Luke 20:41 - 21:4 "There's No One Like Jesus"
I grew up in a family that was very cutting edge—I mean, way ahead of their time, when it came to spiritual things. My mom grew up in the 50s, a time when most families went to church. Not hers. She wasn’t baptized, she wasn’t raised in the faith. Her early life was one bad idea after another. She was married to one man, dating another, and got pregnant with me by someone else. I have no idea who my biological father is. Jerry Springer, Montel Williams here we come.
I loved my mom, we were always very close, but she was given no faith to pass onto her children. We never went to church, not one time. I didn’t know Jesus from Santa Claus.
My grandma, who I never knew to go to church either, she told me a few times she was a Methodist. My mom didn’t know anything about that and argued with her, “We’re not Methodists, we’re Christian!” Okay, mom. Nice try.
Apparently my great-grandparents went to church at one time. I don’t know why they stopped. Maybe when they relocated from Kansas to Illinois, just didn’t bother finding a new church. Maybe when her husband died. I have no idea—no one ever talked about it.
So, obviously I wasn’t baptized as a child but there’s this one story my mom told me that’s always been part of my internal legend. She said my first step-father, who was violent and abusive, pushed her down on the floor punching her, threatening to get me next, maybe kill me—she said she prayed, “God, if you’ll protect my son, You can have him!” It’s one of the strangest things she ever said to me, and my mom said some strange things. I know people bargain with God when they’re afraid but how many people promise their son to a God they don’t even know?
Jump forward about 12 years.
I can’t help but think God was answering her prayer when I was a 14-year-old atheist looking up at the stars one night—all of a sudden I could no longer sustain the belief that God wasn’t there. I felt so small standing there in my backyard looking up into the expanse of space. All the microscopic universes making up each atom which in turn make up everything that exists. It was all too interconnected to be random. I couldn’t convince myself that given enough time and space, a godless universe could end up generating me staring at the stars trying to not believe in a God who wasn’t there. It’s like I felt Him see me.
So all of a sudden I believe in God. I start reading the Bible and find out about Jesus. Once I knew about Jesus, who said He was God in the flesh—well, that’s something you kind of have to deal with. He’s either who He says He is, or He’s making it up, or He’s insane. You have to pick one of those. He’s either a lunatic, a liar, or the Lord God Almighty. The one thing He can’t be is just a nice guy who said some nice things.
So, I said I grew up in a family that was spiritually very cutting edge. In the late 1940s, my great-grandparents stopped going to church like it was 2020. They were way ahead of their time. And no one in my family went back to church until God interrupted the stupidity of a 14-year-old boy standing in his backyard.
I’ve heard it said, “The man who attempts Christianity without the church shoots himself in the foot, shoots his children in the leg, and shoots his grandchildren in the heart.” I think this little peek into my ancestry backs that up.
I always thank God for that night under the stars when He got my attention. I started going to church, I dragged my family with me—mom, stepdad number two (Bob Hart), my brothers, even my grandma when I could make it happen. Never doubt the effectiveness of a prayer when a mother or father promise to give their child to God.
We’re continuing in the Gospel of Luke. Last week Jesus got into some arguments, we talked about how to argue like Jesus—it was fun.
One of the things that happened, that I saved for this week, was why the scribes were so impressed with Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees about the resurrection. They had been arguing with the Sadducees about the resurrection for generations and hadn’t gotten anywhere. Total stalemate.
The Sadducees were convinced there was no resurrection, when you die, that’s it. The Pharisees and the scribes had a bunch of Bible verses about life after death they liked to throw at them but none of them were from the first five books of the Bible, which were the only ones the Sadducees cared about—so they got nowhere.
Jesus cracked His knuckles and proved the resurrection from Exodus, the 2nd book of the Bible—shut those Sadducees down with one of their own favorite passages. That’s why the scribes were so impressed. He succeeded at what they had failed to do over and over.
So, the debate was over. No one dared ask Jesus any more questions, but He wasn’t quite done dropping truth bombs. Continuing in chapter 20…
For they no longer dared to ask him any question. But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son? For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’ David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?” Luke 20:40-44
Jesus is like, “Here, let me ask you a question about the Messiah.”
If there was one thing they knew about the Messiah, it’s that He was going to be a descendant of King David—a man born in the royal bloodline. Luke went to a lot of trouble in chapter two making sure we all knew Jesus was in the line of David.
So, Jesus says, “And you know David is talking about the Messiah in Psalm 110, right?”
They’re like, “Yeah…”
So He asks, “Then why do you think the Messiah will only be a human, mortal man?”
Listen to what David wrote,
“The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” God (YHWH) said to David’s God (a reference to the Messiah), sit at my (YHWH’s) right hand. Psalm 110:1
This would be like one of those moments when everything gets real strange inside your head—that weird “rack-focus” thing that happens like in a Hitchcock movie. Inside your brain, it feels like something is screaming, “Noooo! This can’t be true!” But you know it is and that makes it worse.
