YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)
Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
In our quest to discern the words of the Master and His intent in giving them to us, we have come through a few of His parables. We know that His parables are stories that use life events to show spiritual ideas which, if used by the people then and the people today, bring us closer to the Kingdom of God. Is this not ever the point? Yet, even though we claim to know and to be closer to or even in the Kingdom, we can find ourselves outside of the ideas that Jesus presents to us in parable form. We have now been through a few of them; and we will stop here to recap somewhat and perhaps even shed some additional light on His intent.
- The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard: We can see here that there is a message for those who think that they are more deserving than others. In the case of the parable it is because of the time spent but this could be extended to mean most any thing where we may think that we deserve more than someone else. Behind this is the Master’s more spiritual idea that it does not matter when you come to the Kingdom, the reward of coming is the same, it is the Kingdom. There is yet a deeper message in His words “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). This last part says to us what we have seen as the more spiritual Kingdom idea above plus the thought that those who come later may be more deserving than those who come early. They who come to the spiritual life later come from the heart with change while those who are early are likely brought up on the ideas of the ‘church’; they are there because it is what they know. There is also here the idea of “many be called, but few chosen“; many are called to the work, both those who start early and those who start late, but not all of either group are in the work for the reasons of a right heart; they may be carrying with them the seeds of carnal life. These can be seen as those called, but not the chosen. The chosen are those that enter in at the strait gate to the Kingdom of God and give up all for that right and that privilege; those that do the word of the Lord.
- The next is The Parable of the Good Samaritan: This is a parable of Love and Brotherhood and is the example by which we should be able to see the Master’s teaching on who is one’s neighbour as the whole of the parable is given in answer to that question of “who is my neighbour“. The answer should be seen as two fold; first the Samaritan is the neighbour to the injured man because he came to his aid as a stranger and in a situation of Love and Brotherhood. It is only because of Love and Brotherhood that the Samaritan helped; He did not have to….he wanted to. And Jesus words, when the questioner said rightly that the Samaritan was the neighbour, are for us all: “Go, and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:29-37). We should remember that the first question, before “who is my neighbour“, was “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25), The second idea in this parable is hidden in the way it is delivered and in the questions asked. As we see above the lawyer asks about eternal life and the Master causes the lawyer to answer and he says thus: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself” to which Jesus agrees and tells the lawyer: “this do , and thou shalt live” (Luke 10:27-28). The second idea then is understood in the addition of these verses; Love God and Love thy neighbour is the key to life and our neighbour is the stranger that we must help and that, in the right thinking world, the stranger that would help us. The Master gives no boundaries and no criteria; the neighbour is the stranger and then should be seen as everyman. Note lastly that Jesus seems to go out of His way to say that the priest and the Levite, the holy men of the time, were not among the right thinking world and this too is a message for today.
- Next is The Parable of the Wicked Husbandman: Here we have several stories combined into one great parable. It is the story of the Son of God in Jesus and it is the story of every man that endeavors to do right and to bring the Good News to those who govern and rule. Let us start here; the husbandmen are the leaders and the rulers, both religious and political, that are all around us. Charged with bringing the fruit of the land to the Lord they hold back and in selfishness live for their own benefit only. Messengers are sent which messengers are the right thinking people who try to get the leaders and the rulers to change and to correct themselves; to bring the fruits to the Lord. These are, in the actual story, the prophets who were beaten and stoned and thrown out of the land; in history and today they are all who bring the better ideas of right relations and who are injured and ostracized for their efforts. In the parable the Lord sends His Son in a final effort to fix what is wrong. The same is happening today with the True Sons of God endeavoring to fix the wrongs of the world to the risk of their lives and scorn. Eventually, as promised, the Master will return. How will He be received and treated by this world today, by the leaders both religious and political? The final part of this is the Master’s saying that “Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” (Matthew 21:42-44). We had discussed this part as seemingly misplaced in the context of the parable itself and that in Matthew it seems more entwined than in the other Gospels; its presence here is of importance. That Christ is the cornerstone of the new era that He inaugurated and that He was rejected by the powers that be is a historical fact. He continues to say that the “kingdom of God shall be taken from you” and given to others was meaningful for the Jews to understand but of what importance is it today? Today there are many, in the church and without, who continue to garner all to themselves in prideful attitudes and accumulation of riches. They teach a message that is at times self serving where it should be serving the people and the Lord. For all that may fit into this mold the message of the parable is that what you have, or think that you have, will be taken from you and given to others; no one should think that they can escape this. The fruits thereof are in teaching and doing His word as He meant it and not as we choose to interpret it. The ending sentence is in regard to this as well; stumbling and falling on the Stone that is Christ and His teaching can be seen in teaching wrongly and for our own benefit and not for the benefit of the people and the Lord. These shall be broken. Those who dare to do this wrong teaching maliciously and in selfishness and for their own profit and worldly rewards will find that this Stone that is Christ and His teaching will fall upon them and they will be crushed. Both of these ideas should be seen in their spiritual sense as well as in this world. We will surely reap what we sow.
