What Do You Want?
The first question Jesus asked a would-be disciple in the Gospel of John was, “What do you want?” (Jn. 1:38) Jesus doesn’t come to his early disciples and ask, “What do you know?” or “what do you believe?” He asks, “What do you want?” James Smith says in his book You Are What You Love that this is arguably “the first, last, and most fundamental question of Christian discipleship.” He says that this question “is the most incisive, piercing question Jesus can ask of us precisely because we are what we want. Our wants and longings and desires are at the core of our identity, the wellspring from which our actions and behavior flow. Our wants reverberate from our heart, the epicenter of the human person. Thus Scripture counsels, ‘Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it’ (Prov. 4:23). Discipleship, we might say, is a way to curate your heart, to be attentive to and intentional about what you love.”
Why does Scripture emphasize our hearts, what we could call our affections or loves? Because what we love, what we want, what we desire shapes everything else. We often assume we’re driven by our minds or intellect, but I think it’s the other way round. Our thoughts follow our desires. We’re good at coming up with reasons to justify the things we want, because what we want is what drives us. This is why there is often a gap between what we know and what we do. We’re more than “thinking things,” to use Descartes word. We mustn’t reject thinking, but we must recognize it’s limits. Smith again, “We don’t need less than knowledge; we need more.”
This is Paul’s prayer in Philippians 1, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (vv. 9-10). Paul begins by praying for an abounding love, then prays for an accompanying knowledge. He understands that we are what we love, not what we think.
The Pharisees Problem
As we come to our text today, we meet the Pharisees again and learn that their problem wasn’t that they did or thought wrong things, but that they loved the wrong things. Jesus tells them they have a heart problem, not a head problem. This is what we need to hear as well. Jesus came to reorient our hearts, to move us away from loving self and toward loving God.
The main point of our text today, Luke 16:14-17, is that Jesus came to move us from loving self to loving God. This text shows us that, in our flesh, we love our self and our wealth, but in Christ we begin to love God’s salvation and his word. In verses 14-15, we’ll see love for self. And in verses 16-17, we’ll see love for God. As we go along, ask yourself, “What do I love?”
Love for Self
First, in verse 14-15, we see the Pharisee’s love for self. In verse 13, Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and money.” Then in verse 14, Luke says the Pharisees were “lovers of money.” The professional lovers of God weren’t loving God after all.
Money is a popular but disappointing god. Many think that money will solve their problems, give them security, and bring the peace they long for, so they do whatever they have to do to get as much as possible. But money is a disappointing god because it over-promises and under-delivers. We think it’ll solve our problems, but it often creates more problems. We think it’ll bring peace, but it actually brings more stress and anxiety.
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with money itself. But there’s a lot wrong with how we think and feel about money. This is why Paul says, “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Tim. 6:9-10). Money is good in itself – we need it for many things. But the desire and craving and love of money turns us into people we never thought we could be.
Ridiculing Jesus
The love of wealth tainted the Pharisee’s hearts, effecting their attitudes and actions as a result. Verse 14 says that the Pharisees “ridiculed” (or “scoffed at,” CSB) Jesus after hearing him teach about money.
The Pharisees cannot tolerate anyone who criticizes their love affair with money, so they ridicule Jesus’ teaching on the subject. Making fun of Jesus was their way of minimizing and dismissing what he said, pretending like it didn’t bother them.
People will often sneer and scoff and mock and make fun of people who’re saying true things that they don’t want to acknowledge as true. The mocker mocks out of pride, out of a desire to make themselves look better than the person they’re mocking. But the mocker also mocks out of a desire to discredit the one they’re mocking. The Pharisees don’t want anyone thinking that Jesus is a legitimate spokesperson for God. Their mocking is meant to marginalize Jesus by publicly discrediting his authority.
Lest we think we’re any better than them, remember the line in “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”:
Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
Our sin puts us in the same category as these money-loving, self-righteous, obnoxiously proud Pharisees who make fun of Jesus as a defense mechanism meant to move the spotlight away from their sin.
Just like Adam and Eve, sin drives us into hiding and in our hiding we try to cover our shame any way we can. Like the Pharisees, one of our favorite ways to cover ourselves is to uncover others. Beware of the mockers who love to point out other people’s faults but never their own.
A Sure Way to Hell
Verse 15 says this is a very dangerous posture. In response to their mocking, Jesus doesn’t mock back. He simply tells them the truth. He tells them that all their posturing isn’t fooling God. He tells them that he knows which God they’re serving. He tells them that being honored by men doesn’t mean being honored by God.
Jesus’ withering words for these pious pretenders is meant to expose them for what they are. Because their hearts aren’t oriented toward God’s purposes, they aren’t reliable interpreters of God’s will, in this case regarding the appropriate use of wealth.
But it’s not just that they’re not reliable teachers, Jesus says that they’re idolators. Because money is their god, and because they exalt something as God that is not God, they are “an abomination in the sight of God.” Jesus uses this word to describe the “abomination of desolation” that’s set up in God’s holy place in the last days (Mk. 13:14, Mt. 24:15). This “abomination” is an unholy and unclean idol that will be destroyed.
And this is how Jesus describes the Pharisees who love wealth and self. Their loves reveal their idols. And their idols are an offense to God. Jesus is saying that the Pharisees’ love of wealth and love of self is sending them straight to hell.
The Blessing of the Wealthy?
In our culture, there’s the idea that wealth is a reward for the righteous. It’s easy to assume that rich people are somehow more blessed by God. This may be why we jockey to put ourselves around them, maybe hoping that some of their blessing will rub off on us. The sort of spiritual blindness infected the Pharisees, and even many today. One commentator said it like this:
“People to-day are still disposed to regard those who have become rich and are known to give alms as people of the highest standing. God be thanked that there are many such wealthy people who are sincere and are a rich blessing to others, and live for the honour of God. Nevertheless, the Pharisaical types are, alas, still often to be found. Which of us is not to a greater or lesser degree infected by the same forms of spiritual blindness that in those days made the religion and life of so many Pharisees useless and dangerous?”
