Monday, March 25, 2013

Measure Given, Measure Received (part 1)


Give, and it will be given to you: A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be poured into your lap.  For the measure you use will be the measure you receive. – Luke 6:38  (NET)

This is a passage that so many seem to both love and hate.  It is loved because it is always presented in the context of individuals giving of their time, their talent, and their treasure.  It is loved, because when this verse is quoted, those that hear it are told that if they will freely give in these areas, then the Creator God of the universe and sovereign Lord of the cosmos will pour out tremendous blessings upon them.  In all honesty, it could be asked who would not want that. 

However, it is also a passage that is hated because it can be safely said that most people tend to be a bit selfish when it comes to their time, their talent, and their treasure (time, skills, money, and possessions), and perhaps secretly wish that they did not have to give of these things in order to receive those blessings.  Unfortunately, one has to rip this passage right out of its context and do it irreparable exegetical harm in order to make it apply to what is generally associated with giving.  Beyond that, to make this passage apply to giving not only lifts it from its context, but it makes it a free-floating aphorism, almost completely disconnected from what comes before it.  As the Gospel of Luke indicates, such was not Jesus’ method, and is certainly not a reflection of the narrative structure of Luke and the ongoing story of Jesus that he is there telling. 

Jesus’ words applied to the situations in which the people found themselves.  Though He undoubtedly spoke timeless truths, they are only timeless truths because they are first grounded in historical reality.  If Jesus walked around simply offering high-minded principles that offered His people nothing useful for dealing with their present, historical, every-day concerns, rather than words that were specifically associated with the expectation that God had obligated Himself to act within history on behalf of His people, and thus specifically associated with Israel’s defining narrative, then it is likely that He would not have gained the following or influence that He is said to have had. 

If Jesus did not act and speak in connection with the events on the ground in Israel, doing so in accordance with what Israel understood about itself, about its God, and about its place and role in and for the world, it is likely that He would have been completely dismissed as just one more wandering preacher.  However, because Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God that was the hope and expectation of God’s people---which provided the context for everything He said and did---as He spoke with authority and confirmed His speaking with signs and wonders, the people listened and followed and even tried to make Him king.  The wandering spouter of timeless aphorisms would not have seen a groundswell of support for the establishment of his monarchy, and would certainly not have generated the type of reaction amongst the leaders of the people that is reported in the Gospels.      

So in the larger passage from which is drawn the words of giving and receiving, of course, Jesus is speaking.  He has been speaking at length.  To whom was Jesus speaking?  It is said that He was speaking to “a large number of His disciples” that “had gathered along with a vast multitude from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon” (6:17b).  Though Luke here is recording one particular instance, a responsible reading of the text would keep in mind that it is more than probable that Jesus would have spoken the words recorded here in the sixth chapter of Luke on more than one occasion (for example, the “Blessed are’s” of this chapter are spoken in a different setting in the fifth chapter of Matthew, which indicate that this, and perhaps other items, were regular features of Jesus’ discourses).  Here, Luke reports that Jesus’ hearers consist of people from Judea, Jerusalem, Tyre and Sidon.  This indicates that it is a mixed group, being comprised of both Jews and Gentiles, as Tyre and Sidon were cities that were predominantly populated by Gentiles.

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