- The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant is clearly a lesson in forgiveness and on the importance of forgiveness. Remember it is told immediately after telling the Apostle Peter about how often one must forgive and we should know that His answer is that we should forgive endlessly. The parable itself is straightforward in saying that if we do not forgive we will not be forgiven and this is also the Master’s message in many other places in the gospels. Although the parable deals with debt we should see it as much broader and covering everything imaginable, this makes it to agree with the rest of Jesus teachings. We live in and by the Grace of God and in that Grace we should act; we are forgiven by His Grace and therefore we should forgive. We find Love and Compassion in His Grace and we then should show Love and Compassion to all. There appears no secret meaning here. Love, Forgiveness, Compassion and Mercy; we expect and we want them from the Lord and from others and we ought to be willing to give them as well. We noted too that this parable and sequence is with His disciples only and not the crowds and in this there should be some additional insight as to the importance of these things.
- The next is the Parable of the Two Debtors and on this we spent many words in the last post. However, since this is a recap of the parables that we have discussed till now we should include this as well. We centered yesterday on the saying by the Master that: “Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little” (Luke 7:47) as conveying the importance of this entire story and so we see it. It is a story of Love and forgiveness to be sure. The Love that the woman showed and her courage and faith brought her to the place of forgiveness for her many sins. She showed her Love and without asking she received and the message is that this is how we must act; we must Love for the sake of Love and not for a reward and we must forgive for the sake of forgiving too as the Master did for this woman. She is forgiven much because she had much to be forgiven for and as the Master says “she loved much“. In today’s world as well we can find those who Love the Lord but are prisoners of their sins, either past or ongoing, and in their Love they too can find forgiveness; they need however the courage and the faith to receive it and they need to do as the Master says and to “go in peace“. Though the words are not used here, it should be assumed that there is repentance in the woman’s actions and for those of us seeking forgiveness today there would need to be that part of the message as well; perhaps it is found in His words “go in peace“. The final idea here can be seen in the end of the saying “but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little” and that is to say that in the world of men, the world of the flesh, we give in proportion to what we need; needing little forgiveness then causing us to love only little and, in the words of the parable, if we are forgiven for little we will love little as well. This is what it says and in the Master’s saying it we should see that it is not the way we should be or act. The entirety of the Master’s message is ever that we should Love regardless of what we receive and that is the overriding message of this parable as well.
This completes our review of the five parables that we have so far discussed and hopefully we all have additional insight in to the Master’s words through it. In the next post we will take up additional parables. Originally I thought to cover only the parables that concerned Love but I have discovered that in one way or another that they all are about Love. The Love of God for His creation or our Love of Him and our neighbour. There is really naught else in His teachings but Love, Truth and the Kingdom of God which is found through them.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
Master your words.
Master your thoughts.
Never allow your body to do harm.
Follow these three roads with purity
And you will find yourself upon the one way,
The way of wisdom.
Today’s Quote of the Day is from the Dhammapada which is an accumulation of the sayings of the Buddha. If you are unfamiliar with Buddha you should consider Him to be a great spiritual brother of the Christ. We are all the children of the One Father this relationship goes far beyond man’s created divisions of race, national origin and religion. The saying is true to the teachings of Christ and the New Testament as a whole. Except for the man made divisions and some that matter not insofar as the Kingdom is concerned, all true scripture will always have the same ideas and goal.
