because you just need to give up. And hidden in that cross is all Jesus’ honor, triumph, power, and life eternal!
For now it may not look like much. But in the rearview mirror, where God wants to be seen, you will see this Good Samaritan for who he is all along. Not the example for you to get your religious ducks in a row. But Jesus himself showing up in the last way and the last place you ever expected to give you the downpayment on eternity itself!
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