Living for Others
The following video transcript has been lightly edited
In Luke 15, it tells us that Jesus hears the Pharisees and Scribes grumbling about the fact that he spends time with tax collectors and sinners. And in response to that, he tells three stories. The first story. Is one of a man who is missing a sheep and goes off, leaves the other 99 to find the missing sheep.
And when that missing sheep is found, he celebrates. Another is a woman who has 10 coins and one goes missing each about a day's worth of labor. She cleans her whole house to find the missing coin, and when she does, she invites her friends and family together and they celebrate and she says, come rejoice with me.
The third story is a story of a father and two sons, and one of the sons goes off into the far off country it says, and squanderers half of the inheritance in wild living, but then returns and the father's excited and runs to the son. Meanwhile, the older brother sits in judgment saying, why is it that we need to celebrate this person who's wasted everything?
And the father says, your brother. Was lost, but now he's found. So we have to celebrate and rejoice. The messaging here to the scribes and Pharisees are a couple things. One, it tells us that God is for everyone, and what God celebrates is the renewal of people. Additionally, it's a push into them to say, Hey you sit in judgment in an attempt to control others, and that's not what God's kingdom is about. And you and I might not do things exactly that way, but you and I wrestle with envy and judgment and control all the time. Anytime we're in our head thinking about, well, why can't I? Or how come they or why can't they just get this taken care of? Well, how come they get that life? Why can't I have it too? These are all the ways that we sit and separate ourselves from others.
But we see in Christ and in Jesus' life and ministry is that he comes to be with the world. He's for the world. And so he dines with tax collectors, sinners, pharisees, and scribes, and invites them all in to the kingdom of God.
And so as we begin to open our eyes to that reality, we have to learn how to live for others just as God has lived for us. And so there are three principles from these stories that I wanna pull out for us today to help us live for others. The first principle is this, that we watch Jesus prioritize relationship over control. So the Pharisees in the Scribes are about setting the law, setting the standards, and pronouncing people either in or out. Jesus doesn't do that. Rather, what Jesus does is he engages in relationship dines with them, hangs out with them. And it's a reminder to us that often what messes with our relationships is our attempt to control and judge. And instead what we want to do is we want to be inviting and warm and welcoming.
Certainly we'll have hard conversations and honest conversations in the midst of our relationships, but we want to prioritize relationship over control. Because when we prioritize control or judgment, that's when we separate ourselves and we're no longer living for others. We're just living for ourselves.
The second principle that I want to highlight for you this week is that repentance is good for everyone. See, within the story, the first one, Jesus says that Heaven celebrates more when someone who is unrighteous, repents than 99 who are righteous. And the point here isn't that there are actually any people who don't need to repent. He's actually pushing in on the Scribes and Pharisees saying, Hey, you don't think you need repentance, but you actually do. And so that's something that we should be reminded of, that we want to be a people who practice repentance regularly ourselves, because what repentance does is it opens us up to our own need for grace and forgiveness, which then allows us to extend it to others.
When we understand our need, it's easier for us to connect with the needs of others. And so you want to be a person who regularly practice repentance as we pray week in and week out in the Lord's Prayer: Father forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. It's this regular practice of reflection saying, Hey, here are the ways that I'm living more for myself. Here are the ways that I'm being grumpy or frustrated, and here's how I'm going to change my behavior so that I can love and serve those around me. And that form of repentance allows us to experience grace and mercy.
The third principle that we see is that we are to celebrate the joy of others. So I like to golf, and when I'm on the golf course and I'm not playing well, it's really easy to start to focus on myself. One of the things I've found is that when I'm doing that, I just sort of spiral and my head gets in the way. But when I choose to celebrate the good shot of someone else, now I'm not thinking about it as much and I return my form to something that is more fluid and smooth and helpful.
This is the same principle that Jesus is teaching us because what he's saying is don't get stuck in yourself, but rather celebrate with others. Celebrate the joy of others, and then you are able to celebrate and experience joy yourself.
So psychologists talk about the "me-self" and the "I-self", the "me-self" sits in a place of judgment. Judgment over others and a perception of how people are either measuring or judging you. The "I-self" on the other hand is the part of you that just experiences life and is able to experience joy and sadness because you're just caught up in the midst of it.
One of the things that happens when we choose to rejoice and celebrate with others is that we are no longer in our "me- selves". We're in our " I-selves", and so it opens us up to joy as well. The reason the Pharisees and Scribes are grumbling is 'cause they're caught in their "me-self". They're caught in a place of judgment and control, and Jesus wants to free them of that and wants to free all of us of that by coming and experiencing the kingdom of God, the one in which relationship is prioritized over control in which our regular practice of repentance is met with grace and mercy, and one in which we are able to celebrate and rejoice at the joy and winnings and blessing of others and the world. I hope you have a great week, and I'll talk to you soon.
