Choose Your Influencers

It isn’t lost on me that holding commencement ceremonies on Mother’s Day can increase anxiety of many parents.

Graduation is not only a recognition of what has been accomplished, but also looks forward to how students will use the skills and knowledge they have acquired.

As children prepare to enter military, go off to school or enter the workforce, both Mothers and Fathers sense anxiety over the readiness of their child. What voices are going to continue to influence the one God has entrusted to me to prepare for adulthood.

Parents walk that thin line between empowering a child with freedom to make adult choices, while trying to provide the resource of their experience that hopefully the child will draw upon to choose wisely.

The world is full of people who are convinced that they have the ability and right to influence you. Images that used to be managed by slick advertising companies are not giving way to a new breed of social media influencers. There is no family that our children need to “keep up with”. There is no athlete that our youth need to “be like”. Just because a person can throw a ball, does not give him or her the right to influence your view on social justice. Just because an actor is paid to be on screen does not mean he or she has a right to speak toward your politics or world view.

Jesus confronted 2 groups who thought they were entitled to influence others. Jesus makes 8 statement to first teach, “you are not qualified to influence others.” Secondly, Jesus’ challenge to these influencers is a warning that each of us must consider who we are allowing to shape our behaviors and values.

Peers may impact us for good or evil. Mentors may entice us toward that which is right or that which is wrong. Just because a person is in a position of leadership like a boss or a teacher does NOT mean that person is entitled to shape your ethics or morality.

1 Corinthians 15:33 (ESV) — Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

In Today’s text we find clearly that Jesus challenges the assumptions of those who thought they had the right to change others. As we go through these challenges, please ask yourself, “Who am I allowing to shape me?”

Transition: Before you disregard the values imparted by your mother, and follow hard after others who try to mold you in a different way, step back and consider

Awkward Assumptions (vv.37-38)

How many of you enjoy cinnamon toast? Have you ever considered there may be more than one way to make cinnamon toast? When I grew up my mom (since this is Mother’s Day) would lovingly toast the bread, liberally butter it then sprinkle sugar cinnamon on the toast. My understanding of cinnamon toast was just like the Pharisees understanding of ceremonial washing before dinner. When I got married, I learned that there is a different way (even a better way) to make cinnamon toast. Ann taught me to butter the bread, sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar, then toast it under the broiler. My mind was blown that there was more than one way to make cinnamon toast!

Jesus walked to a different drumbeat (v.38)

1. The Pharisees just assumed that their way of doing things is the best (only?) way of doing things.

2. We all can get caught in the same trap as the Pharisees when we assume our way of viewing something is the only way.

a. Pluralism says there are multiple options

b. Tolerance says that I have no right to demand others accept my position.

c. Secularism says that all options are morally equal.

d. Biblical Christianity prescribes a morality.

· The Bible teaches in Hebrews 13:4 (ESV) —Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. In other words, there are certain behaviors that should only be shared between a husband and wife within the marriage relationship.

· There are people in this world to whom the idea of abstinence until marriage is unimaginable, and they just assume you believe the same.

· Worldviews have escalated so that you will be accused of hate or some -ism if you hold to a morality that is different than their assumption.

· Assumptions that used to be common courtesy (men remove a hat indoors, gentlemen offer their seats to a lady, youth offer their seat to an elder, all stand respectfully when the pledge is recited or the National anthem is played) are now disregarded as a relic of the past.

3. The Pharisees thought Jesus was the one out-of-step with normal behavior.

Transition: This assumption opens the door so that Jeuss is about to show them the shortcoming of their assumptions.

A Description and 3 Warnings (vv.39-44)

Description (vv.39-41)

1. There is a disconnect between actions and attitudes

Have you ever bitten into a mushy apple? The color and shape on the outside look perfect, the flesh seems firm to the touch, but that first bite is so mealy, you don’t even want to swallow.

2. Jesus describes the Pharisees as paying lots of attention to what people see, but neglecting their attitudes and motives.

