Jesus is what God Has to Say

The great composer Ludwig van Beethoven occasionally played a trick on audiences at small parties, especially when he guessed that they weren’t really interested in serious music. The story goes that he would perform a piece on the piano, one of his own slow movements perhaps, which would be so gentle and beautiful that everyone would be lulled into thinking the world was a soft, cozy place where they could think beautiful thoughts and relax into semi-slumber. Then, just as the final notes were dying away Beethoven would bring his whole forearm down with a crash across the keys, and laugh at the shock he gave to the assembled company.

Perhaps it was a bit cruel and impolite, but the shock of that crash of notes interrupting the haunting melody is a good image for what Jesus had to say at the end of Luke 12. Take a look...

“I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or two in favor and three against.

‘Father will be divided against son
and son against father;
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother;
and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’”

Then Jesus turned to the crowd and said, “When you see clouds beginning to form in the west, you say, ‘Here comes a shower.’ And you are right. When the south wind blows, you say, ‘Today will be a scorcher.’ And it is. You fools! You know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the present times.

“Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right? When you are on the way to court with your accuser, try to settle the matter before you get there. Otherwise, your accuser may drag you before the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, who will throw you into prison. And if that happens, you won’t be free again until you have paid the very last penny.”

 -Luke 12:49-59 NLT

Just like Beethoven crashing down on the piano to grab the people's attention, so Jesus is saying some hard words to his audience so they will understand the implications of his message.

Jesus has come to establish a Kingdom on earth, but it is not a Kingdom like that of Rome or of Babylon or any other great empire of world history. It certainly isn't like the superpower nations of today. 

Jesus’ kingship is not like human kingships—it wins influence through suffering service, not coercive power.

And to be quite honest? His kingdom is divisive. All are welcome, but to those who don't "settle matters with their accuser" in time? Well... the fire is coming and it will divide. It will even divide families. And there will not be hope for them after that.

Hard words, but not much different than the hard words these people had already heard from the mouths of Moses and their prophets in centuries past.

But Jesus makes it different.

The author of this text of Scripture is very interested in this type of Kingdom, it supersedes anything he has ever known or understood about the God of Israel. For Luke, a well-educated physician, who was a gentile (non-Jewish) this idea of God coming down and wrapping himself in the flesh of mankind didn't sound like what he had always heard regarding the God of the Jewish people.


Honestly it sounded more Greek or Roman than Jewish.

The difference?

This God-man named Jesus wasn't demanding power through his superior strength, he wasn't enslaving people, nor demanding the praise of men. He didn't go around with an army, he didn't wage war on the establishment in militaristic ways.

He won the influence in people's lives by loving them and accepting them right where they were... and then he demonstrated his love in their lives by refusing to leave them exactly as they were.

This Jesus healed the sick, rescued people from darkness and enslavement; he comforted the broken-hearted, and preached about a Kingdom not of this world. He challenged people not to live in the sin that made them captives to addictions, to things or people that diminished their humanity that in any way made them doubt the love of God for them. He challenged them to live in the freedom of love, grace, and peace.

Luke investigated. And through his investigation we gain a great deal of insight into who Luke believed Jesus to be.

In Scripture we are given four Gospels. Four re-tellings. Four views, if you will, on the life of Jesus. There are differences among them. There are points where the details of each story aren't congruent with each other. We shouldn't be afraid to admit that.

This doesn't take away from the truth of the stories that are included. I like to think of the four Gospels as if they were one diamond. Depending on the angle that you look at the diamond you see different highlights, different cuts, different colors, different ways the light reflects: it is beautiful in many different dimensions.

• Matthew was an eyewitness for three quarters of the events in his Gospel, the rest gathered of his information gathered from other disciples and Jesus’ family members.

• Mark was an eyewitness for at least some of the events in his Gospel, the rest of his information was gathered from Peter.

• John was an eyewitness for all of the events of his Gospel, but John doesn't tell the story in a chronological order; he has an entirely different motivation in writing.

• And then there is Luke: a non-Jew, non-disciple. He wasn't actually present for any of the miracles or any of the parables. He never once even met Jesus as far as we can tell.

And yet in many ways, Luke is the most detailed biographer and the most complex in his theology that he constructs regarding the purpose of the Christ.

Luke spent years following Paul around the known world. However Luke traveled around speaking to eyewitnesses any time Paul was imprisoned. He gained most of his information from the Apostle John, John Mark, Mary the mother of Jesus, and the Apostle Peter.

Luke is interested in a narrative expressing God’s will that “the whole world” should eventually be united in a new Israel that transforms both Jews and gentiles (non-Jew).

Well, aren't all four writers interested in that?

Sure. 

But in the Gospel of Luke we see the same theme expressed differently. Instead of Jesus being a new and greater Moses as the Lawgiver who was building a new Israel on the spiritual heart of Jewish Law, Jesus in Luke’s Gospel is:

• a greater Moses as the Deliverer from Bondage (an exodus from the kingdom of sin)

• the suffering servant of Isaiah – representing a new Israel called to servanthood, not to power.

• a new and greater Elijah as “the exalted and universal Christ of heaven and earth.”

How do we know this?

Compare the lives of Moses and Elijah with that of Jesus. In many occasions, the settings are the same, the people say the same things, the illustrations, parables, metaphors and stories are the same... BUT... Jesus responds differently than his forerunners.

Jesus is the true and living Word of God. Jesus is who the Law and Prophets point toward and bow to. Jesus is what the Old Testament was trying to say, but could never fully articulate. Jesus is the perfect Word of God in a human life. God couldn’t say all he wanted to say in the form of a book, so he said it in the form of Jesus.  

Jesus IS what God has to say!

Jesus is the fulfillment of God's plan from the very beginning, it was He who all the Bible pointed towards and glorifies... and the fulfillment of this plan opened the door to more than just biological Israel.

For in Jesus, we are all children of Abraham, and therefore children of the promise. Through Jesus we are all invited into the Kingdom of God.

This missional God who came down to us is the same missional God that compels us out to reach our family members, our friends, our neighbors and invite them into the Kingdom of heaven.

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Nathan Bryant

is a pastor at River Run Church in East Orlando, FL. As a student at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri he majored in Biblical Leadership, New Testament Studies, and Missiology.  In 2014 he attended the Leadership Institute in Phoenix, AZ where he continued his education from other pastors and educators at one of the fastest growing churches in the United States. He loves the outdoors, whether it is camping in the mountains or jumping through the waves at the beach, nothing is better than enjoying God’s creation. Nathan has a combined passion for unity and discipleship in the global church.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our causes.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our boundaries.

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