Jesus on Church Discipline

“We are facing the greatest challenges of our ethics and faith. People will try to undermine our faith, our mercy before God.

"But think about their fate, for a moment. The person who has a two-ton truck tied to his neck and then is allowed to drop to the bottom of the ocean—that person’s fate is better than the one who targets God’s children to attack them.

"So take care for yourself! Be merciful instead of judgmental!

"Instead of judging your companion when they screw up, tell them to straighten out. When they apologize, whichever way they do, treat them like your sibling, not like an outsider. Even if he screws up, in the same way, seven times in a single day, forgive them, just like you would your sibling.

"They are family, after all.”

-Jesus       (Luke 17:1-4)

Jesus and Sinners

Jesus said, “At a church service, the preacher called people up front, and two of them came up.  One of them was an employee at Focus on the Family and the other was a heroin addict.  The good Christian prayed aloud to himself, ‘Father in heaven, I praise your name because I have been chosen by You to be holy.  I am not a thief, a sinner, an adulterer or a junkie like this man.  I pray and read the word daily and I tithe all my net income.’  The addict stood away from the altar, bowed his head and whimpered, ‘God, I’m a screw up—help me, just help me.’  Listen here—the addict left the church with a relationship with God.  The churcie didn’t.  Because God raises up everyone who lowers himself, and he pushes down everyone who pulls himself up.”

Someone around Jesus reported to him the news about some criminals whom the police beat up.  And he responded to this, “Do you think that these criminals were worse than anyone else because they were beat up?  On the contrary, if you don’t repent, you will have as bad happen to you and worse.  Or what about the drug house that collapsed on those who occupied it—do you think that they were worse people than those who lived around them?  Listen to this: unless you repent, you will all be destroyed in the same way.

“Someone had an apple tree in his backyard, and one day, during apple season, she came out back and there were no apples!  So she spoke to her landscaper, ‘For three years I’ve been hoping for apples from this tree and I’ve got nothing!  It’s useless. Why don’t you dig it out?’  The landscaper replied, ‘Ma’am, if you would just be patient and forgive it this fault this year so I can care for it.  By this time next year, if you find no fruit, fine, we will dig it out.  But if it gives you apples, then it will be worth it.’ “

All the homosexuals and the homeless and the drug dealers and sex workers and meth addicts and convicted child pornographers came to Jesus to listen to him.  And the conservative evangelicals and the Bible scholars denounced him, “He is opening the door of the church to the wicked.”

Jesus said to them, "You know that I'm a healer.  People who are healers don't hang around healthy people-- that'd be pointless.  They hang around the sick.  Even so, why should I offer healing to you people who think you've already got it? If you've got the salvation market cornered, then you don't really need me, do you?  I came to receive the screw-ups."

Jesus told them this story, “Look, if you had a hundred cars and one of them was stolen, wouldn’t you forget about all the other ninety nine and just focus on the one until it was found?  You’d call the police, call your neighbors and be generally freaked out—not about the ninety nine, but for the one that was lost.  Then, when it is found, you would drive it home proudly and happily.  And you’d call your neighbors and the police and say, ‘Praise God!  My stolen car was found!”  It is this very joy that God has when a single sinner repents and comes back to God, away from his sins.  He loves that more than ninety nine church-goers who only ever say the right things.

 “Suppose there was a woman with ten coins, worth a thousand dollars each and one of them came up missing.  Wouldn’t she take out her flashlight and turn all the furniture upside down until it was found?  Then, once it’s found then she calls up her neighbors and say, ‘Yeah, I had lost this expensive coin, but praise God, now I’ve found it.’  Even so does God rejoice over one sinner who turns back to God away from his sin.”

“There was a father with two sons.  The younger son said to his father, ‘Dad, I can’t wait for you to die to get my inheritance, so give it to me now.’  So the father divided all of his wealth and gave the two sons their own share.  A few days later, the younger son collected his belongings and traveled to a godless nation and wasted the money, living by his impulses.   After all his money was gone, an economic depression came upon the nation and he was in desperate need.  After begging for a job, someone hired him to clean up rooms in a brothel, picking up needles and cleaning soiled sheets.  No one actually ever paid him, so he began to starve, finding the crumbs left in the rooms to be appetizing.  Finally, he came to his senses and said to himself, ‘Even the laziest of my fathers farmhands eat to their fill, and here I am starving to death?  I know what I’ll do, I’ll go back to my father and tell him how evil I have been and then ask him to hire me.  After all, I’m not worthy to be his son.’  “So he left that place, traveled back home and came to his father.  His father saw him from a distance and felt his heart leap within him and he ran to his son, grabbing him and hugging him desperately.  Once he could catch his breath, he said to his father, ‘Father, I have done evil before God and yourself.  Don’t take me as a son—I don’t deserve it.’  His father, though, called his workers and said, ‘You—go into my room and get out my best clothes and shoes and give them to my son.  You—get the necklace with the family crest on it and bring it here, and put it on him.  You—get into the kitchen and prepare a feast with steak for everyone.  Because this is my son the one who died.  Now his come back to us from the dead—he was lost, but now he is returned.’"

(Passages translated and updated from Luke 18, Luke 13, Mark 2, and Luke 15)

Jesus Goes To A Concert

Jesus was invited by one of his disciples to go to a Christian concert one day. As Jesus came in, he saw that many were trying to get the attention of their friends on or behind the stage to let them in.

