Is Your Eye Evil?

The kingdom of heaven, Jesus said in Matthew 20, is like a vineyard owner who hired harvesters at first light for the usual day’s pay, in Greek a denarius. At 9 a.m. he hired some more and promised to pay them “what’s fair.” At noon he hired some more and promised to pay what’s fair. He did the same at 3 p.m. At 5 p.m., just one hour before sunset, he hired some more promising “what’s fair.”

At the end of the day, all the harvesters lined up in order of how long they worked, and the owner began with the 5 p.m.. pickers. He gave them a whole denarius, a whole day’s pay. Down the line there was excitement. Why? Because it appeared that the owner had decided to pay a denarius an hour (rather than a day)! If the one-hour workers got a full day’s pay, then surely the guys who put in twelve hours will get twelve denarii! That’s only fair!

But the owner paid everybody one dinarius no matter how many hours they’d worked. So the twelve-hour workers registered an official complaint. Do you know what they said? You guessed it: “It’s not fair!”

But in response to the complaint the owner shot back, saying something very interesting. This is a quote:

'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? ¹⁴ Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. ¹⁵ Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?' (Matthew 20:13-15)

In Greek the final question, “Or are you envious because I am generous,” reads literally, “Or is your eye evil because I am good.” The “evil eye” is blindly offended by the owner’s generosity. A scorekeeping eye cannot handle universal grace. The twelve-hour workers are judging the owner as unfair because they are monitoring everybody else. That’s equivalent to sinners judging God as unfair for forgiving everyone the same, is it not? In Luke’s parable of the two prodigal sons and Matthew’s parable of the vineyard workers, isn’t the ending about the same thing?:

Being offended by God’s universal atoning grace.

So there you have it. There’s your choice. Your crisis. Today is your judgment (krisis) day. Matthew’s vineyard parable is a brilliant parable of God’s universal generosity. Are you celebrating or sulking? Partying or pouting?

Postscript

This parable is comparable to the prodigal parable in Luke 15. Both have an “It’s not fair” moment at the end. (See Two Prodigals and Their Strange Father.) Theses two parables inspired me to write A Country Fried Parable.

This Matthew parable is a “kingdom of heaven” parable, as are many of Jesus’ parables told in Matthew. By “kingdom of heaven” parable, I mean Jesus begins the parable with the phrase, “The kingdom of heaven is like . . .”

In preparing to write my book, Heaven for Skeptics, I read many books, including the current bestselling books about biblical heaven. What shocked me was that in these books, not one of them dealt with Jesus’ parables of the kingdom. They all but ignored them. To me this is bizarre, given that I see the “kingdom of heaven” parables as our best source of information on what Jesus means by “heaven.”

I didn’t ignore them in my book. (The above exposition is a modified excerpt from Heaven for Skeptics, copyright 2009 by Bert Gary for FaithWalk Publishing.)

For more on Jesus' parables see my blogs The Absurd Parable of the Unforgiving Slave, The God Who Gambles, Parable of the Vine and Branches, The Crooked Manager, The Friend at Midnight, Heaven Is Like a Crazy Farmer, He Speaks Of . . ., Salted With Fire, Talking Sheep and Goats, Is Your Eye Evil?, Two Prodigals and Their Strange Father, The Lazarus Parable Is Not About the Afterlife,and Jesus Used Parables Like a Sieve.

A Strange Father and His Two Prodigal Sons

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

The Parable You Thought You Knew

The so-called “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” more than all other parables, tells us about judgment and the reality of heaven and hell. Are you surprised? I was when I first saw it.

One prodigal left home

We know a lot about the younger son. First, he was younger, obviously, which means that he gets half as much as his oldest brother gets when their father dies. Second, he asked for his portion of the inheritance in advance of his father’s death.

Kenneth Bailey

What you may not know is that according to biblical scholar and anthropologist Ken Bailey, there is no other example in Middle Eastern culture—past or present, Arab or Jewish culture—of a son asking a father for his inheritance before the father’s death. There’s a reason for that. It’s too shocking to consider. No son in Middle Eastern culture would ever, under any circumstances, ask this. Such an insult in their patriarchal culture in unimaginable. Any boy who did that would be attacked and killed by the villagers, if not by the father himself. The younger son’s question means, “Dad, I can’t wait till you’re dead. Give me my money.” Or, “Give me my money and drop dead, Old Man.” This is unthinkable. Surely a scoundrel such as this cannot actually exist!

