A parishioner asked his priest one day, “Father, what causes arthritis?” The priest fixed a critical eye on him and said, “Arthritis? What causes arthritis? Immoral living, that’s what causes it. Smoking! Drinking! Running around!” With a bit of a smug look and an especially acerbic tone, he continued, “And why do you ask?” “Oh, no particular reason, Father.” said the parishioner. “It just says here in the paper that the Pope has arthritis.”
In antiquity, the Hebrews used “parallelism” for emphasis. When making a speech, people often repeated their ideas or rephrased their words for emphasis. That’s why many of Jesus’ words, statements or stories came in twos and threes. (Perfect examples are His parallel parables in Luke 15 of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.) The idea was to drive home a point by proving it in multiple ways. Therefore, when one encounters parallelism in Scripture the question to be asked is, “what commonalities rather than differences exist?” For instance, in Matthew 5:22 “Raca” and “fool” are rough equivalents for speaking angrily, and “court” and “the fire of hell” are metaphors for judgment. Three times Jesus says almost the same thing – anger and insults lead to judgment. So look at what Jesus says in Luke 6:36 – 38:
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged.
Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Give, and it will be given to you.
A good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Now what do you think His point is? What is He emphasizing? One of the most widely used statements of our Lord is “Judge not!” From the time most of us sat on our parent’s knee we heard that. Such counsel is common throughout the Christian world. But, let me ask you, what does He mean? How is it possible not to make judgments? And the Greek doesn’t help. The Greek uses the verb krino “to judge.” But krino can mean to “discern”, “to decide in court,” “to pass judgment, “or “to condemn” depending on the context. The Hebrew words for “judge” – don and shafat, have the same ambiguity. In other words, in both Greek and Hebrew, the words for “judge” are ambiguous. So the question - is what does Jesus mean by using the sevenfold parallelism in Luke 6?
Perhaps the best way to answer such a question is to look for examples of Jesus practicing what He preaches and in Luke 19:1-9 we have a perfect illustration. It’s the story of a vertically challenged man named Zacchaeus. While many Christians know this story, having sung of the “wee little man” in grade school, it’s doubtful that most see the parallel between Luke 6:36-38 and Luke 19:1-9. That’s regrettable because Luke’s presentation of the Zacchaeus encounter is the prototypical example of exactly how Jesus judges and calls us to judge. As was the case with the “rendering unto Caesar”, you will find in the Luke 19:1-9 treasures perhaps you have never seen.
In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:
1. What similarities and differences can you find between the Zacchaeus story and the one that immediately precedes it in Luke 18:35-43?
2. What do you know of Jericho?
3. What are “chief tax collectors?”
4. Why did the Jews equate tax collectors with robbers and murderers?
5. What does Zacchaeus mean?
6. What’s the significance of Zacchaeus’ climb?
7. What’s Jesus mean when He says, “Come down, I’m going to stay at your house today?”
8. How has salvation come to Zacchaeus home?
9. What are the two pieces of evidence that this is true?
10. What does this encounter tell us about how we are to judge and what happens as a result?
See you Sunday. Judging from everything I know, it should be well worth your time.
