Yes, or No (Luke 4:20-32)
Written by Pastor Fausel   
 Grace, mercy and peace be to you …

Our Reading from Luke’s Gospel for today has a number of striking features, but one that really stands out.  And that’s this: when Jesus speaks, He does so … with authority.

When Jesus speaks to the crowds, to the sick, to the broken, to the demon possessed …and even to us … He does so with authority.

What does speaking with authority look and sound like?  Well, we have just a few of his actual words recorded here by Luke … They consist of commands like:  “Be Still”  and  “Come out of Him!”

So we see that instead of Jesus taking about God … which was the manner of speech of the scribes and teachers of the Law … Jesus spoke … as God.  Jesus spoke and commanded … and it was done!

We see in our Gospel reading that Luke is developing a theme here … that just as God spoke and things came into existence as they did during the 6 days of Creation … so when Jesus spoke … the physical results His words called for … were just as certain.  Why?  Because He is God in the Flesh.

So we see that demons were forced to give up those they had imprisoned, a high fever was forced to leave its victim.   Voices of the demonic that were insisting on naming the Person who was driving them out were forced to be silent.

And all these things were being accomplished by the authority of Jesus’ words.  And so that we don’t miss the importance of this: Luke even records the people’s reaction.  They say:    “He gives orders to evil spirits and they come out.”

They were seeing that with Jesus, that His Words and actions were one.

Now, as we noted last week, when it comes to God’s Word, we have today what’s been called “the whole counsel of Scripture.”  The entire Bible.   So, so in the writings of the other evangelists we see other places where Jesus speaks, other places where His words and actions are one.

Jesus on the Sea of Galilee tells a storm to be still … and not only do the winds stop … the water immediately goes flat.  Jesus says, “Lazarus, come forth!” … and a body, decomposing in the Judean heat for four days, gets up and walks out of a tomb, still wrapped up for burial.

Such is the record of Scripture.   Remember the theme here … Jesus and God who created all that we see and still sustains it … are One.  And the same voice that said with authority, “Let there be Light,” and light came into being … is the same voice that calls us into worship this morning.

But there is a difference … a subtle, but important difference.  When God said, “Let there be light”   Light had no choice but to come into being.

But when Jesus, even God in the flesh, says to you and me … “Come unto me all you are burdened and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”   Or when He says:  “Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit … we can just say, NO.

Jesus can speak to us with all the authority He has … and we can just say, “I’d prefer not to.”  We can actually resist the express spoken will of God.  Light didn’t have a choice … but we do.   

When Jesus said to the demons in our text:  “Be still, and “come out.”   They had no choice … they had to leave their victim.   But when Jesus says to us, “He who has ears let him hear…” we do have a choice, and we can just say ”no.”

We see examples of a lot of people in Scripture who did exactly that … they just said “no.”  The rich young ruler, when Jesus told him to give away his wealth and follow Him … the young man … just said no. 

So, why aren’t we overcome by some compelling force, like those demons or even light itself  … and why don’t we do exactly what Jesus tells us to do?   Why aren’t His words and actions one when it comes to our hearts and wills?

The answer is summed up in one word.  The Word that St. Paul looks at from all directions in our Epistle reading for today … the Word “Love.”

Love.  That’s the philosophical reason why…  That’s the real basis. 
But the physical reason why, say, that light and the demons don’t have a choice and we do … is because God speaks in two different ways.

One is a direct order.  That’s what we see with light, the storm on the sea of Galilee, the demons and so forth.   God says it and it is.

But when God speaks to our hearts through His Word, He does so by the power of His Spirit … and God has given us the power to resist His Spirit, to say “no.”  That’s called by a number of names but most frequently, “Free Will.”

Light, storms and the demons do not have “Free Will” as you and I do. You and I were made in the image of God … an image much distorted and corrupted since the fall of man … but in God’s image none the less.

