[Seventy-fourth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: In ancient times, salt was precious. People would pay a lot of money for it because it kept food from spoiling. If meat was not salted, a family would have to throw it out in a day or two. When meat was salted, it might last a few months. Even in the early days of America, salt was necessary to have meat to eat in the winter. If salt isn’t pure, it could lose its taste and the ability to preserve food. Then salt has very few uses. At best, it could keep plants from growing on the paths they need to walk on.
Lamps were made of clay and shaped like a bowl. Olive oil was poured into the lamp, and a wick was stuck in it to soak up the oil. Someone in the family would light it. Tall stands were put around the house. The person who lit the lamp would place it on a stand so that the room would be bright.
[Seventy-Third in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: The Pharisees were the good people. They loved God. They went to the synagogue every Saturday. Not only did they try to keep God’s law, but they tried to do even more. They thought that, if they did more than God commanded, they would never break His law, but that God would love them even more. They thought that God would reward them for their good work and that they deserved a place in Heaven because of it.
When other people did not try as hard as they did to serve God, they got angry. They thought the Messiah would come only when all of the Jewish people kept God’s law. They called these people “sinners” and were sure that God would send them to Hell.
The tax collectors were very different. The Roman government outsourced tax collection. They gave collection contracts to local people. The Romans told their tax farmers how much to collect. The tax collectors could add whatever charges they wished on top of that. The Pharisees thought they were traitors because they served a foreign government and because they often made themselves rich on the fees they charged.
In this parable, the Pharisee stands in the temple as close to the Holy of Holies as he was allowed to get. The Tax Collector stood in the back, as far away from the sanctuary as he could get and still be in the temple. The Pharisee bragged in prayer, thinking God would reward him. The Tax Collector knew he deserved nothing from God and repeated King David’s prayer: Be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus tells us that it was the Tax Collector who pleased God, not the Pharisee.
For over 1500 years, Christians have repeated this prayer in their traditional worship services. Called the Kyrie by the first word of the prayer in the Greek language, we pray, “Lord, have mercy, “Christ have mercy,” “Lord, have mercy.”
[Seventy-second in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: Mustard seeds and yeast were important to people where Jesus lived. Mustard seeds were the smallest that farmers planted, but they grew into a tree as large as 10 feet tall. The seed of this kind of mustard plant was black. Farmers ground the seeds to make a spice and to use the oil in them. Birds loved to eat these seeds and would often come to eat the seeds and build nests in their branches.
Women used yeast to make soft, fluffy bread. When they baked bread, they would save a small piece of dough with yeast in it. This is called leavened bread. When they made more bread dough, they put the leavened piece in the flour for the bread. The yeast would grow and spread through all the flour. When the baker would make new bread, the whole batch would be leavened.
Jesus compared the mustard seed and yeast to the Kingdom of God. The kingdom starts small, but grows very big, so that many people can become part of it. The kingdom doesn’t seem to be important, but it will change everything for the good.
[Seventy-first in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: In Israel, a rugged mountain range runs through the middle of the country. In a dry region like the Middle East, these mountains were loved for the streams that ran from them, the cool caves that provided shelter and a solid place to stand. In the Bible, they were called rocks. In a storm, there was no safer place to be than upon a rock.
In the poetry of the Bible, God is called the Rock, a fortress that would never fail. Storms and rain were used to describe times of trouble and testing. When a believer was in troubled times, when everything else failed, they could rely on God the Rock.
In this parable, Jesus tells us that His words are like a rock. When we do what He says and use His words to guide our lives, nothing in this world can shake us. He defeated sin and death on the cross. In baptism, He built us on that foundation that can never be moved. We will stand, even when death blows over us.
This parable closes the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus uses it to make the point that the wise person builds on the words he spoke. Heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will not pass away.
[Seventieth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: Pharisees were the good people. They studied God’s Word constantly. They worshiped every Sabbath in synagogues. They worked hard to keep every commandment, including pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the festivals; they made every sacrifice without fail. They even kept good company, avoiding people who didn’t take keeping the law as seriously as they did. The Pharisees thought they didn’t need to be found. They were never lost in the first place. They didn’t take kindly to Jesus associating with the lost — tax collectors (one of those was even his disciple), prostitutes, and sinners. Jesus doesn’t often have very nice things to say to them. But on the day St. Luke talks about in chapter 15, he is kind to them and tries gentle persuasion instead.