Jesus got their attention by beginning with a description of a son who did something despicable beyond belief. But that’s not the most shocking part. The most shocking part is that the father of this scoundrel gave him what he asked for! Something is wrong with this father, the villagers would have concluded. He must be touched in the head. How can he just absorb the highest insult a son can hurl at a father and then turn around and give that boy the inheritance? This is not possible. It’s beyond comprehension. What incomparable shame has come upon this poor broken family!

The younger son went to a land of foreigners (non-Jews) and spent the money as fast as he could. But it wasn’t just money he was careless with. He showed no respect for his father or his family or their name. Living with Gentiles, he showed no respect for his religion, his race, or his God. He can never go back, Jesus’ listeners would have concluded. Never. If he dares to return, he’ll likely be stoned to death before he can reach the village gates.

Things got so bad for the youngest son that he asked a Gentile for a job, a shameless inexcusable act for a first century Jew. As it so happened, this particular Gentile had a cruel sense of humor. He gave our young Jewish fellow a job as a swine herder. No self-respecting Jewish boy would herd pigs. For Moses said a pig is unclean to Israel.

⁷ The pig, for even though it has divided hoofs and is cleft-footed, it does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. (Leviticus 11:7)

But this was obviously no self-respecting Jewish boy. He took the job. But when a famine set in, and no one fed him, he even considered digging in the dust for what the pigs ate. That was when he hit rock bottom. He got up and headed home.

He never really respected his father. He didn’t consider him a father at all or he would have stayed and been a loyal loving son. So since he didn’t see himself as a son, and his father surely no longer saw him as a son (or so he thought), the younger boy devised a plan. I will go to him with the following proposal:

1. Father (I’ll be sure and call him “Father” to show respect.), I messed up in
   front of you and God and everybody.
2. I’m not worthy to be called your son (Forget for now that I never really acted like one in the first place).
3. Let me be a hired hand around the farm (Thank God, the Old Man doesn’t own pigs!).

Worst apology ever. Not an apology at all, really. He’s not sorry. He’s just trying to get out of the mess someway, somehow. He probably figures that if his dad was stupid enough to give him the money before, that maybe he’ll be stupid enough to give him a job. He certainly didn’t want to be a son before, or he never would have treated his dad as he did. And he doesn’t want to be a son now really. Just hire me, he says. Maybe this self-salvation scheme (perhaps to pay his father back some of the money he squandered) is the only thing that occurs to him. It never seems to have occurred to him that his father might actually want a relationship with his son, that his father might actually love him, that he might have already forgiven him.

The father must have kept one eye on the horizon at all times, looking for his son to return. Why? To kill him? No. But perhaps he’s concerned that the villagers might try to kill his son. Perhaps the father intends to get there first. He’s even willing to humiliate himself (again) by running in public to greet (protect?) his son. No mature man in that culture ran in public. It was shameful to run. Degrading.

But when he saw the scoundrel a long way off, the father girded up his loins and sprinted. Before the boy could explain his plan, he saw his father running toward him. He no doubt looked for a stone or a sword in his father’s hand. None. He looked for anger on his face. None. He stood there dumbfounded as his father did the unthinkable. Sons were to kiss their father in that culture, not the other way around. The father humbled himself, kissing and hugging his own son as if he were royalty.

Nevertheless, the son’s speech began as planned:

1. Father, I messed up in front of you and God and everybody.
2. I’m not worthy to be your son.

But he left off #3. He doesn’t ask his father for a job. Interesting. Did the father interrupt him before he could share the employment proposal? Or in the face of utterly shameless love, did the prodigal just drop #3 and say, Dad, I messed up, I’m not worthy to be your son, period?

The father is not listening to a word the boy’s saying anyway! The father is uninterested in repentant attitudes and words, as if that was why he ran and loved him. His love isn’t bought, not even with good apologies and sincere groveling. He loved and forgave that boy before the boy could say or do a blessed thing.

But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

All the boy ever had to do was come home. Why? Because his sonship was never based on the good or bad that he’d done. His sonship is eternally based on his relationship to his father which from the father’s side never went away.

The boy turned his back on sonship, but the father never turned his back on his son.

