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245. Now, A warning For The People

Psalm 73, Mark 12:37B-40, Luke 20:45-47
Key Verse: "When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God.”
Psalm 73:16-17

Asaph expresses well the confusion that most followers of Jesus will feel from time to time. Jesus has just issued warnings against the leaders of the people for all of their bad behavior and bad attitudes of which, according to Jesus anyway, God clearly disapproves. Yet, they appear to be the ones who are being rewarded while the followers of Christ endure hardship and suffering. If we followers were to begin behaving like them, we would feel guilty and ashamed, yet, while we continue to choose to surrender to Christ and suffer for it, those over us, the powerful, rich and influential, live in luxury and the praise of man and have, what appears to us, to be a wonderful life.

Yet, Jesus says to us: "beware." For the last week or so, in our readings, Jesus has been issuing warnings to these leaders, but now, He issues a warning to us not to imitate them or even want what they have.

In the tenth commandment, God warns His people: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:17) The list could go on and on because our ability to covet what others have is endless.

What does it mean to "covet?" It means to want what someone else has. Jesus’ warning here to His disciples and the crowd reminds us that it's not just things that are coveted. We can covet status and power, the blessings of others, the comfortable life that those whom we deem unworthy receive. Jesus warns us not to envy them and Asaph explains the why.

"Surely you place them on slippery ground; You cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! As a dream when one awakes, so when You arise O Lord, You will despise them as fantasies." (Psalm 73:18-20) We haven't seen the final chapter. We only know now and the past.

In contrast, Paul tells us, "Godliness with contentment is great gain." (1 Timothy 6:6) David gives a picture of a weaned child on a parent's lap. "My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me." (Psalm 131:1-2)

It's this attitude of contentment that Jesus is calling forth in His followers then and now. If we can trust that God is good and that He wants good for us, at His proper time, then we can be content to wait for Him to fulfill His promises to us. The Pharisees were all caught up in comparisons and status, as are so many of us today. God, however, in contrast, offers peace when we are willing to step out of the game, out of the fast track and into His reality; when we are willing to wait and trust and believe and follow in His way. "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal." (Isa. 26:3-4)


Hymn: (chorus) "God Is So Good" 

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