God Values the Little Ones (Mt 18:10-14)

God Values the Little Fella (Mt 18:10-14). Disciples Don't Despise Dispensable Disposable Deplorables, for Jesus the good shepherd is the model for his disciples [SWS 4/26/2020; Ps 116; Lk 24 lectionary texts. Song: The Overwhelming Never Ending Reckless Love of God Coming After Me].

• [1] These Little Ones (Mt 18:10a)
• [2] My Father in Heaven (Mt 18:10b)
• [3] 100 Sheep One Lost (Mt 18:12a)
• [4] Leave & Search [for the little one] (Mt 18:12b)
• [5] One Found 99 Never Strayed (Mt 18:13)
• [6] My Father in Heaven (Mt 18:14a)
• [7] These Little Ones (Mt 18:14b)

Notice the rhetorical structure in this chiasm (ring composition) composed of 7 inverted units:

• the beginning [1], middle [4] and end [7] focus on "the little ones" (Mt 18:10, 12, 14), while
• [2] and [6] are a pair of my/your "Father in heaven" (Mt 18:10, 14), and
• [3-5] are a parable on finding the one lost sheep (Mt 18:12-13) with
• [3] and [5] focusing on "the one and the many" while
• the climax in the very center [4] displays the willingness of the shepherd to risk leaving the 99 "on the hills" to go after the one that went away (Mt 18:12b).

Questions for Reflection:

1. Who are "these little ones" (Mt 18:10a)? Why might one little one wander away (Mt 18:12a; 16:24; Lk 14:26; 1 Jn 2:15-17)? Is the sheep misled or does it go astray? Is it the fault of the sheep or the shepherd?
• Might Peter denying Jesus, doubting Thomas, the 10 disciples who ran off in the garden, and the "Jerusalem street" (Lk 23:35, 48; 18:13) be among "the little ones" who strayed and went astray?
• What was Jesus "still doing" on the cross with "the little ones" (Lk 23:34)?
• Who did Jesus say is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18:2-5)? 
• What does the disciples' question about the greatest show about them (Mt 18:1)? 
• Was Jesus speaking of children in general or of this particular child (Mt 18:4)?
• What does the change from "child" (Mt 18:5) [paidion] to "little ones" (Mt 18:6; 10:42) [ton micron] tell us? 
2. Why does Jesus caution/warn his disciples to "not despise/look down on" [neglect, ignore] the little ones (Mt 18:10a) [to treat others with scorn or contempt]? Why? [See Q. 3.] 
• Does this challenge the leadership of the church in every age?
• Do people/organizations/"churches" tend to despise the dispensables /disregard the powerless /overlook the non-contributors? [Or declare an interest in them as a power play?]
• Do you desire/wish to be in what C.S. Lewis calls "The Inner Ring"? [What's the motivation?] Should you not rather be a "sound craftsman"?
3. What does it mean that "the little ones" (believers) have angels before "the face of my Father in heaven" (Mt 18:10b; Ac 12:15; 1 Cor 4:9; Heb 1:14; Ps 17:8; Rev 2:1, 8, 12; 3:1, 7, 14)?
4. What does Jesus exemplify in the center/climax of the chiasm [3,4,5] (Mt 18:12-13)?
• How does the world regard the weak, the powerless, the poor, the nameless?
• Why do people not want to bother with the one sheep who couldn't keep up?
• Can the lost, the one who wandered off, find their own way home?
• What is the shepherd willing to endure in order to look for the one who is lost/went astray (Lk 15:4, 8; Jn 10:11)? How does this strengthen and encourage the 99? 
• What is the tendency of [church] leaders with regard to 1/99? 
• How might we want our [church] leaders to act?
5. What does the shepherd rejoicing over finding the lost sheep teach us about repentance (Mt 18:13; Lk 15:5-6,9; 19:10; Jn 4:32)?
• Who is the celebration and rejoicing about (Lk 15:6, 9, 24, 27, cf. Lk 15:30)? 
• When the lost one is found were they blamed, rebuked, shamed and exposed as a "bad sheep," made to feel bad?
6. Despite the intention of the Father in heaven (Mt 18:14) and the shepherd (Mt 18:12), what could still happen? Is there the possibility of failure?
7. What was Jesus expecting of his disciples (Mt 25:40; Jn 20:21; 1 Pet 5:2)?

Reference: Bailey, Kenneth E. The Good Shepherd: A Thousand-Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament. IVP. Downers Grove, IL 60515. 2014.

