The challenge in really ‘hearing’ Jesus’ parables in our current situation for not merely what they say but what they actually mean, is that many of us have been ‘overexposed’ to Christianity. That term ‘overexposure’ was originally used in Photography referring to the exposure of film to the light for too long of a period of time. This would render the photos unusable because it would result in print defects that made what the picture was supposed to show no longer clear.

Unfortunately, this is what has happened to much of the Church when it comes to the Bible, and more specifically to Jesus’ parables. We are too familiar with them and so they do not ‘hit’ us in the way Jesus intends for them to ‘hit’ us. They do not bring into focus the very picture Jesus is intending for us to see. Therefore, because they are not understood they have very little appreciable impact in our lives.

This blog post will require courage. It will require humility. It will require unflinching honesty in the face of our deepest prejudices. Even ones we cannot or do not want to admit we have. Therefore, let’s engage in an exercise which I think will help us immensely in recapturing Jesus’ intended effect with one of His parables...

You will notice in the below passage of scripture that the characters from Jesus’ parable have blanks for you to fill in.

As you see the description under each blank, please honestly and courageously (in the face of your own pride) fill them in. Then we will go back through the Text and experience Jesus’ parable afresh—as He intended—as His original audience would have experienced it.

“9 Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else.

10 “Two [people] went up to the temple to pray, one a __________________. (#1 insert a representative of a group you support) and the other a ________________ (#2 insert a member of a group you do not support) 11 The __________________ stood (insert the rep. you chose for #1 ) and prayed about himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: ______________, ______________, (insert 2 more groups or kinds of people you do not support)—or even like this ______________. (insert the rep. you placed in #2) 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’  13 The ______________, (insert the rep. of the group you placed in #2) however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!’ 14 I tell you that this man went down to his home justified rather than the ______________. (insert the rep. of the group you chose for #1) For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”—Luke 18:9-14 (NET)

Now take a moment and go back over this parable by reading it to yourself with the blanks filled in with the answers you bravely and honestly wrote down. Does this parable take on a whole new aspect of meaning for the implications for our everyday lives? It should. Jesus is highlighting something common to the human experience and absolutely abhorrent to God. Jesus told this parable to shock people out of their self-deception and to reveal what the nature of the love Jesus calls us to really means. But when we read this parable, (or any parable of Jesus for that matter) we tend to be just like the Pharisee Jesus is showing to be a spiritual imposter. We tend to grant ourselves the status of the person Jesus is commending, rather than the person Jesus is correcting. You and I need to understand that parables are told to change us. If we continue to place ourselves in the position of the ‘hero’ we are missing Jesus’ point!

Do you see that God isn’t so much hung up on where you are at right now, but where He wants to take you? That in spite of what we’re going through, or have done to hurt God, He’s still seeking us out, and offering victory through handing over the reins of our life to Him through faith in Jesus. To change our minds about what we assume, or feel life is all about, and instead embrace who God says life is all about: Jesus. Every individual starts out far from God, but when each one of us calls on Jesus as Lord, we experience forgiveness, salvation, transformation, acceptance and relief. Take a look with me at a passage of the Bible that explains this very simply… 

8 But what does it [the Scripture] say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”9 (that is, the word of faith that we preach), 9 because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.10 For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation. 11 For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.—(Romans 10:8-13 NET)

Verse 12 tells us there is no distinction in God’s mind among different kinds of people, because everyone needs Jesus’ saving grace, and that God richly blesses all who call on Him! So if you’re thinking that God wants to forgive and change everyone’s life but yours, think again! He wants you! He wants to change your life, because He’s rich in mercy, and love, and wants to include you in His family; not based on what you can do for Him, but based on what He has done for you. This passage reveals what it means and looks like to finally come to genuine faith in Jesus. In verse 9 we learn that if we “confess” or agree with God that Jesus is LORD (the Chief, the Boss, the God who calls the shots), and believe in our hearts that God the Father raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. Did you get that? If we can submit to the fact that Jesus is who He claimed to be (LORD), and recognize that He paid the ultimate price for our sins, Jesus will grant us eternal life by request! In verse 13 we learn that God doesn’t play favorites! Salvation is available upon request to all who recognize our need to change our minds about our need for Jesus, and who are willing to call on Him! This salvation is not available to merely most, or many, but to all who call. And that includes you too. Are you ready to surrender? Are you ready to believe? Are you ready to let Jesus be who He really is? Are you ready to become a true believer? 

