City Life Starter

Written by Calah Jackson

The Word

45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” 46 And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. 48 So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ 50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. 52 Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

53 As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, 54 lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

-Luke 11:45-54

Reflection

I grew up a pastor’s kid. I remember the pressure of doing the right thing and dealing with the perceptions of me made by adults. Even though my parents never forced me to “keep up appearances,” the passing comments and underlying expectations of others had a way of shaping my sense of self.

At some point it became easy to believe that I had to perform for God. I lived as though God cared more about my behavior than the condition of my heart—as long as I didn’t make a mess, I thought I was doing okay; to button up and do Christianity right.

It wasn’t until later on when I grasped that I had been believing a counterfeit gospel. God was after the very heart of stone I tried to keep pristine in my own power.

That’s why this passage in Luke hits home for me.

What is the purpose of being “pristine” or, in the case of the lawyers,  knowledgeable about the scriptures if we lack true surrender? How can the good and perfect law of God take root in a heart that has built an altar to the words themselves, rather than to the One who first spoke them?

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 reminds us that:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

I can’t imagine the depth of the frustration Jesus has as He speaks to this group. I read these words from and I imagine Him recounting the generations that rejected God. How intimately He knew this rejection already but also how much more visceral it would become.

As Jesus speaks, I consider the tomb that was already waiting to receive Him. Blood would be shed by Jesus, the One who established the foundation of the world for the remission of our sins. My sin. I can’t fathom His passion in this moment, knowing His death was imminent but also because these men thought they had the pinnacle of understanding even though the ultimate plan of salvation was set in motion from the beginning. They were speaking of their own offense not realizing the offense they flung at the King of Glory who would lay down His life for these status seeking men.

These Pharisees and lawyers are us. They are me. They show us a mirror of our own hearts. Their posture doesn’t end as religious elitism but reveals our sin nature of wanting to be our own god. We want to be ones who define honor and dishonor. Clean and unclean. We want to hold what we feel is right in our own hands and sink our teeth into the fruit we believe can satisfy just like Adam and Eve.

In claiming to be wise we become fools. That was my story. In the climax of my pride, I did not choose God, but my own way. And the stench of my sin prevented others from choosing Him as well.

Application

BUT GOD.

God didn’t just make a way, but made Himself The Way for me and for you. He created the path for us by route of His own flesh and blood. Now we walk into true knowledge and all the way into the presence of God through Jesus, the Narrow Way. This takes me from the woe of Jesus to a heart posture that says “whoa!” in complete awe of Jesus.

Prayer

God, change me from the inside out. Keep uprooting the things that aren’t like You. Remind me that Your ways are perfect and You are worthy to be followed. Don’t let me be satisfied with looking religious on the outside, but rather let my actions be an outpouring of my heart’s devotion to You. Let me heart stand in awe of Your sacrifice and goodness. In Jesus name, amen.