The lost parables are perhaps the most beloved of all of Jesus’ stories — the Shepherd who leaves Ninety-Nine sheep to find one lost sheep, the woman who sweeps out the house to find one lost coin (OK — it was a Denarii and worth a day’s wage — you’d sweep out the house if you lost one) and the Prodigal or Lost Son. Such stories almost always make just one point, and so it is with these. But that point is not what you might think. These stories are not about the lost or the One looking for them. It is about those in heaven that rejoice, the angels in heaven that sing with joy, and the neighbors and the older brother.
While we were once lost and now found, we are not the lost of the parables. We were found long ago. It is not strictly about our Lord Jesus. He came to seek and to save the lost, suffering and dying for our sins and for forgiveness. From heaven he came and sought us, to be his holy bride, with his own blood he bought us, and for our life he died. He washed us with water and the word and presents us spotless. We are already in his house when he brings his lost ones home. He wants us to rejoice when he finds them.
There is room in the kingdom for more. They may not dress the way we do, live life recklessly, ignoring the law of God and man. They may have had other things to do, thinking they didn’t have time for church. They may even be from other cultures, languages, and lands. Yet the Father’s words call us to see them as the Father wants his older son to see his young brother: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”
[Sixty-ninth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: A parable is a story told about very ordinary things and events, but that has a hidden spiritual meaning. Jesus loved to teach using parables. About 35% of his teaching uses them. Jesus used parables to help us understand God, His people, people in the world, and the things God wants us to do. The stories themselves are very easy to understand. Sometimes the meaning is not so clear. In fact, Jesus once said He told parables so that some people would not understand at all. Thankfully, Jesus almost always tells His disciples what the story means.
Most parables make just one point. All the details in these stories are there to make that one point. So, for example, the three parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son (Prodigal Son) (Luke 15) are about the joy God wants us to feel when He saves someone and not so much about the grace of Jesus who seeks and saves the lost.
Allegories are parables in which each character or element in the story has a distinct, independent meaning. These allow for many interpretations. When Jesus wants us to draw more than one point from a parable, He tells us when He explains the story. He tells us what each item in the story stands for. This he does with the Parable of the Four Soils (The Parable of the Sower) (Luke 8:4-15).
Strictly speaking, simple metaphors are not parables, but proverbs or illustrations. Parables are stories. Sayings such as the City on a Hill, the Light of the World, are simply metaphors. Sometimes it is difficult to tell whether Jesus is telling a parable or simply speaking about something that actually happened. The Good Samaritan is one of these stories. (Luke 10:25-37)
[Sixty-eighth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: Three thousand years ago, ten tribes of Israel broke away from King Solomon’s son and formed a new kingdom north of Jerusalem. The kings of the northern tribes built a capital called Samaria about forty miles north of Jerusalem. When the Assyrian Empire conquered the northern kingdom, it deported many Israelites and resettled people from distant places. The Samaritan people were born when the Israelites married their captors. The Jewish people considered them traitors and hated them. The Samaritans hated them in return, especially when Jewish armies destroyed their temple and their city. At the time of Jesus, Jews wanted nothing to do with them. They would avoid even traveling through Samaria, even to go to Jerusalem. The worst thing one Jew could call another was a Samaritan.
One day, an expert in God’s law asked Jesus a traditional question posed to Rabbis: Which is the greatest of all commandments? Jesus turned the question around to him. The expert replied with the commandments to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus agreed and told him to do these and he would inherit eternal life. Then the expert asked Jesus who is our neighbor. Jesus’ answer was the story we call the parable of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-37)
In this story, the two kinds of people you would expect to help you were priests and Levites. They led worship in the temple, where God showed His love for His people by forgiving their sins. They did not want to become unclean by touching a dead person. So they did not help the injured man. But the Samaritan felt very sorry for him, cared for him, and paid a lot of money to see that he was cared for until the day he recovered.
Jesus asked the expert which of these three was a neighbor to the injured man. He answered, “The one who showed mercy.” Jesus told him to do the same. As sinners, we will fail to do this perfectly. Yet as Christians, the church responded to the love of God in Christ, and so has reached out in mercy to those who suffer with countless needs over the last two thousand years. We remember Jesus responded to our greatest need by suffering and dying that we might be saved and inherit eternal life. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we reach out to care for those who need us the most to show them the mercy God showed us.