Warning #1 (v.42)

1. Do things right, but neglect the right things

2. The rabbinic rules on tithing came hundreds of years after God instituted the tithe on Sinai.

3. What they practice does not rile him, but what they fail to practice and what they emphasize does. They omit the important matters while scoring well on more trivial pursuits. They should tithe, but they should also be kind to their neighbor and honor God.[i]

I don’t know if it really happens this way or not. I’ve seen in movies when a lethal injection is administered to a criminal, the skin is sanitized and a sterile needle is always used. I’m just imagining that if a person is facing execution, infection from a dirty needle is pretty low on his list of concerns.

4. Allusion to Micah 6:8

Micah 6:8 ESV:2016

8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

5. Jesus has just told the Good Samaritan story which includes 2 religious people who failed to show mercy.

Warning #2 (v.43)

1. “I’m gonna get mine!”

2. Fame is fickle and selfishly seeking after the recognition and applause of man will leave you empty.

Last night we held the 2021 Baccalaureate service in the High School auditorium. Most of you have been there so you may recall that there are 2 vertical aisles and 1 horizontal aisle which divides the seating into 6 sections. Of all the seats available in the auditorium, which fill first? The one row in the middle that offers more legroom.

Warning #3 (v.44)

1. Planting “landmines”

2. The picture is of an unmarked grave that might cause someone to come unknowingly into contact with a body. Such contact would make a Jew unclean and was to be avoided.

3. The Pharisees, who saw themselves as the paragon of purity, are in fact leaders of spiritual uncleanness whose teaching leads people to death

Transition: The big picture is that the Pharisees were only concerned with themselves. If the Pharisees of that day are equivalent to our politicians today, the lawyers in v. 45 would be their classmates from law school. These classmates say, “Wait a minute, you’re throwing us under the bus too. Jesus basically says, “you deserve to be painted with the same broad brush.

3 Warnings and a Prediction (vv.45-52)

Warning #1 (v.46)

1. Burdens without help

2. To picture what Jesus is accusing in v. 46 all you have to think about is politicians closing restaurants and salons then booking private events. It is the arrogance of thinking “the rules don’t apply to me”

3. Let me move on before I am accused of promoting politics, because we can find examples from both parties of “do as I say, not as I do.”

Warning #2 (vv.47-48)

1. Rewrite (wrong side of) History

2. The point is that the spirit that caused their ancestors to slay the prophets still lives with them, as their rejection of Jesus shows. Jesus is essentially saying that the current generation is finishing the job the previous ones started

Prediction (vv.49-51)

1. We read “Abel to Zechariah” and may make a connection of A to Z.

2. Chronologically inclusive, not alphabetically.

· Zeta was the 6thletter of NT (Koine) alphabet.

3. Allusion to all of OT – Abel is killed in Gen 4:8 (first book of TaNaK), Zechariah is killed in 2 Chron 24:22 (last book of TaNaK).

4. Jesus predicts that History will repeat itself.

5. The Book of Acts will detail a Jewish response to Peter, John, Stephen, James, the church at large, and finally the mission of Paul. God’s plan marches forward despite this type of reaction.

Warning #3 (v.52)

1. Undermine truth

2. They failed to act on the truth and then convinced others that truth cannot be trusted.

3. The final charge is found in the last woe to the scribes: they are obstacles to others knowing God. Rather than supplying the key to knowledge, they take it away

I have been amazed to watch and listen to opinions about Covid-19 Immunizations. I’m not here to convince you to change your mind one way or another! What amazes me is how the coin flipped in January. Both outgoing and incoming Presidents got the shot. But people who thought the vaccine was great while it was being developed, now reject it since it is available. And those who questioned the safety and efficacy while in development are now the biggest supporters. The Flip Flop on any policy produces a hindrance for others to trust it.

4. The accusation in v.52 is that they refused to accept the Jesus was the Messiah, and now they were making it difficult for others to trust Him as Messiah.

Conclusion:

Today’s text reminds us that there are people out there who assume that they are right and you are wrong if you don’t surrender to their ways.

Today’s text reminds us that allowing yourself to be squeezed into their mold does not make you more like God intends.

Finally, today’s text reminds us to choose carefully those we allow to shape our morality. For many of us, godly mothers deserve a hug and a thank you for the way they have pointed us toward God.

[i] Darrell L. Bock, Luke: 9:51–24:53, vol. 2, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1996), 1116.