From here on out, we hear no more from the younger son. He’s silent. But even so, the actions are all for him, and they are extravagant expressions of the father’s love. The father’s finest robe. The father’s family ring. The father’s own sandals. All lavished on the prodigal. He silently receives. The fatted calf is killed for that boy as if he were the king himself come for a wedding feast. The party begins at their home. Barbeque. Wine. Song. Dancing. Laughter. All of this for the son who least deserved such affection in the whole wide world.

Do you think this father is cool or crazy? Would you have attended this party? How do you think the older brother is going to feel when he comes home from a hard day’s work in the field to find that his father is throwing a hoedown for his supposed brother? Well, as for questions one and two, I’ll let you decide. As to question three, let’s look and see.

One prodigal stayed

The older son asks one of the boys in the courtyard: What in the world is going on? My brother came home? My father is throwing a party for him? That’s not fair!

He parked himself in the courtyard and refused to go in. In that culture, this is a public slap in his father’s face. The loyal duty of the oldest son at a party is to act as host for the father. Greet everyone. Fill glasses. Re-supply food. When his father heard that his older son was refusing to come in, he went out to him. No doubt the guests expected the father to scold and beat such a disrespectful son, but again, this father isn’t normal. Again he disgraces himself by going out to the son. (Fathers don’t go after sons in that culture. Sons go after fathers.) And then the greater shock. This father begs this brat to come in and join the party. Begs him! Now that is utter humiliation. This father has no dignity left now, and it’s happening in front of the whole town. It’s disgraceful. (And beautiful.)

“Listen here,” the eldest begins, neglecting to use the title of respect that his dad deserved: “Father.” Even when the youngest son asked for his share of the inheritance, at least he had the decency to address him as “Father.” (Sorry about the cartoon art. It's hard to find a decent image of the unpopular older son.)

The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' (Luke 15:12)

He may have meant it sarcastically, but at least he said it. “Father.” But not the oldest boy, no. He doesn’t dignify the man with the title “Father” because as we are about to see, the oldest no more than the youngest considered this man to be his father. His speech, like his brother’s planned speech, is in three statements:

1. “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you (But not as a son. Remember his younger brother’s plan to become a hired hand. Neither of them wanted to be a son.), and I have never disobeyed your command (Like a good slave.).
2. “Yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. (Here’s the key. We’ll get back to it in a second.)....
3. “But when this son of yours (He’s not my brother.) came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes (Nice touch! It adds a little color to the charges, don’t you think?), you killed the fatted calf for him!” (It’s not fair! It’s not fair! It’s not fair! It’s not fair! It’s not fair!)

What a whiner! The father should tear up his backside. But, again, this is not a normal father. He is willing to humiliate himself to regain his sons. Both of them. So he lovingly smashes the eldest son’s complaint to bits.

. . . the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.’ (Luke 15:31)

This is the father’s gentle way of reminding this scorekeeping knucklehead that back in verse 12 he divided his property between them both!

So he divided his property between them. (emphasis mine) (Luke 15:12)

Do you see it? He gave the younger boy cash (or the boy sold the assets for cash) and the rest of the father’s belongings were given to the older boy. And he took his portion of the inheritance too. And by law the eldest gets twice as much as the younger. He’s got double what his brother got!

The father is right in what he said to his eldest boy. Truly everything the father owned belongs to the eldest son, and has been his since the day his younger brother left; and it’s twice as much as his brother left with.

I love how I heard Robert Capon put it one time: “Look here, Oscar. All my goats are yours. I gave them to you back in verse 12. If you didn’t kill one to party with your friends, it’s not my fault.” (Something like that.)

Another job of the eldest son is to mediate disputes between members of the family, including disputes involving the father. Once again, rather than doing his duty, this eldest son stood by saying nothing to break up this nasty scene between his younger brother and his dad. He should have said, “Hey, now Brother, there’s no call for that. Apologize to Father right now. He deserves your respect.” But the older son did no such thing. Instead he stood by silently. And silently he took the inheritance, too, thus insulting his father every bit as sorely as his little brother did. They’re both prodigals. One prodigal left home. One prodigal stayed.

This elder boy may have stayed home and worked hard, but he did not consider himself a son, and he did not believe that his father really gave him the farm. He slaved away for it like it wasn’t already his. He is living with a father that he doesn’t even know. He doesn’t trust him at all. They have no relationship. But it’s one-sided, this feeling. The father’s feelings never changed. He loves his sons. He really did absorb the insult of his boys wishing he were dead. He really did give them both their inheritance. And he never hated them. He never held it against them. Again and again he humiliated himself in hope that he might have sons, real sons who know their father, and love their father, and trust their father.