Let’s take a look at the 5 steps everyone is on in their journey with God; “Your attitude towards God determines your distance from God. Each ‘step’ describes a heart-attitude & this determines your distance—near or far—from Him. Jesus taught this when He said to the man seeking truth, “You are not far from the kingdom of God”.—Mark 12:34”

- WHERE ARE YOU IN THIS 5 STEP PROCESS? 

1. Unconcern - You may know a great deal about Jesus & Salvation, or very little. The important point is, you do not really care. (John 6:65)

2. Concern - You are aware of your inner and spiritual needs & would like to find answers to them. (Acts 17:26-27)

3. Conviction - You have a strong discomfort & guilt caused by the Holy Spirit showing you your sin & emptiness. (John 16:8)

4. Repentance - You have a deep change of mind & heart & choose to reject & forsake all known sin & the right to run your life independently from God. (Acts 3:19, 8:22, 17:30)

5. Saving Faith - You are prepared to make a total commitment, of all you have, to the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ.“ (Romans 10:8-13)

—E. Murdoch’s ‘Step Up To Life’

So where are you at? I don’t know. Only you and Jesus know the answer to that. But here is what I would challenge you to do…

Call on Jesus in prayer, confessing your sin, surrendering control of your life, and asking for His permanent forgiveness, as you admit He is the Lord God who died in your place & rose from the dead. 

The Gospel is not what we can do for God, but what Jesus in His faithfulness has done and is desiring to do for us. The only question is whether or not we will believe it and receive Him.

The payment for sin has already been accomplished, and has been paid in full to God the Father by Jesus on our behalf through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. The only missing piece is that each individual must ‘be justified’ upon truly believing it (Rom. 10:9-11). To do this we must repent from believing in self-reliance and instead turn to believing in relying solely on Jesus.

We cannot exercise faith in ourselves and Jesus simultaneously!

We either trust in Jesus to get us across the finish line of Eternity, or we trust in ourselves. There is no middle ground on this crucial point. It’s the very heart of the Gospel itself!

Human effort, while well-meaning, can never do what only the faithfulness of Christ has already accomplished; namely, satisfying the eternal wrath of an eternally holy God who must deal with and dispose of sin.

Galatians 2:20 is a Bible verse written by an early church leader named Paul, and it’s crucial to a true understanding of the Gospel. This verse should inform the way we understand salvation when we finally come to faith in Jesus through repentance, as we request His permanent forgiveness in prayer. But it should also tell us what the Christian life will look like after coming to faith in Jesus. We misunderstand the Gospel if we come to Jesus by relying on His faithfulness, but then turn around and try to please God day-to-day through all the human effort we can muster! No, that’s a ‘half-gospel,’ it’s miserable, powerless, and it’s not the will of God for us. Galatians 2:20 says:

“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (NET)

God considers any and all who have placed their faith in Jesus to have been crucified with Him! He considers believers ‘already to have suffered’ for our sins, through Christ’s suffering in our place. Even though we were not there on the cross with Jesus physically, God accredits believers with having been there—as having died for our sin and having ceased from earthly and petty pursuits—instead having our eyes fixed on eternal matters.

Now comes the kicker: If you have believed in Christ, then Christ Himself lives in you! By His Holy Spirit, Christ the Faithful One now lives in you, right now, with all His power, faithfulness, grace, holiness, and goodness. Paul says that the life he lived was possible because of the faithfulness of Christ, who lived in him! Paul goes on to say that trying to live for God without daily relying on Jesus’ faithfulness to us is to set aside God’s grace altogether (v. 21)! Rather, he tells us to die to the idea of pleasing God through our own human effort, and instead allow our prideful human-centric mindset of relating to God through our old reliance on human performance to remain crucified! Instead of trying harder, Jesus is calling us to prayerfully rely on Him more— believing that Christ in us, will live out His life through us! Now that’s Good News!