The love of wealth and the love of self is spiritually dangerous and damning, and it lives deep in all our hearts. The only thing strong enough to displace it is a new set of loves. And the good news (literally) is that with the dawning of a new age in Christ, new loves are available to all who welcome Jesus’ rule.
Love for God
In verses 16-17, we see why a love for God is possible, and what it looks like. As I said, in our flesh, we love our self and our wealth, but when we come into God’s kingdom, we begin to love God’s salvation and God’s word. Let’s take these one at a time.
First, those who’re in Christ begin to love his salvation. Jesus’ practice of hanging out with sinners raised questions about his view of the law, so he decides to speak directly to this issue in verses 16-17. In these verses, he justifies his practice by saying that, with John the Baptist and himself, a new era has dawned. When he says, “The Law and the Prophets were until John,” the “Law and Prophets” refer to the Old Testament period or age, not the Old Testament Scriptures because in the next verse he says that the Law isn’t void (v. 17). He’s not saying the Old Testament itself has been superseded, but that the period it represented has.
With John the Baptist and Jesus, a new age has dawned. John was the first to announce the arrival of the new age (Mt. 3:1-2), and was therefore a bridge between the old age and the new age. Since John, the “good news of the kingdom of God” has been preached.
“And Everyone Forces His Way Into It”
But then Jesus says something confusing. He says that, as a result of the preaching of the good news of the kingdom, “everyone forces his way into it” (v. 16). New Testament scholar Tom Schreiner says that this statement, and its parallel in Matthew 11:12, are “among the most difficult statements in the Gospels.” Matthew 11:12, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.”
What do these verses mean? They mean that, since John the Baptist began preaching, the kingdom of God has been advancing forcefully in the world. Jesus’ message was the same as John. Their message was that the kingdom of God has arrived on earth and is now active in a powerful way. The power of God’s kingdom isn’t merely something coming in the future. It’s here now. Jesus demonstrated this by casting out demons, healing the sick, and transforming people’s lives through his preaching of the good news of salvation.
Those who understand this begin to love God’s salvation. This is what Jesus means when he says, “the violent take the kingdom by force” (Mt. 11:12) and “everyone forces his way into it” (Lk. 16:16). The kingdom has come decisively in Jesus and only those who make a decisive commitment to Jesus will receive it’s blessings. Only those who love the kingdom will do this.
The kingdom is here; it’s arrival has been announced since John the Baptist. Those who see the significance and glory of this reality will act decisively and give up everything to enter God’s kingdom. New Testament scholar George Ladd says it well, “The mission of Jesus has set up a powerful movement. The power of God is at work mightily among human beings. It requires an equally powerful reaction…The presence of the Kingdom demands a radical reaction.”
The kingdom of God has come! But it’s glory and blessings are only for those who seek it above all else (Mt. 6:33), for those who love it.
The kingdom of God is advancing across the world powerfully, forcefully, and currently. It’s not merely a future hope; it’s a present reality. But it’s power and joy and blessing is only for those who “force their way into it,” those who stop playing religious games and get serious about following Jesus as King. The kingdom is for those who love God.
The Kingdom Does Not Nullify the Law
Those who’re outside of Christ love wealth and self. Those who’re in Christ love the salvation his kingdom brings. And, secondly, they love his word. This is what we find in verse 17.
Verse 16 says that with the coming of the kingdom, the age of the Law and Prophets has come to an end. Then in verse 17 Jesus says that the dawning of the new age of the kingdom doesn’t mean that the law is lapsed. But the dawning of a new age does mean, however, as we’ll see next week in verse 18, that a new and higher righteousness has come in Christ.
Jesus saw continuity and discontinuity in his relationship with the Law of Moses. On the one hand, he believed that the Law was the inspired and authoritative Word of God. He obeyed the commands of the Law and never criticized the Old Testament as not being the Word of God. He believed that his mission accomplished the complete fulfilment of the Law (Mt. 5:17), therefore giving the Old Testament permanent validity (Mt. 5:18, cf. Lk. 16:17).
His fulfillment of the Law is why he could say a new era began with him (Lk. 16:16). And this new era meant “a new definition of the role of the Law.” George Ladd says it like this:
“In this new order, a new relationship has been established between humanity and God. No longer is this relationship to be mediated through the Law but through the person of Jesus himself and the Kingdom of God breaking in through him. Jesus viewed the entire Old Testament movement as divinely directed and as having arrived at its goal in himself.”
In verse 17, Jesus is saying that, even though the Old Testament is preparatory it’s still authoritative. He’s affirming the continuity between the Old and New Testament eras. He says it’s easier for creation to disappear than for God’s word to not be fulfilled. Therefore, those who love God’s kingdom also love God’s word.
What Do You Love?
God’s kingdom has made it’s way into the world with great force and those who love God lay hold of it and want to share in it. More than anything else, they want to know and love God and live for his kingdom. And they want to know and love and obey his Word.
As I said at the beginning, Jesus came to move us from loving self to loving God. In our flesh, we love our wealth and our self, but in Christ we begin to love God’s salvation and his word.
The news of God’s kingdom coming in Jesus is “good news” because Jesus is a good King come to free us from the tyranny of lesser loves and bring us into the everlasting kingdom of his love. The news of God’s kingdom coming in Jesus is good news because our sinful loves are killing us. But in love, Jesus was killed for our sins. When we understand that he did that for us, it starts to change our loves. What do you love?