They had read it a thousand times. They had it memorized. But just like the Sadducees with the resurrection—they had missed this very important idea. The Messiah will not only be a human descendant of David, He will also be Divine. In some way that goes beyond anything that has ever happened before, the Messiah will be both God and man.
For the readers of the Gospel of Luke, we’ve known this from the moment of conception, the angel announced to the Virgin Mary that “the Lord God will not only give to Jesus the throne of his father David, but he will also be King over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (1:32–33) That baby will be the High King of heaven, something that’s only possible for God.
Sometimes I hear people say, “Jesus isn’t God, He’s the Son of God.” Like a demi-god. Like Hercules or Achilles or something. That’s certainly not what the Scriptures tell us.
Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He is the only begotten Son of God, eternally begotten before anything was created, begotten not made, not created. God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, of one substance with the Father and the Holy Spirit. All creation was done by Him and through Him and He sustains everything that has been made by His will. He is also making all things new. He is the eternal Son of God who came down from heaven and took on flesh, born of the virgin Mary, became a human man. He lived and was tempted in every way that humans are tempted but did not sin. He was crucified, suffered, and died according to His human nature and rose again on the third day according to His divine nature. He is still both fully human and fully divine as He sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, where He will wait patiently until all His enemies are put under His feet, and He will come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead—and His kingdom shall have no end. That’s Jesus.
How do we know all this? It’s all in the Scriptures. Including Psalm 110, a Scripture the religious leaders had failed to see in its fullness.
Jesus asked them a question: Is the Messiah simply a human descendent of David, or is He both the human and divine Son of God? Psalm 110 gives us the answer—He’s the human descendant of David and at the same time David’s Lord—the word for “Lord” there is “Adonay” which only means one thing, “God.” Jesus is David’s son and David’s God. This question was answered a thousand years before Jesus was born.
Luther said this about Psalm 110, “Here, as nowhere else in the Old Testament Scriptures, we find a clear and powerful description of His person—who he is, namely, both David’s promised Son according to the flesh and God’s eternal Son.”
Don’t try to simplify it. Let it blow your mind. It’s a mystery and it’s wonderful. Jesus is fully man and fully God.
The early church was obsessed with Psalm 110, they used it over and over to show from the Scriptures that Jesus was both human and divine.
Jesus looks at the Pharisees and scribes whose heads are spinning and gives the people a warning…
And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” Luke 20:45-47
Those were the guys who were supposed to know the Scriptures. Supposed to understand what they mean. Standing there with their fancy robes and silly hats—rejecting God to His face. Can you imagine?
He accuses them of some pretty awful things. He’s mentioned some of them before but He adds a few new ones. These are all things we might want to keep in mind if we don’t want the church to go the way of the Pharisees and scribes—rejecting God, misunderstanding Scripture, missing the whole point. They wanted to look holy. Righteous. Parade around in long robes—fancy clothes. Expected to be treated like royalty, get the best seats and richest food. Everyone hang on their every word when they mansplain theology and the Law. But they’re hypocrites. They “eat up the houses of widows”—showing their greed by taking advantage of vulnerable people in the name of giving money to God. They would prey on widows by becoming the executors of their estates when the husband died—line their own pockets and fill up the temple treasury to fund their ministries. Then they’d stand up in front of people and try to impress everyone with their long flowery prayers.
I don’t know… does that remind you of anyone these days? I’ve seen a lot of abuse in the church by so-called pastors and ministers. Jesus has a very serious warning here.
He says people who prance around like this and take advantage of His church are going to receive the greater condemnation. Greater than who? Greater than the Sadducees who don’t even believe.
Beware of preachers and pastors and teachers who think the ministry of salvation depends on them—it only happens through the deliverance of the righteous Messiah who suffered, died, resurrected from the dead, and ascended back to His Father in Heaven. Beware ministers who lose sight of what the ministry is for—it’s for reconciling sinners back to God.
There are a lot of people these days who have stopped gathering as the church. There’s a lot of reasons for that. Maybe they just got out of the habit of going in 2020 during COVID. Or maybe they’ve been hurt by church people—pastor’s, priests, judgy church ladies, immature worship leaders, petty men who think they own the place, theological bullies, greedy preachers, sexual predators in sheep’s clothing and vestments, church leaders who demand too much time and keep people too busy—the list goes on and on. There are so many people who have burned out on the idea of church, been chased away from Jesus by rotten people in the church, and have no intention of ever coming back.
This is why Jesus said to beware of these kinds of people.
I would love to remind those who have been chased away that their problems are with wicked people who failed them, not with Jesus. Not with His actual church, made up of people He called to gather in His name. I’d love to remind the people who have stopped gathering as the church that He’s still calling them to be here, to gather around His word, His promises, His gifts—to hear the Gospel, receive mercy, let go of their shame, be refreshed with peace and walk in hope—to raise their family in the faith. I’d love to remind them of all kinds of wonderful things but they’re not here. We’re going to have to go out there and find them, remind them they’re welcome to come back. That this is their Father’s house and they’re welcome to come home. No judgment. No questions asked.