In the film adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel ‘The Last of the Mohicans,’ Daniel Day-Lewis plays Nathaniel Hawkeye—the white adopted son of the last Mohican chief Chingachgook—making his way across the country during the 7 Year’s War in 1757. Nathaniel, along with his father and Mohican brother Uncas, happen upon a skirmish wherein they rescue the two daughters of a British Colonel. Agreeing to ensure they reach their father safely at Ft. William Henry, they set out through the wilderness. Along the way they come upon a cabin that has been burnt to the ground and all its occupants killed. After briefly inspecting the scene, Nathaniel hurries the party along. Protesting loudly, the eldest daughter Cora lashes out at Nathaniel saying, “Whoever they are, though they are strangers, they are at least entitled to a Christian burial. They cannot be left behind.” To this Nathaniel replies, “Let us go, miss.”  “I will not!” snapped Cora. “I've seen the face of war before, sir, but I have not seen it waged on women and children —almost as cruel as your indifference.” Nathaniel replied, “Miss Monroe, they are not strangers and they stay as they lay.” After traveling on, and when tempers had cooled, Cora asks why they did not stop to bury their friends. Nathaniel then reveals that had they done so, the next war party to come upon the cabin would have seen the signs of their arrival, and tracked them down to kill them as well. Upon this realization, Cora’s disgust turns to admiration and gratitude; for what she initially took as cold indifference, was in fact done for their well-being.  

So too, our understanding of God’s work in our lives can be quite shortsighted. In the Gospel of John we encounter Jesus being bombarded with these words: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (Jn. 11:21). Jesus was a close friend of two sisters (Martha & Mary), and their brother Lazarus who had come to believe in Him. Yet when they seemingly needed Him most, He was nowhere to be found. At times God is seemingly absent in our greatest hour of need. But is that really the whole story? Earlier in John 11, we find that upon Jesus hearing that His close friend Lazarus was sick, He purposefully delayed going to see him until he had died. Before going to see Lazarus, Jesus says: “Lazarus has died, and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” You most likely know the rest of the story: Jesus arrives, raises Lazarus from the dead, and many people who witness this miracle come to believe in Him. In the end, Jesus’ initial seeming indifference to His friends’ suffering turned out to have a greater purpose—the salvation of many who would not have come to faith in Him otherwise. Let’s remember that when Jesus seems absent in the midst of our greatest need, that’s when He’s about to do His greatest work for our good and His glory.

Several years ago I received a phone call that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. A good friend was calling to tell me that his little girl had just been diagnosed with leukemia. I was stunned. All I could do in that moment was listen and pray with him for God’s intervention. My friend knew that his daughter would need to go through some scary moments and conversations with he and his wife very soon in order to face this diagnosis and embrace treatment. But how does a loving father explain such things to his child? Thankfully she made it through her treatments and is now helping other kids face their diagnoses with the bravery and faith she had! 

In a way, you and I are very much like my friend’s little girl when it comes to our spiritual condition. We’re soul-sick and we need an intervention but don’t fully understand why. The treatment is scary, and if we go through with it we will need to embrace some hard truths. Yet in the end, real healing, hope, and life lay before us as we discover that God is our good and capable Physician. 

The God of the Bible has some hard truths for us to swallow, but like the doctor who correctly diagnoses his patient and then prescribes the treatment, God has diagnosed the human condition (sin) and prescribed the only treatment that can address the spiritual leukemia that flows within the heart of us all (i.e.—turning to His Son Jesus by faith). 

The problem is we’re like little children who are afraid to go the doctor. So we try to avoid our appointment over and over, or we kick and scream as hard and as loud as we can to avoid the intervention we so desperately need. We reject the hard truths of God’s diagnosis through discarding the Bible and what it says, replacing Him with a ‘god’ (a doctor) who will only give us stickers and lollipops because he doesn’t want to ‘upset the children.’ Unfortunately, in America as well as many other parts of the world, God has been reduced to nothing more than a ‘nice person’ who will never tell us difficult things even if those things could save our very souls. Nothing could be further from the truth.  

In 1st John 1:8-10 we read:

“8 If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.” (NET)

Jesus referred to himself as our ‘physician’ (Matt. 9:12) and those who need His forgiveness as ‘the sick.’ But we need to be able to come to Him for treatment on His terms.  So what about you? Have you come to Jesus acknowledging your spiritual leukemia, or are you afraid of undergoing His treatment? There is no need to be afraid because He promises us in 1st John 5:13:

“I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

So how about stopping to ask the Good Physician to heal your soul-sickness right now by admitting your need for His permanent forgiveness?—He has yet to lose a patient.