Jesus turned to those with him and said, “When you go to a concert, don’t try to get up on stage, or else a security person might come and throw you out because you are being disruptive. Instead, stand back, waiting, until your friend behind the stage sees you and says, ‘Hey, you want to come back here?’ and you will be escorted into the stage area. Even so, where God rules, everyone who exalts themselves will be lowered, and everyone who lowers themselves will be exalted.”

Then Jesus said to the one who invited him, “If you go to a concert or have a party, don’t invite your friends or relatives or coworkers. Because they will just invite you to the next event, and so pay you back. Instead, invite the homeless and the handicapped, and people with social and mental disorders. Because they will never be able to pay you back and instead you will gain your repayment from God on the last day.”

One of the people in Jesus’ group heard this and said, “I can’t wait to enjoy the party when God rules!”

Jesus replied, “God’s rule is like a man who was giving a huge, expensive party—a Martha Stewart affair. And there were many who were invited to dress up and come. So he began to call them up and remind them to come. One of those invited said, ‘Oh, I can’t make it, I’ve got to work late.’ Another said, ‘My wife wants me to stay home tonight.’ Another said, ‘I’ve got a business meeting to attend to. Sorry, I can’t come.’ The man became very angry and called a friend of his, ‘These worthless people won’t come. So come with me and let’s bring in the homeless, the handicapped and the mentally and socially disabled.’ After they brought in all of these they could find, there was still room left. So the man told his friend, ‘Okay, let’s go outside of town and invite anyone on the street who happens to be passing by until all the spaces are filled. But not one of those who were invited will even taste of my dinner.’ ”

Because Jesus was a celebrity, he was invited to say a few words on stage to the crowd. “Look, I know that many of you have thought about following me. I just wanted to let you know, if any of you want to follow me, you will have to love me more than you love your spouse or children, more than you love your mother or father, more than you love your brothers or sisters or friends. In fact, if you don’t love me more than you love your own life, you cannot follow me. Anyone who follows me will be punished by those who don’t love me like that, and some of you will be killed—you need to recognize that.

“Look,” Jesus said, “if you are going to paint your house, you want to know how much it will cost ahead of time, don’t you? Because otherwise, you get halfway done and run out of money to buy more paint and anyone passing by laughs at you and says, ‘Look, this guy started something but he couldn’t finish it.’ And the neighborhood association will be at your door and ask you to finish it or to move away.

“Let’s say there’s a general who is calculating the chances he has in a war. If he has ten thousand troops as opposed to the other general who has twenty thousand troops, he had better figure out if he will do war against his enemy or surrender and offer reprisals in order to make peace.

“Even so, recognize, if anyone wants to follow me, he needs to give up his possessions.”

Then Jesus got down and left.


This stuff is in the Bible—really! Read it for yourself— Luke 14:7-33.

The Good and Bad News of Jesus

Here are some quotes from Walter Pilgrim's Good News to the Poor. This book is, in my opinion, the best book about Jesus' view of the poor and rich written yet, second only to John Chrysostom's sermons to the rich in scope and message. Why is this book out of print? We should all be studying this book in our churches.


The gospel of Mark’s “original intent was not that of a warning to the rich but as a word of promise and hope to the poor. It said something like this, ‘You who are least in the eyes of others and by the measure of earthly standards have the least, you will be abundantly blessed in the age to come.” The coming of God’s kingdom meant the end to their lowly status and God’s vindication of their cause.”

For the anawim, “the social and political life-settings are still there. The situations of distress are still those of literal poverty, persecution, oppression, affliction and the like. The anawim are truly the victims of life and their enemies are powerful and well-to-do. What makes them anawim, is the fact that their hope is in God and their cries reach out to Yahweh with confidence in His promised deliverance.”

“The Lucan birth narratives present the opening drama of a God who puts down the mighty and the rich from their positions of eminence and raises up those of low degree. In these stories the revelation of the new age begun in Jesus Christ is given to the poor and the lowly, as well as the pious and the not so pious…. Luke is here already anticipating the good news to the poor embodied in Jesus’ ministry throughout his Gospel.”

“Jesus’ acceptance of [sinners] into his fellowship points to his creation of a new community of those who were formerly on the outs with God and with other people. In this sense ‘the first will be last and the last first’ and God’s promised eschatological reversal for the poor has already become a reality in the ministry of Jesus.”

About the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16):
“How could anyone hear the vivid descriptions of the gross discrepancy in social conditions as anything other than a devastating critique against the rich who exploit the poor and live in social luxury, unmindful of the dying beggars at their gate? Moreover, God’s decisive siding with ths poor is not only alluded to in the name Lazarus, i.e., God helps, but in the great reversal which brings moral judgment. For the rich man is not just deprived of his possessions, he is punished (vv. 23-24), while Lazarus enjoys the eschatological blessings of the faithful elect. Hence we conclude that it is not just the great social inequality which results in judgment or blessing, but also the way of life associated with both…. The emphasis on the great disparity between the rich and poor raises the question acutely whether the rich as rich can avoid the eschatological reversal in the coming age.”

“Luke addressed himself to the rich Christians in his day. He does not insist that they give up all their possessions, nor does he require an elimination of all economic differences in the community. But Luke does say this to the rich Christians: ‘Your abundance and the poverty of other Christians are not in accordance with God’s will or with the spirit of Jesus. You must relinquish your abundance for the sake of the poor and work toward greater economic equality…’ ”