Note: The devotion for Jan 15-18 is based on the Parable of the Sower; read it in its entirety today.
Mk. 4:2-8 (NIV): “He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: [3] ‘Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. [4] As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. [5] Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. [6] But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. [7] Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. [8] Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.’”
Devotional Thoughts for This Morning
Mk. 4:14-5 (NIV): “The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.”
Once, there was this elderly pastor (Hong) whose sermon I didn’t care to listen to. At the time, I was part of an in-house discipleship training at my church along with other young men. Our day began with a 5:30 AM prayer meeting, which we attended mostly out fear of our pastor who would discipline us if we didn’t attend; so whenever he was out-of-town, most of us slept in. But this greatly upset Pastor Hong who used every pulpit opportunity to call us out as hypocritical, lazy bums. Naturally, whenever he spoke, I gladly let the evil one snatch away his word.
When we don’t like or understand a sermon, it’s easy to blame the speaker for not delivering the message well. But oftentimes, the listener may have thought that he was listening, when in reality he really wasn’t. Once, Jesus was sharing a serious message about not disowning God before men, not blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, and being persecuted for one’s faith (Lk. 12:8-12). At that moment, “someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me’” (Lk. 12:13). Evidently, this person was so preoccupied with losing out on the family inheritance that he failed to pay any attention to Jesus’ words. This had nothing to do with whether the teaching was inadequate or the delivery was off, but everything to do the listener’s predisposition that kept the word from being planted in the heart.
Maybe there is a 3-step method to having the right attitude when listening to God’s word, but what happened to me in 1983 was definitely the work of the Holy Spirit. One day, while I was reading a book on servanthood, I became convicted that I was far from it. In the evening service in which Pastor Hong spoke, again calling us out as hypocritical bums, I, having come with a broken and contrite heart, responded to his message by coming to the altar to repent with tears.
So, the next time you’re about to hear God’s word proclaimed, pray for an unpreoccupied and contrite heart so that the powerful Word of God can penetrate into your soul and spirit (Heb. 4:12).
Prayer
LORD, how precious and wonderful that You have given us a Book that we can readily access to obtain the knowledge of salvation as well as the instruction for guiding this life. Thank You also for the office of preaching through which we hear God’s word being proclaimed in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Isaiah 17
Lunch Break Study
A man blind from birth, after being healed by Jesus (without knowing that it was him), was brought to the Pharisees who wanted to investigate how or what happened.
Read Jn. 9:28-34 (NIV): “Then they hurled insults at him and said, ‘You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! [29] We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.’ [30] The man answered, ‘Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. [31] We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. [32] Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. [33] If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’ [34] To this they replied, ‘You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!’ And they threw him out.”
Lk. 18:17: “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
Question to Consider
- How did the Pharisees respond to the answer given to them by the formerly blind man?
- Why did the Pharisees reject the truthful words spoken by him? Does this happen today?
- Describe your typical attitude whenever you are listening to someone expounding the Bible. What kind of an attitude should we have?
Notes
- They categorically rejected it, meaning it didn’t matter what the formerly blind man said; the Pharisees came to the meeting with a mindset determined to not consider anything he had to say.
- For the Pharisees, well-educated people with great credentials, it was quite easy to dismiss those who were considerably inferior to them in every aspect: religious pedigree, social status, and theological knowledge. Yes, it happens today for the same reason.
- If what is taught or preached makes any kind of sense, just accept it like a child; don’t fight too hard to criticize the sermon; don’t let some negativity outweigh the positives. Don’t be a wise guy!
Evening Reflection
Did you read Psalm 81 yet? If not, read it now and meditate on it. If you have, read Psalm 42 and reflect on this psalm.
The church where I became a believer in 1981 was steeped in end-times Bible prophecy. My fascination with this grew all the more after seeing Christian movies, such as “A Thief in the Night” and “Image of the Beast,” which portrayed a terrifying world following the rapture. My ears perked up when several respectable pastors predicted the Lord’s coming in 1988. The fact that the prediction didn’t come true that year hasn’t stopped others from setting other dates (e.g., Harold Camping-2011).
One consequence of failed date-setting is an increased disinterest in Christ’s coming. Anticipating this, Peter wrote: “They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation’” (2 Pet. 3:4). I plead guilty to that because I went from passionately teaching the end time prophecy to becoming somewhat unenthused about reading the book of Revelation (always as the last book while reading the Bible in a year).
Luke, being a Gentile, knew that the Jews didn’t want to share God’s blessing with people like him. In his later book, Acts, he recounted how the Jews sought to kill Paul (“Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!” 22:22) just because he declared, “The Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (22:21). Luke also noted that the Jews who were dispersed from the persecution in Jerusalem, shared the gospel only with other Jews—most of them simply didn’t care about the spiritual welfare of the Gentiles. Having been tossed around by the Grecian, Ptolemaic, Seleucid, and Roman Empire for four centuries, the Israelites were in no mood to share God’s blessings with them.
