Thoughts on Luke 19

Today’s reading: Psalm 107; Luke 19

God doesn’t give us all the answers, but He does give us enough to trust and follow Him.

The scribes and Pharisees regularly clash with Jesus because He doesn’t meet their expectations of the coming Messiah; both in what they were expecting the Messiah to do, as well as in how they were expecting him to operate. They expected the Messiah to overthrow Rome, establish His kingdom in Jerusalem, and, because He would clearly agree with how they tried to coerce the people into following the Law and all their interpretations of it, to elevate them to positions of preeminence within that kingdom. So when Jesus doesn’t look to be forming an army to march against Rome, that calls into question what He is actually trying to do. And maybe even worse, because He clashes with the scribes and Pharisees, if He is the Messiah and does establish His kingdom, they aren’t very likely to get the high positions they were expecting. The result is that, no matter what Jesus says or does, they won’t believe Him.

The flip-side of this group is the people following Jesus and hailing His entry into Jerusalem in Luke 19. It’s worth realizing that the scribes and Pharisees were the teachers in Israel, meaning the people likely shared, at least to a large extent, the same beliefs about the Messiah and the Law as the scribes and Pharisees. True, not all Jews believed the same things back then, just as not all Christians today believe the same things, but it’s reasonable to think that there was a lot of overlap with their expectations of the Messiah, and we actually see those expectations from Jesus’ own disciples at times, confused why He’s not doing the things they expect Him to be doing.

So if it’s not that the people had different sets of beliefs, one set aligning with who Jesus was and what He taught, and one set conflicting, why is it that one group follows Jesus and the other rejects Him?

Luke tells us the difference between the two groups when he tells us that “the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.” It wasn’t that Jesus’ disciples had all the answers and understood what Jesus was about, it’s that they had seen enough to trust and believe in Jesus despite what they didn’t understand.

One passage that has always exemplified this difference to me in a big way is the end of John 6. There is a large crowd following Jesus for the wrong reasons, and Jesus, knowing their hearts, makes some highly controversial statements that ultimately cause the people to grumble against Him and turn away from following Him. Jesus turns to the twelve and asks if they want to go away as well and Peter responds, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are te Holy One of God.” Peter doesn’t say, “Nah Jesus, it’s cool. We understand what you mean when you make these weird comments and say we have to eat your flesh and drink your blood, so we’re good.” No, they are just as confused, and maybe just as disturbed, as everyone else, but despite their confusion, they know who Jesus is, and that’s enough.

I’m not saying that the disciples had blind faith in Jesus, or that we should follow Him without any basis to our faith, but it is very common for people, Christian or otherwise, to expect answers from God that He simply has not given us. Jesus gave the people enough evidence to show who He was and to warrant their trust in the things they didn’t understand, and our position is really no different today. We don’t get to approach God on our own terms, demanding He do everything according to our understanding or ideas, if we’re going to do Him the favor of placing our faith in Him. No, He has given us enough and calls us to look honestly, like Jesus’s disciples, at what He has revealed to us, and to trust Him based on what we have seen.

We can have incredible, deeply rooted faith in Jesus, and still have questions and confusions. In fact, if we are to be thoughtful and honest in our faith, we will necessarily have to land here, just like Peter at the end of John 6.