Moreover, he seems to believe that humiliation is the only thing that will change their minds. So he debases himself repeatedly. This crazy father would probably have allowed himself to be beaten or even crucified if it meant regaining his sons! Have you ever seen any father like this?

The father’s final words to his eldest son are these:

“. . . we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” (Luke 15:32)

Jesus leaves the pharisees and scribes with a decision

That’s the end. Jesus leaves us hanging. Did the older brother go in and celebrate his brother’s return? Or did he sit down at the door and start chanting, “It’s not fair!”

I believe that Jesus didn’t finish the parable because some of his listeners were wayward rejects and others were upstanding Pharisees and scribes. Luke gives this as the setting for the telling of the parable:

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." (Luke 15:1-2)

The tax collectors and sinners that Jesus has found and welcomed are similar to the younger son, aren’t they? And the elder boy is like the grumbling Pharisees and scribes. These “righteous ones” are offended that the popular traveling rabbi and healer would eat with known reprobates rather than with them. They are insulted.

Is not Jesus with his parable asking the Pharisees and scribes to come and sit at table with the reprobates and celebrate that these lost ones have come home? The end of the parable then is not Jesus’ to tell. He’s going to let the Pharisees and scribes’ decision—to sit down or to leave—end the parable for him! Their own judgment will determine what the elder son did! He’s letting them end the parable with their lives.

Luke leaves us with a decision

Moreover, Luke doesn’t tell us what the Pharisees and scribes did. He is playing the same hand Jesus did. We the readers must finish the parable. Will we celebrate the homecoming of the unworthy, or will we boycott in protest of such unfairness?

To me no parable gives a clearer picture of heaven and hell than Luke’s parable of a forgiving father. Two prodigal sons respond very differently to his forgiving grace.

So celebrate or sulk! Jesus and Luke have stuck you with making that decision. How can we put it concisely? How can we describe this moment of judgment/krisis, this choice between heaven and hell in simplest terms?

A friend of mine, Janice McFall, put it like this: “You can either party or pout!” I think that works nicely.

For more on Jesus' parables see my blogs The Absurd Parable of the Unforgiving Slave, The God Who Gambles, Parable of the Vine and Branches, The Crooked Manager, The Friend at Midnight, Heaven Is Like a Crazy Farmer, He Speaks Of . . ., Salted With Fire, Talking Sheep and Goats, Is Your Eye Evil?, Two Prodigals and Their Strange Father, The Lazarus Parable Is Not About the Afterlife,and Jesus Used Parables Like a Sieve.


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The Father Judges No One -- 2

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Adapted from Chapter 3 of “Heaven for Skeptics” © 2009 by Bert Gary for FaithWalk Publishing

What must I do . . . ?

You might be saying to yourself right now, “Yeah, Bert, you’ve written a lot about what Jesus has done, but isn’t there something I’m supposed to do?”

At least two biblical characters asked Jesus that very question. Here’s one of them:

Luke 18:18-27 A certain ruler asked [Jesus], "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" ²⁰ “You know the commandments . . .” (Jesus is brushing off the legalist. What the man wants is a do-gooder list. Fine. Here’s your do-gooder list.) ²¹ He replied, "I have kept all these since my youth." ²² [Jesus] said to him, "There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have (now) treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." ²³ But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich. ²⁴ Jesus . . . said, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." ²⁶ Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?" ²⁷ He replied, "What is impossible for mortals is possible for God." (emphasis mine)

The disciples wondered: If a rich do-gooder can’t do enough to inherit the kingdom, then who can? Nobody can, Jesus says. It’s impossible to do anything to get the kingdom. But what’s humanly impossible, is divinely possible, because the kingdom can’t be earned. Neither is it for sale. It’s a gift. The Father makes it possible not by making a deal, but by giving it away. And it’s already yours to enter into and live, as you will see in Chapter 8.

Luke 12:32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (italics mine)

Did I answer the question? “Isn’t there something I’m supposed to do?” There is one thing. But it may not be what you think. It certainly has nothing to do with doing a good job of obeying the Ten Commandments.

Don’t I have to be well-behaved?

If it were possible to save the world by legal correction or threat of punishment, then the Ten Commandments would have done the trick. And the New Testament is firm about this: They (the laws) did not and cannot make us right with God. The Apostle Paul wrote about it clearly:

Romans 3:21 . . . apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed . . .

