Name: The 2nd Hardest Parable by Taylor Mertins
Duration: 16 min 43 s
Description: The strange and bewildering proclamation of the Gospel is that you can put your whole bank account in the offering plate and God will not love you any more or any less. God loves you no matter what. The Good News really is that good. It's so good, in fact, that we can't help ourselves from changing because of it.

The strange and bewildering proclamation of the Gospel is that you can put your whole bank account in the offering plate and God will not love you any more or any less. God loves you no matter what. The Good News really is that good. It's so good, in fact, that we can't help ourselves from changing because of it.

The 2nd Hardest Parable

Matthew 21.12-17

Contrary to the witness of John Mayer, we don’t have to wait on the world to change. We can pray for it. But we shouldn’t be surprised if, while praying for the world to change, God starts the work by changing us.

Anger

Matthew 26.36-46

“Thy will be done” is the enemy of sloth. 

It’s the recognition that though we might not have eyes to see any new possibilities, we worship the God of impossible possibility, who makes all things new.

“Thy will be done” sets us on an adventure in which we never quite know what the future holds, but we do know who holds the future. 

Perhaps that’s why Jesus is forever telling parables about those who fall asleep, and why he is forever commanding the disciples to wake up. When it comes to the Gospel, the only thing we have to do is wake up to God’s new possibilities, God’s new day, God’s new way. 

“Thy will be done.”

Sloth

Matthew 26.14-16

A rich man comes up to Jesus and he says, “Teacher, I follow all of the commands of God. What more must I do to inherit eternal life?”

And Jesus, looking on the man with compassion, says, “Because I love you, how about you try selling everything you have, give the proceeds to the poor, and then you can follow me”

The man walks away from Jesus, grieving, because he has many possessions.

As far as I can tell, this is the only time in the strange new world of the Bible that Jesus invites someone into discipleship and they turn it down.

The story doesn’t end there, of course. Jesus goes on to talk about how difficult it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of heaven. As difficult, in fact, as it would be for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

What a wondrous moment in the Gospel! It is quick to makes us squirm sufficiently in our seats. It is an uncomfortable word to hear because we, compared to the rest of the world, are rich beyond imagining, and then Jesus drops this word on us.

And yet, there’s still more to the story! 

Peter, wondrous Peter, raises his hand after Jesus rebukes the wealthy, and says, “If that rich guy can’t be saved, even though he follow the entire law, then who can?”

And Jesus says, “What is impossible for humans, is possible for God.”

In the end, we worship the God who saves sinners, who can raise the dead, who can even diminish our greed, because nothing is impossible for God.

Greed

Matthew 6.25-34

It is to a people obsessed with themselves, with too much and too little, that Jesus speaks this powerful word: 

Why are you so worried about what you eat and drink? About what you wear and how you look? Look at the birds of the air. They are not terrified of these things. Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? Consider the lilies of the field! They neither toil nor spin and they are more gorgeous than anything you have in the closet. You need not worry about these things because your worry is eating you alive. Your heavenly Father knows what you need, and it is to you that the kingdom is given.

The proclamation of the Gospel is that we need not worry, like the birds or the lilies, because God provides. But our desire to live lives without fear cannot but help create a world of fear because we are told, and often believe, there is never enough.

Which is perhaps why, for millennia, the church has insisted on reminding people of these words from Jesus. The songs we sing and the sermons we receive and the sacraments we share all declare that we have worth and value. 

We say what we say in the church because the world is always trying to convince us of the contrary, both implicitly and explicitly. 

From our bosses, spouses, friends, and foes, from the advertisements, videos, movies, and shows.

You’re too fat. You’re too skinny. You’re too stupid. You’re too slow. You’re too bold. You’re too shy. On and on we are bombarded with the words of the World.

And then Jesus says, “You are enough. You are wonderfully made. You are beloved as you are.”

Gluttony

Matthew 21.1-10

One of the craziest parts of what is already one of the craziest parts of the Bible, is the fact that, on Palm Sunday, Jesus doesn’t say anything.

Have you ever noticed that before? It’s a bit odd coming from the one who has lots to say in his Sermon on the Mount, the one who parades out parables every chance he gets. 

Jesus doesn’t say anything while the crowds say everything.

And when Jesus doesn’t meet their exceptions, when he doesn’t meet our expectations, the result is the cross...

Lust

Matthew 26.17-30

Music has this almost magic quality to it. It can bring forth emotions we did not know we had, or that we did not know we needed to feel. God uses the songs we sing to remind us who we are and whose we are.

And the same happens here at the table. We do this in remembrance not only because we are commanded to, but also because, in so doing, we become Jesus’ memory for the world. The Eucharist is the feast that makes Christ’s time the time in which we live. A time meant for singing. 

And so, it is here in this ferocious fellowship of differents God says, “Behold what you are! And become what you receive.”

We Are What We Sing

Unexpected

Psalm 133 & John 20.10-31

The story of Thomas seemingly ends with his triumphant and faithful declaration: "My Lord and My God!" But John isn’t quite finished. For he actually concludes with a strange note about how “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.” But, John continues, “These are written so that you may come to believe, to trust, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through faith you may have life.”

Do you see? Faith is a gift given to people like us. And it makes people like us exactly what Thomas insisted he required to belief. This wondrous church, this body of Christ, wounded and weary, bold and beautiful, we are what the world beholds and knows that Jesus is the something more they’ve been looking for.

The Place Where Faith Must Stand

Luke 24.36b-48

I don’t know the last time you took a stroll through the strange new world of the Bible, but let me tell you, it is strange! It tells of cosmic creation, rainbowed repentance, kaleidoscopic covenants, profound prophets, geriatric geniuses, sacred psalms, liturgical litanies, paradoxical poems, and one heck of a messy Messiah.

What begins on the day of Easter, and is continued through the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of the early church, is the stark claim that knowing the scriptures does little good unless we know it as part of a people constituted by the practices of a resurrected Lord.
 
In other words: our faith is always faith seeking understanding...

Faith Seeking Understanding

Psalm 23 & John 10.1-18

The first task of a Christian is not to forgive, but to learn to be forgiven.

The Church of the Second Chance

thirty something pastor, podcast host, and fan of parables

The 2nd Hardest Parable

Taylor Mertins

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