These days people think the church is the central headquarters for close-minded bigots who are dead-set on chasing away anyone who isn’t just like them.
How is that compatible with the description of Jesus as the God who loves you so much that He came personally to die for your sin and failures? I think we forget that Christianity is not primarily a religion of rules and laws. It’s primarily about the Gospel. It’s more about God’s love and grace, not “act a certain way and you’ll feel better about yourself.”
Moving on to chapter 21, remember the chapter divisions are not part of the original text and were added later, this is the next thing that happened after He said “Beware the fancy dressed parasites,” Luke 21…
Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” Luke 21:1-4
Did any of you think about Jesus watching you when the offering bucket was passed around a little while ago? How do you think it would have affected all those people at the temple if they would have known the Divine Messiah, the Son of God, was casually watching them give their offerings?
What if God did a miracle and whatever they gave suddenly became an accurate ten percent? I don’t mean their offering got bigger, I mean their bank account probably got smaller—suddenly reflecting the remaining 90% of whatever they gave.
If God ever did something like that here, how many of us would like to have a little warning? “Oh, I just suddenly feel inspired to be very generous.” Ha.
So, Jesus is watching the rich people drop their money in one of the twelve trumpet-shaped receptacles that were accessible from the outer courtyard. I wonder if He’s cringing at the smug rich people making a show of it—I wonder if they’re looking around while they pour their bags of silver coins into the metal tubes, making all kinds of shimmering noise.
Then He sees a poor widow puts in two small copper coins—almost worthless coins, less than half a penny.
It doesn’t say how old the widow is, just that she’s poor. A lot of Christian painters have depicted her having a child with her, which certainly drives home the point.
Jesus says she gave more than all the rest of them put together. They all gave out of their extra but she gave everything she had left to live on.
That’s true faith. Faith doesn’t just mean to believe in God. I imagine all the rich people who gave lavish gifts believed in God. Faith means to trust in God—that’s a lot more to the point.
She gave her last two cents. That’s trust.
She very well may starve to death now. I doubt it but she definitely put herself in God’s hands, she’s okay with it if she does. Jesus is clearly moved by this woman’s trust.
I don’t think she’s dropping those coins like the temple is a slot machine. It’s more likely the rich were doing that—expecting God to bless them because He owes them now.
I’m pretty sure the woman heard what Jesus said about her, too. Jesus almost always spoke His words of affirmation so the person could hear it.
Maybe this is one of the widows He accused them of robbing. If so, how amazing is it that she hasn’t lost her faith, and is still showing up to God’s house to worship.
In the previous verse, Jesus said the scribes “devour widows houses.” This story is not unrelated. So, it has two very strong applications. First, this poor woman shows what it looks like to worship God with all our heart, soul, mind, strength, and possessions. We give everything to Him with complete trust.
But the other application is also very important. Religious leaders are not to be greedy. Not supposed to be chasing ambulances trying to get dying people to leave their money to the church. Don’t be like the scribes who devour widow’s houses.
To be clear, I’d love it if NewChurch members remembered the church in their last will and testaments, but I’m not going to come knocking on your door with a lawyer to try and get it.
You might not know this but one of the things Luther was most disgusted about with the church of Rome, one of the things that kicked off the Reformation, was a marketing campaign to raise money to build St Peter’s Basilica where they told people the more money they gave the less time their loved ones had to spend in purgatory. A Dominican friar named Jonathan Tetzel went around saying, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs." Maybe we should print that on t-shirts and bumper stickers—we’d have the money to build NewChurch in no time! No.
One of the things people continue to be critical of about the church is the greed of its leaders. Jesus said to beware of those kinds of men. True then, true now.
Today was a good day. We saw some babies baptized and watched their parents promise to raise them as Christians—to give them to God. We listened to a story about a poor woman who gave everything she had trusting in God. And we heard about who Jesus really is…
All that stuff we said about Jesus is true. Jesus is one of a kind. There’s no one like Him. He really is the divine Son of God. He really is your only hope of life and salvation. You really are forgiven because of Him—no more shame, no more condemnation.
We gather here each week to remind each other of the hope God has given us. Remind each other of the Gospel. Remind each other to walk in His love, live in the hope He’s promised us, and to trust Him. It’s the only peace we’ll find in this world.
I would love to remind all the people who aren’t here that the Christian faith is about how God loves them more than He expects them to be perfect. But they’re not here, so I’ll remind you: God loves you more than He expects you to be perfect. And when you’re not perfect, you’re forgiven because of Jesus.
Can you remember to share that with a few people this week? I mean, go straight to awkward with it. Tell them there’s no one like Jesus. AMEN