Some of the words of Jesus are hard for us to understand.

Number 1

Luke 18:29 ²⁹ And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, ³⁰ who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Is this saying that we’ll be rewarded in this life? We’ll be given even more that we have left. Is this the prosperity gospel?

Evidence suggests this cannot be true. The greatest person who ever lived was nailed to a cross and died in agony at age 33. John the Baptist was beheaded at about the same age. The righteous, it seems, are not rewarded in this life. Hebrews 11  ³⁶ Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawn in two,^[b] they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated— ³⁸ of whom the world was not worthy—wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”

I believe that the concept of ‘much more’ from Jesus here, does not mean more of the same…more wives, more houses, etc, but ‘the more’ means something of greater value. Jesus is saying, that even in this life you’ll receive something of greater value, greater purpose that what we have left behind. WE find that we have a purpose beyond and greater than our own lives. So many people find their greatest purpose in family, or their profession, or career, or business, or health or hobby. But we may lose all of these. We may lose our family through tragedy or deceit. We may lose our wealth or career. But the Christian has a greater purpose which can never be taken away. “ ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 8.

We also received a greater family – all our brothers and sister in Christ. We have a common bond, a common family. Acts 2 ⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵ and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need.”

There are some great examples of people who lost all for Christ – but gained a greater blessing in this life. Jephthah lost the most precious possession a man in Israel could have: a line and lineage to come after him, to be the patriarch of his own family. He was willing to sacrifice his only child because he had made a vow that he would not break. He lost his family in Israel – but gained the greater family of all those in Gilead.

Jesus, cut off from the living, yet gained a family innumerable

Number 2

Parables: Jesus spoke to the crowd so that they will not learn…does God not want people to come to him?

Matt 13:13 ¹³ The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ Quote from Isaiah 6:9-10

It was their initial seeing and hearing of John the Baptist which became the basis of their subsequent total blindness and deafness to Jesus. John spoke plainly – behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Matt 3:11. It was up to people to follow Jesus, and then they would have the message clearly.

Jesus didn’t always speak in parables. The sermon on mount was spoken clearly, giving a chance for all to come to the message. The parables start at about Matt 7:13. Everyone had a chance to become one of his disciples and to hear the message clearly. It was to the disciples that he spoke clearly and explained the parables: Matthew 13:10 “¹⁰ Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” ¹¹ And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given”. The disciples were any willing to follow Jesus – open to all, male or female, not just the twelve. So, everyone had a chance to hear the gospel, just as they do today.

Number 3

Pearls Before Swine 

Matt 7:6  “Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.

Just as an aside, it seems this may be written as a ‘proverb’ or a four-line poem

⁶ “Do not give what is holy to dogs;

and do not throw your pearls before swine,

or they will trample them under foot

and turn and maul you.

 

Now, pigs trample underfoot, and dogs turn and maul you, so the pattern is

⁶ “Do not give what is holy to dogs;                       dogs

and do not throw your pearls before swine,         pigs

or they will trample them under foot                     pigs

and turn and maul you.                                            dogs

This is quite different to the typical pattern in English poetry. WE would say

⁶ “Do not give what is holy to dogs;                       dogs

and do not throw your pearls before swine,         pigs

or they’ll  turn and maul you.                                  dogs

and they will trample them under foot                  pigs

So, it sets the Jewishness of this proverb.

It’s also worth noticing that both dogs/swine unclean. This sets the scene for the explanation.

Since I was a teenager, I’ve heard the explanation that this means that we should not preach the gospel to those who will abuse it – and blaspheme. This is the explanation given in the NIV study Bible. I’ve never been comfortable with that. What right do we have to ever decide for God who can be invited into His Kingdom?

Paul preached to all – Acts 20   “²⁶ Therefore I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, ²⁷ for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.” Paul preached to everyone – even when it earned abuse and torture for him.

Do we have the right to decide who is ‘worthy’ to hear God’s message? Who would we decide were the least worthy to hear the Gospel? The publicans and harlots will enter the Kingdom before the scribes and Pharisees. So, it seems these self-righteous hypocrites were the least worthy to be preached to – yet even many of them believed (Acts 6:7, Acts 15:5).

Look at the context.

Matt 7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. ³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.  ⁶ “Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you.

It’s all about you seeing a fault with your brother (sister), when you to have greater faults. By God’s grace, you have been forgiven – don’t deny that grace and forgiveness to others. Don’t throw the holy gift, the costly pearl, which God has given you, to the dogs and pigs by denying it to others.