And so the connection between the philosophical and the material is this.   If God said to us, “Love me,” and we had no choice in the matter … then we’d all have to love God… whether we saw that as something we wanted to do or not.

But love is not truly love if it is coerced or forced in any way.  It cannot be bribed, extorted or blackmailed …  It’s only Love if LOVE is our own highest desire … in an of itself  … not to gain goodies … not to avoid punishment … but just because that’s what we see as a good … and when we Love that way … that’s the Love that God desires.

If He forces Love out of you … bribes it out of you, if He scares it out of you … then it’s not love … its phony. 
And the Devil would laugh in God’s face … for what God would have created then … would be just a puppet show … a creation designed and constrained by God just to praise Himself.

Now, one thing we need to remember when it comes to Free Will, is that we cannot choose to love God on our own.   The call from God to love Him comes from His Spirit … and by the power of that Spirit, then, God engenders faith in our hearts.  We can then ignore it, throw it away, despise it … or nourish and cherish it. 

But no one can say that Jesus is Lord, that is, love Him. except by the power of the Holy Spirit … which is a gift of God through faith … So, if we are saved … it is totally, 100%, the work of God.   Yet a work of God we see many in Scripture … and many around us …resist. 
 
And so… say God has accomplished that work in us … He has brought us to faith.    Then come those words of Jesus’ directed to us of faith … “Go and make disciples of all nations…”

What do we do with those words?  Now … on our own … we can see that that’s an impossible task.  We can’t make disciples of anyone, not even ourselves … because, again, being a disciple is not a human choice … but a gift of God.

So, humanly speaking, our only response to Jesus’ command would be to throw up our hands.  “No can do … oh, Holy One.”

But watch this.  When Jesus calls us to do something, as we see throughout Scripture, He also gives us the where-with-all to do what He has called us to do. 

For instance …When Jesus tells us;  be Perfect as Your heavenly Father is perfect … we see that also as something humanly impossible …

But, God does give us His Spirit to help us resist temptation, but more importantly, He gives us His own righteousness, so that in His Father’s eyes, we are perfect, even as Jesus Himself is perfect!

So then, what about that charge to go and make disciples? … The fact is, God will make the disciples … our job in that is to be bearers of the Holy Spirit by taking the message of the Gospel to those who have not yet experienced God’s grace.

Or our job is to join God in what He is already doing.  His command to make disciples is really such an invitation … just as Jesus’ command was to the rich young ruler was such an invitation… “give away all you have and follow me, join me in what I am doing.”

And so, we too have been given the choice to ignore the invitation … and stay where we are.   Or to accept the invitation … and grow in our relationship with God as we go with Him and He accomplishes His work through us.

That, quite frankly, is exciting.  Why?  Look at our reading from Luke again.  What do we see?  A people harassed and helpless … victims of sin, death and the devil.

And when they see Jesus … they recognize Him as salvation from those temporal powers… they see Him doing things only God could do … but He does not stay with them, in spite of their pleas.

Why?  Because their eyes were still on their daily bread … they hadn’t moved on yet to recognize their need for the one thing truly needful … a true and lasting relationship of love with God the Father which Jesus came to bring through His Death and Resurrection.

So, you see what Jesus has done for us, then?  By the gift of His Holy Spirit, He has lifted us out of that mass of suffering humanity that has its eyes focused only on the here and now.

And in doing so … He has invited us to join Him in what He is doing What’s He doing?  … We heard His Job description last week:

The Spirit of God has anointed me:  “to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of our Lord’s favor.”

His invitation to you and me to join Him in that is… “as you are going, make disciples of all nations …” 

It’s no longer Jesus alone whose hands and voice must treat all those who are captive in sin … His invitation to us is to join Him … to be on the team, to be part of His work, as Luke shows us this morning.

So many out there, lost, like sheep without a shepherd.  “Help me gather them in,”   Jesus says to us.  How shall we answer Him?  Yes  …or no?

In Him,

Amen.
 

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