One of the problems we have with prophetic words is that we
don’t know timing. John the Baptist saw
the coming of the Lord but what he didn't see was the distance in time between,
for instance, the fulfillment of the first part of this prophecy, the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the second part, the coming in judgment, the
end of time. The horizon of events is
never quite clear and now we are two thousand years from the fulfillment of the
first prophecy and still awaiting the fulfillment of the second. We have the assurance from Jesus that the day
of the Lord in judgment is coming, and His words are trustworthy and true
because of the resurrection, it validates his own prophetic voice concerning
all other things. The problem with
waiting is complacency. We can become
blasé about the coming again because it has delayed so long. Did you get up this morning with any sense of
urgency about His coming?
This is a very difficult parable because it looks possible
that the manager is commended for doing something underhanded. The tough part is sorting out the "rich
man" and whether he is the good guy in the story or not. It actually seems that there is no hero of
the story. The manager is going to be
fired, right from the start, and he knows it.
He will now have to work out what to do with his life and it seems
possible that he has already failed as a manager and is not prepared to lower
his standard of living or the means by which he secures it. His decision is to ingratiate himself into
the houses of his master's debtors by reducing the amounts owed. It is unlikely that the reduction is to
principal, that there have been sizeable markups is more likely and he is
reducing the markup. The debtors know
that this is truly gracious and they will soon hear that he did this as he was
going to be fired, they will know the favor was done by him not the rich
man. He still represents the owner at
the time, so the actions are legally binding.
Jesus says that the actions will win favor in this life "so that
when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings." The uncertain part is who "they"
are who will receive you. The parable teaches the proper use of the world's
wealth, to help others.
When David wrote Psalm 119 he understood the relationship
between the Law and life in the way that James does here. "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a
light to my path" makes clear that the purpose of knowing is to instruct
me in walking out this life. James isn't
preaching another Gospel, a Gospel of works as opposed to faith. If I have learned anything in my walk with
Christ it is that faith must be applied to life if we are to make
progress. His desire is for a lived out,
incarnational faith as opposed to an intellectual assent to truth. The incarnation tells us that belief and
truth are meant to be lived out, that this life and the way we live it somehow
matters to God. We aren't meant to be
Gnostics, we are meant to merge mind and soul and body into life. Materialism teaches this is all there is,
Gnosticism teaches that this flesh doesn't matter, Christianity teaches that
there is more than materialism and yet that the material of the flesh has
meaning and purpose both now and hereafter.
No comments:
Post a Comment