[Sixty-Seventh in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer on at least two occasions: during the Sermon on the Mount and when the disciples asked about prayer. One is recorded for us in the Gospel of Matthew and the other in Luke. The version in Matthew is the one the Church has memorized and that we recognize. The version in Luke contains selected petitions to give the disciples examples of the kinds of things to pray about. There, Jesus emphasizes we should keep praying for these same things because God wants His children to ask for things “with all boldness and confidence … as dear children ask their dear father.” (Martin Luther, Small Catechism 3.1)
The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to focus on God’s desires and will, not on ours. We pray for His name to be made holy, His kingdom to come, His will to be done, and then only for our physical needs, forgiveness, and deliverance from Satan.
You may have noticed that our prayers are filled with requests for physical concerns — for healing, for food and clothing, for guidance in making decisions, and for protection in times of disaster. We focus on our wants and desires. Yet our Heavenly Father knows these and will take care of them. God wants us to share our wants, worries, and desires with Him, but then leave these in His care. (Philippians 4:6-7) Then our focus can be on His kingdom and His righteousness. (Matthew 6:33)
So … how do we do that? Praying from our hearts has its problems. Our old, sinful nature still lives there (Mark 15:17-23), which urges us to focus on our desires and our new nature, filled with the Holy Spirit, which urges us to focus on God’s word, his worship, his will, and the needs of others. That is where the Lord’s Prayer comes in. It reorients our priorities because it is God’s own words. That is why it is the most prayed Christian prayer of all.
[Sixty-Sixth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: After the Babylonian Exile, the Jewish people were determined to keep God’s Law. They put a very high value on the study of the Torah — the first five books of the Bible, written by Moses. They gathered around teachers, whom they called Rabbi — my master — who would give their interpretation of the law and the opinions of previous Rabbis. They considered these teachings to be the oral law, which by tradition was given by Moses, never written down, but passed down from teacher to teacher.
They taught that if you wanted to keep God’s law, hold yourself to practices stricter than the actual words of Scripture. These are called the “hedge around the Torah” and are gathered into the Talmud. So, for example, if you don’t want to take the name of the Lord your God in vain, then never pronounce it. Instead, say “My Lord” or “The Name.” If you don’t want to work on the Sabbath by sewing, stop after four stitches. And many similar things.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus does the same thing. Only he goes well beyond what a rabbi would teach. Not only must you not murder someone, Jesus taught, you must not even call someone stupid. Not only should you give to the poor and pray, you must not do it for the recognition you’ll get. He quotes the law, “You will not murder,” “You will not commit adultery,” and then says something no other rabbi would say. “You have heard it said … but I say to you.” Some of his hearers must have thought: “Who does he think he is? God?” (Well, yes, but that is another post!) Most of those who heard him were amazed. He teaches with authority, not like the Pharisees, they said to each other.
In the Gospel of Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount is the first of five groups of teachings. He does this to show Jesus is a new Moses. But Jesus is much greater than Moses. He is the Word of God himself. If we see the teachings of Jesus as a new law, we miss the point. We cannot keep the law on our own, for we are not perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect. Jesus kept the law perfectly for our sake, took our disobedience on himself, and died to pay the price for us. He now gives us his righteousness in exchange. More than that, he now gives us the strength to keep God’s law and to live in it by the freedom the Gospel gives us.
[Sixty-Fifth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: Jairus loved his daughter very much. As the leader of the local synagogue, he was a respected man. When he bowed down before Jesus, he sacrificed much of his dignity. What made his daughter’s illness especially painful was that she was twelve years old. At the time of Jesus, a child became an adult in the eyes of the community in their twelfth year. Plans for her marriage were likely under way. She would have been seen as a survivor, since many children died before their twelfth year.
The woman who interrupted Jesus’ trip to see Jairus’ daughter had also been ill for the same twelve years. Her illness was also very disruptive, since it meant that she could not go to the temple nor worship in the synagogue. Nothing any of the doctors could do for her helped her. Jesus was her last hope. And his healing made all the difference in the world for her.
When Jesus was delayed as he went to Jairus’ house, his daughter died. Jesus told Jairus to trust Him and not be afraid. No one knew what Jesus would do, just that He cared about the sick. When Jesus raised her from the dead, everyone was amazed.
The healing miracles of Jesus show us several things. They demonstrate he is God himself and that God has compassion for the sick and suffering. In fact, Jesus shared our sufferings and took them to the cross. There he died for the sins of the world and bore the sufferings that came because of it. His resurrection is the promise of the ultimate healing of all our sickness, sorrow, grief, and death. At his second coming, he will bring an end to it once and for all when he dries every tear from our eyes.
Jesus wants us to have compassion for the sick, too. He tells us to love them, to pray for them and to take care of them. He continues to show mercy to people who suffer through our care. In these ways, we show people that God loves them, too.
