The combination of great food and even better company has endless appeal to me.  The Paulistas as they are called [named after the Avenue Paulista which is the 5th Avenue of Sao Paulo] are the sophisticated opinion shapers and trend setters of Brazil.   This city comes into its own at night. The temperature having dropped sufficiently replacing the mad dogs and Englishmen climate coaxes the party-loving residents out in their droves to populate the myriad of restaurants, clubs and bars.   We choose the GPB in Itaim. A celebrity haunt and a favourite of my hosts.  Sat adjacent to Roberto Justa [Brazil s Donald Trump and host to their version of The Apprentice] we chatted into the evening, Pico, Fabiana, Fernando, Jonathas [my publisher] and I.

Fernando had a question a good one too which had been posed to him via an email literally a letter from a devastated Christian.  His friend had written to him from rehab asking him to pray that he would be able to stand with Luke and take the kingdom by force. [Lk 16:16] what we re we to make of this verse he asked?  Surely it cannot mean what he seems to be implying that it meant.

I have spoken many times about the dangers of proof texting and here we have as fine an example as I have seen for a while.  As we concluded the verse was not talking to his friend it was talking about him!    Let s have a quick look at the verse, don t expect a full blown exposition it was only dinner, these are only my scribblings and besides we still had to drink the cup of misery together an ironic toast to the failure of our respective nations in the World Cup the fiasco as Jonathas kept on calling it.

Quiz Question

What s wrong with interpreting this verse in the way that Fernando s friend had done?

.The kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it. Lk 16:16b

You can see what we re up against can t you.  Well in case you can t let s ask ourselves some basic questions: [1] What s the context into which Jesus is speaking? [2] What does the rest of the verse say? . Okay let s back up and take a slightly more panoramic view of the slither of a verse that we are commenting on.  First and foremost it is Luke 16. So what?   What s that got to do with anything?   Well how about the fact that it follows Luke 15 [complicated stuff theology eh!] Well what is Luke 15 about? The Prodigal son right. So what you re asking me to believe is that having just furnished us with the greatest agape story in the Bible presenting grace in all its absurdity which he then goes on to underscore with the story of the dishonest manager Luke 16 should then turn around and in effect say Forget about the free gift of grace storm heaven and save yourself! I think not!  So let s have a brief look-see

.The Pharisees who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John; since then the Good News is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void.   Lk. 16:14- 6

Laying aside for a moment that the literal translation of the verse is everyone is forcefully urged into it a point I will return to momentarily, we seem to have not caught sight of Jesus heavy hand of irony resting on the Pharisaic shoulders of his listeners. Look He says I realise that as the Elder Brothers of Luke 15 you re left in the field in toxic incandescence at the outrage of grace and that the concept of the Dishonest Manager is beyond your self-righteous comprehension and that is because you have failed to realise that we are living in a new dispensation? The Law came though Moses but grace and truth came through me outclassing and rendering the Law obsolete.  Yet you are deaf, dumb and blind to my message of grace. I appreciate that grace is counter-intuitive to the take it by force self-justifying-self brigade but there it is.

You are trying to take by the force of works that which is yours by the gift of free grace.  You are pushing at an open door.  Striving after the wind. For I am the door I will allow myself to be forcibly taken and in my death and resurrection my wooden cross will be its doorposts upon which my blood will be applied. The rusty nails that will be driven into my hands and feet will be its hinges and it will swing open to usher in a new aeon The Age of Grace.  Even so, because of your law-sodden minds, I tell you it would be easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void in your heart.  Consequently, in order for you to abandon your self-effort everyone is forcefully urged into it    At first this sounds paradoxical, but the truth is there to see and I for one am living proof of the way this verse relates to the life ruined by sin in order to be restored by grace it must be exposed to circumstances beyond its ability to resolve.  We must drink the bitter cup of disillusionment and burnout. We must fail at living the Christian life. We must come to see the mystery of Job, Hosea, and Isaiah.  We must despair even of life itself and feel as though we have received the sentence of death.  Why well in the words of the Apostle Paul these things happened in order that we might not rely not upon ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 2 Cor 1:9 

Have a think about this text and have your say. Speak soon.

Sola Agape  

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