Evidently, Luke, writing his Gospel to Theophilus—likely a high Roman official—had a mission to declare to the Gentiles that the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son in the parables represented them, and a search would be made to find them. Unlike the older son who didn’t care whether his brother lived or died, another Son, “the firstborn of all creation” (Gal. 1:15) “came to seek and to save the lost” (Lk. 19:10). That is, the Gentiles are the other sheep that Jesus came to find: “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. . . . There shall be one flock and one shepherd” (Jn. 10:16).
The Christian faith in the wrong hands can turn into a weapon to condemn others, thereby one can feel superior about oneself. Recall the prayer of the Pharisee who said, “I thank God that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers” (Lk. 18:10). But in Luke 15, Jesus presents the parable of lost sheep, coin and son to show that “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Lk. 19:10). So, we see that the shepherd and the woman immediately set out to find what was lost; both say, “Rejoice with me” (Lk. 15:6, 9) upon finding it. However, no one is looking for the younger son. Theologian Edmund Clowney, when asked if culturally the father would’ve gone out looking for the son, responded, “The older brother would have done that”; but the older brother in the parable stays put.
At the very least, the Pharisees, whom the older son represents, were known to “travel over land and sea to win a single convert.” Their problem was the message which made their convert “twice as much a child of hell as [they] are” (Matt. 23:15). But the older son is acting worse than the Pharisees: first, he thinks worst of his brother, assuming his association with prostitutes (something Jesus never said); second, he doesn’t care whether his brother is alive or dead. While the older son has always been near his father physically, his heart is as far from the father’s as east is from the west; while the father rejoices, the older son growls at the return of his brother.
During my earlier days as a Christian, I made up some good rules for myself so that I could please God. Each day in my monthly calendar, I recorded how long I prayed (timed to seconds), how many chapters of the Bible I read, etc. I felt great about myself for a while (partly because I was out-performing others), but once I couldn’t keep it up (lots of zeroes), I felt like God was displeased and even angry with me; as a result, I was joyless and felt bound.
The Pharisees, Israel’s religious leaders, to whom this parable was told (15:2), knew that the “older son,” who couldn’t stand his younger brother, represented them. They, too, couldn’t stand the sight of those whom they dubbed as “sinners,” consisting of tax collectors, who corroborated with the hated Romans, and prostitutes. Why? Because these spiritual lowlifes weren’t as holy and righteous as they who kept God’s laws. Thus, they prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evil doers, adulterers. . . . I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get” (18:11-2). In their zeal to further differentiate themselves, the Pharisees tagged on additional rules, “such as the washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles” (Mk. 7:4). Upon seeing those who didn’t keep their rules, the Pharisees condemned them, even saying to Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders” (7:5).
As for the skit, the team presented two prodigal sons who, after the weeklong party, are told by the father to rise up early to work; being grateful, they eagerly assure him that they would. But once the morning arrives, the undisciplined sons struggle to rise: while son #1 never does, son #2 shows up late. The father isn’t upset, but understanding. By the end of the week, son # 1 finally arrives on time, while the other son, seeing that he doesn’t get punished, becomes brazen and makes no effort to get up to work. Finally, the father pays the sleeping son a visit; meanwhile, the audience assumes that he is going to punish the son for taking his grace for granted. Instead, the father says to his lazy and ungrateful son, “Let’s go have lunch.” At that moment, the song based on Romans 2:4 is played: “It’s your kindness that leads us to repentance, O Lord, knowing that you love us, no matter what we do, makes us want to love you too.”
Then in the 1990’s, an article (Kenneth E. Bailey) about the cultural significance of the “running father” jolted me. According to the Jerusalem Talmud, during the time of Jesus, a ceremony called “Qetsatsah” was given to young Jews who lost their family inheritance to the Gentiles. The villagers “would bring a large earthenware jar, filled it with burned nuts and burned corn, and break it in front of the guilty individual while shouting, ‘So-and-so is cut off from his people’. . . . Th[is] . . . shun appears to have been a total ban on any contact with the violator of the village code of honor.”
What was the younger son thinking when it became evident that the blurry object from afar running towards him was his father? Perhaps, the son was assuming that the father was still fuming with anger, and even might have appeared to be so; his eyes might’ve been closed and his teeth clenched as the father lunged forward. But instead of a blow, the son was warmly embraced with a kiss, and given a hero’s welcome: a robe and ring of the highest quality, fancy footwear, and a party where nothing was spared. 
The 4th century British monk Pelagius, being austere and moral, insisted that man is “still capable of choosing good or evil without special divine aid.” To him, the younger son in the parable was being genuine. That, however, is tantamount to seeing man as capable of saving himself without God’s initiative; the two preceding parables in Luke 15 suggest otherwise. The lost coin and the lost sheep didn’t return home on their own willpower; instead, they were found by their respective owners who searched for them.
The lost son, who, at this point in the parable, has yet to encounter his father’s grace, is no different. Lost in his sin, he is still clueless about his father’s heart, believing that his anger will only subside unless he becomes a servant. The son’s decision to return is a desperate attempt by a desperately hungry man who, once again, was scheming to get what he wanted: it worked once (making him rich) and it should work again, that is, if the right things are said with the right emotions, so that he can eat.