Romans 3:28 . . . a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.

Galatians 2:21 . . . if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Galatians 5:4 You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ ...

The reason (hopefully) that you don’t cheat on your spouse is because you have with him (or her) a relationship of love based on trust. If you don’t betray him/her because you’re afraid you’ll get caught, that’s the same as saying that the reason I don’t commit adultery is because the Ten Commandments warn that I shouldn’t. (Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18) A relationship built on threat does not produce relational love and trust.

Do you see what the Scriptures are getting at? If the only reason you don’t cheat is because of religious prohibition and the fear of God’s punishment, then you don’t have a loving, trusting relationship with your spouse.

Jesus spoke to this in what’s called his “Sermon on the Mount,” but what he says is shocking. He’s not very selective when it comes to this adultery issue. Have you ever committed adultery? Some of you say No? Think again:

Matthew 5:27-28 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

“Judge Jesus” has spoken. We’re all adulterers. Murderers too:

Matthew 5:21-22 "You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder;’ and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment . . .”

His point? We’re all guilty as charged. We’ve all broken God’s laws—in our hearts if not in our actions. No one is innocent.

Romans 3:10 There is no one who is righteous, not even one . . .

Romans 3:23 . . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . .

Therefore no one has a right to brag about his moral performance.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God -- ⁹ not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

I suggest you throw yourself on the mercy of the court. We’re all guilty by judgment of the law. Jesus himself made this very point when in John’s Gospel he is recorded as saying to his legalist opponents:

John 5:45 “. . . your accuser is Moses on whom you have set your hope.”

If you want to keep score on how good you are at carrying out the laws of Moses, then Moses is your accuser. He accuses you because you are incapable of keeping his laws. If you hope on the law for your “ticket to heaven,” then there is no hope for you.

Paul wrote, however, that the law—good in itself—was given to his people as a kind of babysitter (paidagwgo,j paidagogos—schoolmaster) until they were grown up enough for grace to come, replace the law, and thus free them from the law:

Galatians 3:24-26 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian (paidagwgo,j paidagogos—schoolmaster) until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶ for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. (italics mine)

For the sake of argument, however, what would it mean were God to be more interested in threat and punishment than in a Life-infused relationship of love based on trust? It would mean that God’s amazing grace is a lie, and the only way to please your judge is by excelling in rule-keeping.

Do you prefer a judging God?

Do you prefer a judging God? Some people do. Maybe you feel you’re a good person, and that should count for something on judgment day. You figure you’ve done more good than bad in your lifetime. If the judge weighs the good and the bad on balance scales, surely it will tip in favor of the good. Is that what you think?

Some people prefer a condemning judge to a forgiving savior. What does that say about them? What does it say about any Christian when he prefers a God of threat and punishment over a God of love? Here’s a tough answer to a tough question.

It might say that such a Christian has not yet seen the scariest thing of all. While the condemning god-voice that some people like is scary, the light of God’s love is scarier still. For some people it may actually feel safer to take your chances with the hanging-judge than to have to honestly look at yourself as you are bathed in the truth of loving, forgiving, exposing light.

Many people, including Christians, it seems to me, have created a legal-god, an accuser-god, because he’s safer than the one who exposes your brokenness, your hurtful deeds, and your deepest pain. You can keep the ogre-god at arm’s length. You just appease him by avoiding bad stuff. No relationship necessary. You just try to please him with acts of devotion, like fasting or worshiping or giving money. Whatever. You can play religious games with the scorekeeper-god. But you don’t have to get close to him, nor do you have to stand in the exposing light of his loving truth.

If God’s not a legal God who will judge us, however, what about God’s law? Didn’t God give Moses the Ten Commandments [according to the Book of Exodus]? Aren’t they God’s legal expectations of us? In a just and civilized society, aren’t we supposed to be law-abiding?

Again, allow me to answer a question with a question. What would you think of someone who called the Ten Commandments ‘the ministry of death’? What if a person were to call the Ten Commandments ‘our curse’ and ‘the power of sin.’? Blasphemy, right? Who would dare? The Apostle Paul, that’s who.

Paul called the Ten Commandments, and I quote, ‘the ministry of death.’ (2 Corinthians 3:7). He also wrote,

1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (italics mine)

And he wrote,

Galatians 3:10-13 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse . . . . But . . . Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law . . .

