From Me to We

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Welcome to our fourth in this five-week series called Shift. I don't know if you realize this, but the first century that Jesus lived in was a powder keg of strained religious and racial relationships. The people of Israel were outraged at the violent domination of the Roman Empire over their lives. At the same time, they were disillusioned and distrustful of their religious institutions, realizing they were corrupt as well. You know, so often I think many Christians believe Jesus kind of just popped into a place and time that was idyllic and peaceful and tranquil and wonderful. And he just spoke these words of wisdom in a timeless way and fashion outside of any context. And he almost kind of wrote a textbook on spiritual chemistry or religious physics, you know, kind of laws and principles to live by no matter what, no matter when. When in reality, he lived in the midst of a people that were filled with many conspiracy theories and cynicism as they hoped for a better day, as they were nostalgic for a golden era past that really hadn't existed, and as they were also paranoid and anxious over a present apocalyptic possibility. So when we read Jesus in the four gospels, we don't get him out of this context. We get him speaking into the middle of this context, and he does not back down from speaking about things like the realities of race and culture and politics and religion and economics for his day and therefore for ours as well. Just think for a moment before we get into the text in Luke chapter 10 today. Just think for a moment of some of the questions and challenges Jesus had as he addressed issues around him. For instance, he was asked whether people in Jerusalem and in Judea should pay taxes to an occupying power, the Roman Empire. Should we pay taxes to Caesar or not? That was a lightning rod of a question. He was also asked about the brutal killing of fellow Jews by Pilate and his soldiers, and how did they deserve that and what happened there? Would he call for a rebellion like the Maccabees before him or the present zealots in his day that wanted to take up arms against Rome? Or would he acquiesce and give in to the entire culture like the Herodians did, another group that basically said, live and let live. The Greek way of life is the way to go. Don't worry about religion. Don't worry about what we believe. What would he do? He was asked time and again about the legitimacy of the priesthood and the temple cult and what was going on there. He came into the midst of that and saw the corruption there and called it out for what it was. And in fact, what he did, he was dead just a few days later. What was the kingdom of God really about? What about Rome? What about the laws? What about rules? How do we get in? Those questions were all in this context. So I like what Pastor Greg Finke recently wrote in his blog post. He's a fellow pastor, and he said this. Jesus doesn't reinforce your political system. He unravels it. He is both much more conservative and much more liberal than any of our political systems would allow. If you turn Jesus into someone who sounds like you, thinks like you, and judges others like you, you've replaced Jesus with an idol of you. It is difficult. A difficult, narrow pathway Jesus is leading his followers to navigate. But it is the pathway Jesus is leading his followers to navigate. Come, follow me. And so we're going to read this text in Luke chapter 10, a parable about what it means to really follow Jesus. And he's going to unravel you. He's going to unravel me as I read this and studied this text, just like he took the expert in the law who tested him and asked him and unraveled his whole way of thinking. Now, we call that the parable of the Good Samaritan, but you won't find that as the description Jesus uses in the text. He spoke this parable in the midst of high racial resentment and power grabs in that society. And Jesus is telling this parable. He's not saying some nice things. He's being extremely subversive. He is upending the whole worldview of this expert in the law and all the logic and justifications of how this expert saw race and culture and ethnicity and religion. He doesn't leave him alone. In fact, I think Jesus is really showing compassion to him by turning things upside down and upending it for him. And ultimately, I think Jesus is calling us today to make the shift from me to you. From what's to my advantage, who should I, you know, how do I get ahead to what is it that you need? What is up for your benefit? What is to the glory of God? So today we're going to look at these three points about this shift. The self-justifying logic of our present way of seeing things are the other directed compassion that Jesus calls for. And finally, how do we make that shift from my self-justifying logic of keeping my life the way it...