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Summary:

It's Holy Week and the tension is rising. Jesus flipped over tables and called out the religious leaders. And they're getting mad. So they send someone to ask about taxes, about money, about who has say over our lives and our hearts. And what about the afterlife, if there is one? Jesus responds to those questions, but his big response has to do with their so-called desire for the king to come in the line of David. Well, he says, David even calls the One to come his Lord! So maybe Jesus is Lord over all and maybe he doesn't come and do what we think he should do and in the way we think he should do it.

Excerpt:

What defines you? That's kind of a question that's worth asking regularly. If you're a student, maybe what defines you as your academics, particularly if maybe you're a good student, your grades, if you're an athlete, maybe it's maybe it's your ability, particularly over somebody else. Or the words you've given the accolades you've received. Maybe what defines you is your ethnic heritage. Aren't we all Irish this weekend? We are Amen. Maybe it's your job--that's so common. Maybe to your family, your children, so common to be defined by your family. Maybe it's who you're sexually attracted to. Maybe it's the color of your skin. What defines you?

So we're in this series in Luke, which is actually the eighth season in which we've been in Luke together. And we are actually making our way near the end. But we're in chapter 20. We're near the end of chapter 20. And what we're doing is we're looking at the events that took place during Holy Week, in that interim time between when Jesus comes in writing on the donkey on Palm Sunday, and his crucifixion and resurrection. And Jesus spends most of these early days of that week teaching and preaching and specifically does so in Jerusalem, around the temple. At night, at night, he would go to Bethany and He was staying with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. But during the day, he made his way into the city, and he would make his way to the temple courts and their teach. And if you were with us last week, what you know is that the tension is really building. And it's very clear in the passage just before us, things are getting hot. Yeah, the conflict is very much there. We read that the scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him. And they were watching him and they and what we read actually here is that they sent spies to catch him, that he might be turned over to the authorities, and to the judgment of the governor. The jurisdiction of the governor is what it says they wanted him out. He was threatening them, their power, their place who they were, Jesus was threatening it. You might remember that last week, Jesus told a parable about them. And they were the bad guys. And God was gonna come to them.

So anyway, one of these spies comes to Jesus, verse 21, and says this, "teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God." This is what he's saying. Maybe in your quest, to define yourself with your religious fervor to define yourself as just against the Romans. You're missing the whole point. Maybe you miss actually the Lord's Lord when he's standing right in front of you. Because you just want to debate and you want to get rid of all these people and you're just blind to God right here. You know, you can define yourselves in all kinds of ways. And frankly, many of them are really good. Don't stop trying to be the best at your work, you know, devote yourself to the work that you've been given to do in this life. I mean, that's a noble pursuit. Don't stop thinking creatively about how to parent well. That's a noble pursuit, that's really good, that's worthy of your time. And I would encourage you to just don't say, "Hey, I'm colorblind. I don't see people's skin color, they all look the same." Don't say that. And whatever skin color you have is a gift from God, and he actually delights it. He takes joy in it; he made you to that way and he loves it. But all of these things, if they become what defines you, you will lose sight of the main thing. And it will wreck you. It will wreck you. If they become what absolutely defines you, gives you life and purpose in this life and in the life to come, then you'll miss it all. You'll miss it all. But Jesus says this again. And again, if you have him, if you seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, all of the other things will be added unto you. They will, the questions of this life, He will guide you through them. The wonder of the life to come of which we know frankly, very little, it will all be glorious, because he will be there. And he's the God of living, not the dead.

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