By none of this did Paul mean that the laws are bad. He wrote:

Romans 7:12-13 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. ¹³ Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good,

Galatians 2:16b . . . [No] one will be justified by the works of the law.

The laws are good, Paul says. But he also says they are for the immature in faith. They were given to Israel in her infancy as a babysitter until God could write a new law on her heart. The law is for the immature—like children.

Children need rules and discipline to protect them from themselves and others. But when you grow up, you need much more than “thou shall” and “thou shall not” in order to live. You need a real reason in your heart to do the right thing. The threat of punishment is not nearly enough for mature adults. Obviously it’s not enough. We fail at keeping the law every day. The law is our curse in that sense. Moreover, the laws of God are constant reminders of our failure to keep them. What a curse it is indeed to live each day under the condemnation of your own failures! But Jesus freed us from the curse:

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law . . .

Christ is the end of the law because he fulfilled the law for us as a gift.

Why this seeming obsession with works of the law, both in the 1^st Century and today? Jesus, it seems to me, was surrounded by do-gooder showoffs, as are we. Some conspicuously conscientious workaholics once asked Jesus,

John 6:28-29 “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (italics mine)

There is one thing you can do, as I mentioned above. But it’s not a law. Jesus absolutely refused to give them a legal checklist to heaven. He doesn’t approve of steps-to-salvation tracts. There are no steps. There is one single “work,” it’s not even really a work, and it’s stress-free. Scripturally speaking, salvation is the Lord’s work. So sit down and relax for a moment. Jesus is inviting you to stop being busy and burdened about the backbreaking load of moral performance, religious law-keeping, self-atonement strategies, and desperate deity-appeasing:

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (italics mine)

There’s your answer to that nagging question, “Isn’t there something I’m supposed to do?” Yes, there is something. But weighing and recording your rule-keeping performance isn’t it. Running ever faster on the hamster wheel of religious busy-ness isn’t it.

Jesus says to come to him and rest. Rest; he says it twice. Let it be. Take it easy, he says. Lighten up too. And trust me. Believe in me. This IS the work of God. All that he asks is that you believe that he’s handled it all for you.

Do you accept this? It’s almost incredible. This is a whole new way of seeing God. We’re used to god-the-unmoved-judge. The omni-god, as theologian Baxter Kruger calls him, who watches from a distance, who is either disinterested in you or disgusted with you. He’s a legalist with impossible standards. You don’t measure up, and you are damned unless you can prove yourself worthy and change his mind. Do you know this scrutinizing omni-god? Can you love him as he demands?

Perhaps you’ve already made this connection, but the Father and the Son’s big plan for humanity was not to scrutinize it, control it, or condemn it, but to save it. (John 12:47b) Save it from what? From this very thing. From this legal condemnation. From futile religious striving. From the omni-god we’ve created to appease. Jesus calls our futile moral score-keeping the condemnation of Moses! He said,

John 5:45b “. . . your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope.” (italics mine)

Moses’ judgment is already made. Humanity was/is utterly condemned by the law of God given through Moses. But, here’s the tang in the pudding: God used our condemnation under the law for a radical, unthinkable purpose. God turned the curse of the law on its head for all of humanity. This is the key verse:

Romans 11:32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all. (italics mine)

Now if that doesn’t decapitate the little legalist inside of you, I don’t know what will. You might want to read that one again. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Of course the mercy Paul is talking about is the grace to all in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

John 1:16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (italics mine)

The New Testament letter to Titus drives this home with one swing of the hammer:

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all . . . (italics mine)

Jonah despised God’s mercy

Remember Jonah and the giant fish (The Old Testament Book of Jonah)? This story is a perfect example of the scandal of God’s mercy. Jonah despised God’s mercy and wanted nothing to do with it!

Jonah is in Galilee, Israel. God tells him to go northeast to preach in Nineveh. It’s an Assyrian city in what is today Mosul, Iraq. Jonah without a word goes southwest to Joppa and boards a ship headed to Tarshish, the location of which is uncertain, but might be a reference to a region in faraway Spain! That’s as far as you can go via the Mediterranean Sea, and obviously it’s in the opposite direction that God instructed. Exactly where Jonah was headed is not necessary to get the point. God said go this way. He went the other.

