Luke 22:31 - 33

 Part 1

How many times have I heard someone tell me that God is just trying to teach me something every time I endure some trial in my life?  Or maybe they suggest that I have been bad and God is just trying to discipline me.   I could get sucked in to believing that line of thinking very easy.   I don’t know everything so I always could learn something new, and for sure I am never going to be perfect.  And I must admit that in some of my worst days I have learned a lot about myself, God and the world I live in… maybe more than if life had always been smooth.  But that does not explain the times when the trials seem out of proportion to the need to learn something or the need for a kick in the pants. 

Over the past few months I have had a very personal struggle with keeping my farm dream alive.  I went broke farming last year and used up all my savings to pay bills.  This year the peaches did not set fruit, the hay crop was ruined by the rain, and the bobcats have killed all but a couple chickens.  I started a part time job which left very little time for farm chores so the potatoes never got planted, the peas and raspberries did not get picked,  the star thistle is waist high, the livestock is being neglected, the firewood is still unsplit and I am trying to get the greenhouse completed…. Shall I go on?  Last week the well quit, a rock put a hole in the transmission of my car, my wife’s car developed a coolant leak in the heater core, my 87 year old mother fell and was hospitalized, and the coyotes became brave enough to come all the way to the house and kill one of our pet cats.  

On the evening before Jesus was arrested and led off to execution the Disciples thought they were prepared for anything.  They were ready to die for Him.  I think they were at a pretty high point in their faith in Jesus and confident about what lay ahead.  Jesus pulled Peter aside and told him point blank that Satan was about to sift him and the rest of them “like wheat”.  It was going to be so bad that Jesus also said he was praying for Peter so that he would not lose his faith altogether.  

So why the sifting?  Were Peter and the others in need of learning something?   Were they in need of correction and in need of severe discipline?    What if instead the sifting was Satan’s attempt to prove to God that the disciples were all really more like Judas?   Betrayers.   They really only stayed with Jesus because he protected them, fed them, cared for them.  Remember the story of Job?  Satan told God the same thing.  Job only is faithful because you bless him.  Take away the blessings and he will curse you! 

I think that in regards to my personal trials: 

1. Sometimes I learn something.  (Trials that stimulate my personal growth)
2. Sometimes someone else learns something.  (Someone else’s growth is stimulated by my trial)
3. Sometimes no one needs to learn anything.  (These trials are for reasons only God can explain and he usually has chosen to keep his mouth shut.  God usually gets blamed for these too.) 
1. Trials caused by the laws of nature.  Gravity, natural disasters, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.
2. Trials caused by evil men and women on purpose.
3. Trials caused by accidents, errors in judgment, miscalculations, human mistakes.
4. Trials with causes that lie beyond this physical world. “Life sifting events”.

Luke 22:28-30

In 2010 I received a grant from the USDA for the construction of a greenhouse.  Only problem was that I had to build the greenhouse BEFORE I received the money to do so.  I was about to give up on the project when in January of 2011 some supporters "granted" me some front money so that I could get started.  Yesterday we put most of the plastic on the structure.  I will breath a big sigh of relief when the project is finally completed, I get my money from USDA and pay back the loans from all those wonderful supporters. 

In Luke 22 verse 30 Jesus announces to his disciples that He is going to give them a "grant".  Not money,  and not now.  He was giving them a place at his future "table" and a position as judge.  I was wondering why Jesus intended to give them the grant.  At first glance it seems that this grant may be a reward for "sticking with him through thick and thin" as the Message paraphrase puts it.  If that is so, I guess Jesus was not  including the next few hours when they would all run off and hide when he was arrested.  Oh that's right.  One of them didn't run off.  Peter followed him at a distance and then before he ran off, he verbally denied that he even knew him.

The table is a picture of the disciples being included with Jesus in the hereafter.   That is a good thing.  When I die I expect to be included too.  Judas was not included.  Some others through the years may not be included either. On what basis were they included?  Not on the basis of performance, because in that regard they were failures.  Jesus said, "Just as my father has granted me a kingdom."   Why was the kingdom granted to Jesus?  Our place at the table is granted for the same reason "as my father has granted to me a kingdom".  Well  it can't be based on performance.  Jesus performed flawlessly and we do not.  The grants are based on God's sovereign choice.   He grants to whomever he chooses whatever he chooses.

And then the matter of granting them a "throne".  He just gave them a lecture about true greatness because they were arguing about who was the greatest among them.  He set them straight by telling them that the greatest was the servant.  So what about this granted "throne"?

Here is what I think.  When Jesus mentions that the disciples had been with him in verse 28 he is not stating the basis for a future reward.  He is only making a statement about those who remained with him.  One of them did not remain. (Judas)  His promise of future reward is not based on performance.  If  the reward was based on performance then all of them would have forfeited the prize in the next few hours when the failed to "remain".   Secondly the reward of a "throne" is not a reward but a place of service.  They just had received a condemnation for arguing who was the greatest.  Jesus had told them the greatest was the servant.  Now he promised them a future of servant-hood not "Greatness" where they could "lord it over someone".

Now we can conclude that the future holds two good things.  A position and a purpose.  A position at the table  (we will be with the Lord) and a purpose (we will have a place of service). 

But just like my greenhouse grant, there is no funding for a while.  I am trying to wait patiently Lord.

Luke 22:24-27

I have been meditating on these few verses for weeks.  What a depth of insight about what I am like and how I was designed.  Every sermon I have heard on this passage could be summed up by some kind of admonition against being prideful. But,  I have been wondering WHY the disciples felt the need to argue about who was the greatest among them.  They had just completed a survey of each other wondering who was going to be the betrayer.  Now they have gone from who was the worst to who was the best!   Why do I feel the need to compare myself with someone else?  Sometimes I feel elated when I think I am better than someone and other times I am depressed because I don't measure up.  But still I cannot seem to avoid the desire to compare.  It is as if I need someone other than myself to validate my worth. 

I wonder if I should try to avoid the comparative impulse or am I to learn to embrace it by directing its focus?  I grew up being taught in church to avoid pride whatever the cost.  Never figured out how to do that very well.

Then I was thinking about what the world must have been like at the beginning.  That longing to look somewhere for validation must have been there from the beginning.  Adam and Eve were tempted to be dissatisfied with who they were.  Satan told them they could be more than they were.  Instead of allowing God to validate them... that they were "good" as it says in Genesis, they chose to look elsewhere.  They were looking for another opinion.

I think this is how I can fill that empty spot in me that was designed to be filled by God alone:

1. I have to direct my focus by looking at Jesus not another human being.  The disciples were arguing among themselves... they were not comparing themselves to Jesus but to each other.  Jesus' response to their discussion was basically Look at me, "I am among you as the one who serves" v27
2. I experience this focus by/in worship. After I look at Jesus and compare myself to him I humbly bow.  He inspires me.  He humbles me.  "I AM AMONG you as THE one who serves"v27  With our thoughts we choose to compare ourselves with Jesus.  But based on the truth of who he is, he invites us to experience who he is in a profoundly personal way.
3. I accept my validation from Jesus. Jesus said, "but it is not this way with YOU".   Jesus did not say it should be this way with people, Christians, Jews, humans, etc.  He said "you".  These were special people to Him.  He did not walk away from them because they didn't get how to live.  They had value to him.  In the next few hours he would demonstrate his ultimate validation of them by giving up his life on their behalf. 
4. I should practice my focus by service.  Jesus said they must "become like a servant."  Serving someone else helps me direct my longing for validation back to God and away from people.  This is one practical thing I can do to discipline myself to avoid comparison with others.  Become the servant.  The one person no one wants to compare themselves to.