Or , another way to look at it is this. What is holy and God’s pearls are the saints – don’t find fault and exclude your brothers/sisters. Don’t cast them to the dogs and pigs. Don’t deny them God’s grace.

Number 4

You’ll do greater miracles than these?

John 14:12  Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Duncan Heaster puts it “the works” of the Lord refer not only to His miracles but to all that He was. His going to the Father on the cross would release the gift of the Spirit (John 7:37 – 39). This was and is fundamentally a gift of internal strengthening in the heart, although it had issue in miraculous works for the disciples in the first century context.

The disciples were able to spread the miracles abroad, all over the world. In this manner, the works were greater. See Paul in Colossians 1:24 -25     ²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, ²⁵ of which I became a minister according to the divine office which was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,

What was lacking of Christ’s sacrifice? Just that is was done in a dusty corner of the Roman Empire, and none save those in Judea knew of it. Paul (and other apostles) took Christ’s sacrifice in their own bodies, to the Roman world – then to India etc.

1 Cor 4 ⁹ For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.

Number 5

Matt 27

⁴⁶ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, la′ma sabach-tha′ni?” that is, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

What did Jesus mean by these words? Was he quoting Psalm 22, or was Psalm 22 quoting Jesus?

Why did those around mistake his words? Why did they think he was calling Elijah?

Matt 27  ⁴⁷ And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “This man is calling Eli′jah.” ⁴⁸ And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. ⁴⁹ But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Eli′jah will come to save him.” ⁵⁰ And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

Because “Eli, Eli, la′ma sabach-tha′ni?” is Aramaic – not Judean Hebrew. At the foot of the cross we know there were a group of women, some Roman soldiers and some scoffers (he saved others – let him save himself). The men nearby were Jews from Judea, and very likely didn’t understand Aramaic. Jesus had dropped back to his Galilee boyhood roots – Aramaic.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the only prayer Jesus where He refers to God as “God’, not ‘father’. A lack of intimacy?

For the moment, let’s assume Psalm 22 is quoting Jesus last words. Was Jesus in so much distress that he was feeling lost from God? Was Jesus in such pain/despair that he asked to come down from the cross? And nothing happened. Is that why he cried in his abandonment?

Did God answer? Immediately after this Jesus died – was that God’s answer? Yes – I have heard you – your pain will stop now.

Another possibility – was Jesus in fact quoting Psalm 22. He knew the words he was to utter – not to show His desperation, but to direct people to read the rest of the Psalm. Was Jesus still preaching? If anyone was to read the rest of Psalm, they would see that this was indeed the Christ – and this death was planned all along.

Number 6

Let the Dead Bury the Dead (Matthew 8:22; Luke 9:60)

Matthew 8  Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. ¹⁹ And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” ²⁰ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” ²¹ Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ²² But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.

It’s interesting to note that the person asking to bury his father is referred to as “another of his disciples”. This implies that the first speaker was a disciple – as well as being a scribe. It seems some scribes followed Jesus.

In V18 Jesus commands to go to the other side – maybe the asking of the disciple to let him bury the dead is to delay this departure.

It could also be that asking to wait until the father died was asking to be given time to take charge of his family and fulfil the duties of a son. The father may very well have been alive, but on his death, a son would have to take charge of the family. So, this disciple was asking to remain with his family, until his father died. Jesus says that those who haven’t followed him (effectively dead to the chance of eternal life), should be left and all should follow Jesus to life.

 Number 7

John 14

²⁵ “These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. ²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. ²⁸ You heard me say to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.

Luke 12

⁴⁹ “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished! ⁵¹ Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; ⁵² for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three; ⁵³ they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother…..”

Matt 10

³⁴ “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to turn

“‘a man against his father,                                                                                        M
a daughter against her mother,                                                                               W
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—                                                   W
³⁶     a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’                        M

These verses may be another Hebrew quartet proverb. Like the pigs and dogs proverb, this has the structure of the first and last lines referring to men, and the second and third lines referring to women.

There seems to be a conflict here. In one statement, Jesus promises peace, but in the next two He promises fire and a sword. The peace is not a protection from suffering, but rather a confidence in the salvation through Jesus. 1 Peter 4:13 ” ¹³ But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed”.  The peace exits within suffering. Christ brought a fire and a sword. The fire of the Spirit which flamed out across the world after Christ’s resurrection, and the sword of persecution followed it.