Jonah tells the crew of his ship that the terrible storm they are experiencing is his fault. He’d disobeyed God and they should throw him overboard. He is guilty and deserves to die without mercy. This is Jonah’s way of showing God how judgment is supposed to work! If you’re guilty of disobeying God, God should show no mercy to you. It’s as if Jonah’s saying, See, God? Here’s how you’re supposed to do your job. I’m guilty. I should be destroyed. Nineveh’s guilty. It should be destroyed. Jonah is giving God an object lesson on how to be God! And Jonah sees no room for mercy. He wants the punishment he deserves, and he’d rather die than offer Nineveh a chance.

God, however, shows mercy to disobedient, arrogant Jonah by sending a big fish to rescue him. And God leaves him in the fish three days to give him a chance to think about this mercy business.

After the fish spits him on the beach Jonah heads for Nineveh. When he gets there he preaches a halfhearted sermon to only a fraction of the city. But against all odds the pitiful sermon he preached works. Nineveh listens and responds. And Jonah is fit to be tied:

Jonah 4:1-3 [T]his was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.  ²He prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.  ³And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." (italics mine)

But God shoots back at Jonah:

Jonah 4:4 And the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"

Anger is an appropriate and normal human emotion. Jesus himself got angry. (Mark 3:5) God’s not telling Jonah that anger is wrong. God is asking Jonah if he really thinks he has a right to be mad about this situation. Does he have a right to be angry that God is merciful? But Jonah doesn’t answer the question. He ignores God and the implication of what he has asked.

Instead, Jonah goes outside the city and makes a shelter to protect himself from the scorching desert heat. He sits himself down to watch God destroy Nineveh, as God should have done in the first place! He finds the idea of God’s mercy absolutely incomprehensible. Jonah never expected his pitiful unenthusiastic sermon to work. He never thought they’d listen or change. They deserve to die, and Jonah has a front row seat for the show! It’s a sit-in. It’s a protest. He is going to sit there until the God of the universe starts to act like the condemning god Jonah had created in his own mind. He wants fire and brimstone to rain down on those people. The god of his imagining would not and could not show mercy to Assyrians. They are enemies. They are evil. And Nineveh is the nerve center of the beast. If God is God, he must destroy them. Jonah sits and waits for God to repent (change his mind--metanoia) and do “the right thing”!

God, however, throws Jonah a curve ball—an object lesson of his own. He makes a shady bush grow up over Jonah to further protect him from the heat. Jonah thinks, now that’s more like it. God should reward good people (like me). And he should punish the evil people (like the Ninevites). If only Jonah had binoculars to see them suffer up close! Jonah watches in anticipation of “the show.” But God doesn’t destroy the city. Instead, God destroys the bush!

Now Jonah is really mad. He tells God again just to let him die. He can’t stand living in a universe where Assyrians get mercy, innocent bushes get smited, and God’s messengers get toasted in the blistering heat. God speaks to Jonah again about his outrage. Listen to this exchange. With it the Book of Jonah abruptly ends:

Jonah 4:9-11 But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?"

And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die."  ¹⁰ Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹ And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"

God is scandalously merciful, says the Book of Jonah. The End.

Luke records Jesus saying, “. . . [God] is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” Then Jesus continues by telling you and me (and Jonah!) to be like that too. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:35b-36) Be scandalously merciful.

Once more: How does it work?

Who will judge? The Father delegated the task to the Son, and the Son delegated it to a word that the Father commanded him to speak, and that word was Life eternal. There’s your final judge. The Scriptures ask its readers: Do you celebrate the Life that God mercifully gives to all? Are you scandalized by such scandalous mercy? Will you choose to celebrate this gift of salvation already given to you and to the whole world, this gift of rich, full, abundant, and everlasting Life? Do you accept that you along with everybody else are forgiven? Do you like this “new covenant”?

Hebrews 8:8-13 "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; ⁹ not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors, on the day when I took them by the hand (with the law as their babysitter) to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant (they broke the law) ¹⁰ This is the covenant . . . : I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ¹¹ And they shall not teach one another or say to each other, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. ¹² For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." ¹³ In speaking of "a new covenant,” he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear. (italics mine) (see also Jeremiah 31:31-34)

What is “Life eternal” biblically if not an everlasting covenant relationship with God not based on a human’s performance under the law, but based on God’s forgiving, saving, scandalous, amazing grace to the whole world.

2 Corinthians 5:19 . . . in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them . . . (italics mine)

Put simply, God’s not keeping score. (My internal legalist has a problem with that.) And if he’s not keeping score, why do I? (I just stepped on my own toes.)

So how does judgment actually work? If God the Father and God the Son judge indirectly by delegating it to the word of mercy—eternal Life given to the world—, then what happens when a person is judged?

The terms judge, judgment, and wrath are all used instructively by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans.

Romans 2:1-8 Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. ² You say, "We know that God's judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth." ³ Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵ But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. ⁶ For he will repay according to each one's deeds: ⁷ to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸ while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. (bold and italics mine)

Paul here is making the following points:

1. We all are guilty. Therefore how can we judge others?

2. God is rich, Paul says, in kindness and forbearance and patience. This kindness is meant to lead you to repentance, that is, to change your judgmental mind.

3. But if you don’t change your mind (repent), and you refuse to soften your hard impenitent heart, and you refuse to be merciful to others, then you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

4. He will allow you to receive what you store up against others. If you judge others and won’t stop, the judgment comes right back at you like a boomerang on that day. The judgment you render on others comes back and nails you right between the eyes.

James made a similar point:

James 2:13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

You’ve thrown the boomerang of judgment at someone and it has come back and clobbered you. It happens every time. Judging others is a rejection of the Life offered to you and to those you judge.

Judged already

If you don’t think you can be judged already, check out the Gospel of John. He writes in the following verse that if you don’t receive the Life already given to you, you are judged already, that you’ve judged yourself by your response to the truth of light and Life:

John 3:18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (bold italics mine)

See Acts 13:46 too.

⁴⁶ Then both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles.” (bold italics mine)

Those who judge others as unworthy of mercy have judged themselves unworthy of mercy. They have rejected Life. Judgment is activated against those who judge their neighbors. It’s not that God wants to be harsh with anyone. (On the contrary.) But a person’s harshness with others is allowed to come back and bite him. Nevertheless, mercy beats judgment always and forever. It triumphs ultimately. It forever wins in the heart of God.

Mercy in New Testament Greek is e;leoj eleos {pronounced el'-eh-os}. It means showing goodwill and giving assistance. But it also means letting people off the hook who don’t deserve it. The Scriptures are clear that those who are merciful to others need not fear judgment now or ever. A key quote from Jesus to Simon the Pharisee clarifies this. He said to Simon:

^ESV Luke 7:47b “. . . he who is forgiven little, loves little."

Loving little is the inability to love perfectly, that is to love impartially without regard for whether you think the person deserves it or not. That is mercy in a nutshell. But you can’t offer love and mercy and grace to someone if you haven’t received it first yourself. How can you give what you’ve refused to receive?

Look, people who are unforgiving and scorekeeping are demonstrating the lack of forgiveness in their lives. It’s not that they aren’t forgiven—they are—but they haven’t allowed it inside. They have blocked mercy so they can keep their grudges. If they let themselves experience mercy, they wouldn’t be able to keep judging everybody. Superiority is a hard habit to break. It’s a powerful drug. The superior folk among us would rather be admired (or feared ) than loved.

That’s why control freaks are merciless. They show no mercy because they’ve rejected it for themselves. They’ll show you none (often with a crocodile smile) because they have none to show you. It’s not in them. You can’t share what you don’t have.

“You can only love and serve others to the degree that you know how God is loving and serving you.” Wayne Jacobson

To put it simply, when you love little you are naturally going to judge. A lack of mercy kicks judgment into gear. Those who receive mercy are less likely to refuse mercy to others. Those who refuse mercy for themselves become merciless judges. They love little. When you show no mercy by judging, it targets you. Jesus warned about this very thing.

Matthew 7:1-2 “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. ² For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”

It’s very important not to put God in this verse. Jesus isn’t talking about his Father judging you, nor he judging you. Judgment ricochets all by itself. Nothing good comes of your judging others because it has this boomerang effect. When you hurl it at others, it only comes back and cracks you in the head!

The terms judge, judgment, and wrath are all used creatively by the Apostle Paul. Again, in Romans 2 he writes of wrath boomeranging.

⁵ But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. ⁶ For he will repay according to each one's deeds: ⁷ to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸ while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. (bold and italics mine) (Romans 2:5-8)

God’s righteous judgment is revealed as boomeranging wrath. So not only will the day of wrath be wrathful for the wrathful, but even now the wrathful are already judged by their own wrathfulness.

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