Cultural Misconception of Luke 15

Points of Cultural Misconception of the Parable of the Compassionate Father

1. The request:  The prodigal's request is an unthinkable breach of traditional culture. (He wants his father to die.)
2. His father's gift:  The father reprocesses anger into grace and thereby deeply violates the code of an Oriental patriarch.  (As is shown five times in the parable).
3. A hurried sale:  The prodigal triggers the anger of the community. (He must leave town quickly.) 
4. The kezaza ceremony:  A threat hanging over the prodigal as he leaves town. (He must not lose the money.) 
5. Expensive living:  Not riotous (KJ), nor loose (RSV), nor dissolute (NRSV),  nor wild (NIV).  (The Greek word asotos is literally  a + sozo, i.e. without saving. No hints of immorality) 
6. Search for employment:  The prodigal must find a paying job so he can repurchase the land. (The kezaza ceremony now threatens.) 
7. Inauthentic Repentance: He projects A self-serving plan: (Augustinian or Pelagian?  Complications with the lost sheep and coin.) 
8. Turning point:  The costly demonstration of unexpected love. (Grace not law.  Love is offered before the confession.) 
9. A father who behaves like a mother. (The father is defined by Hosea 11, not by Middle Eastern culture.)
10. Authentic Repentance: The Prodigal Revises His speech – he is not interrupted. (Like the lost sheep, he accepts to be found). 
11. Christology:  Incarnation and atonement meet. (This happens with the shepherd, the woman and the father.) 
12. The meaning of the banquet (a theological trialogue): 
• Father's comments:  Because - He was lost and is found .. dead and is alive (divine passives)
• Young boy:  .... Because, he (the Father) received him (the prodigal)  with peace. 
• Older son:  You killed for him the fattened calf. 
13. Older son's anger at grace. (for some grace is not only amazing – it is also infuriating!)
• His mentality:  (You get what you pay for, don't you?)
• His response:  (He breaks his relationship with his father - like the prodigal, only more so.) 
14. Father's response:  The Father once again reprocessed anger into grace.  At the same time the father  urges the older son dealing with the prodigal in the same way. 
15. Older son's final reaction:  An unfinished theological symphony (participation theater). 

Reference: Kenneth E. Bailey.

The Climax Center of Feeding the 5,000

Mark 6:34-46 is a chiasm/ ring composition/ inverted parallelism format that is in Psalm 23 and Luke 15 with the account very carefully recorded. A series of ideas/events are presented, come to a climax and then are repeated backwards. Usually the center of such a rhetorical ring composition is either the climax of the passage or at least a point of special emphasis. Here that center includes three units (Mk 6:38-41a).

1. Mk 6:34 - A Crowd, Gathered, good shepherd needed

2. Mk 6:35-36 - All Need To Ead (no food)

3. Mk 6:37 - You Feed Them (we can't)

4. Mk 6:38 - Five Loaves Two Fish

5. Mk 6:39-40 - Ps 23:2

6. Mk 6:41a - Five Loaves Two Fish

7. Mk 6:41b - You Feed Them (they can)

8. Mk 6:42-44 - All Eat All Filled (food left over)

9. Mk 6:45-46 - A Crowd, Dismissed, good shepherd takes charge  

The Good Shepherd (Psalm 23 to Mark 6)

Psalm 23	Mark 6:7-52
"The Lord is my shepherd"	Mk 6:34ff: Jesus had compassion of them
"He settles me down in green pastures"	Mk 6:39: He commanded them to recline in green pastures
"He leads me in paths of righteousness"	Mk 6:34: He taught them many things
"I walk through the valley of death"	Mk 6:24-29: John was killed
"I will fear no evil"	Mk 6:50: He told them, "Have no fear, I am!"
"…your staff comforts me"	Mk 6:8: "Take nothing…except a [shepherd's] staff"
"You prepare a table before me"	Mk 6:41: Jesus prepared a banquet of life
"…in the presence of my enemies"	Mk 6:21-28: Herod, an enemy, was "watching"
"You anoint my head with oil"	Mk 6:13: The disciples "anointed many with oil"
"I shall not want"; "my cup overflows"	Mk 6:42: They were "filled" with "12 baskets full of broken pieces"
He rests me "beside still waters"	Mk 6:51: "the wind ceased and they crossed over"

The classical account of the good shepherd from Psalm 23 to Mark 6:7-52

Ps 23:1-6	Jer, Ezek, Zach	Lk 15:4-7	Lk 15:8-10	Mk 6:7-52
God is the good shepherd	God is the good shepherd	Jesus is the good shepherd	Jesus is the good woman	Jesus is the good shepherd and the new Moses
Lost sheep (no flock)	Lost flock	Lost sheep & lost flock	Lost coin	Lost flock
Incarnation implied	Incarnation promised	Incarnation realized	Incarnation realized	Incarnation realized
Price paid: bring back	Price paid: search, save, bring back	Price paid: search, find, carry back	Price paid: light lamp, sweep, search, find	Gather, order, feed, lead flock, confront Herod
Repentance is return to God (shuv)	Repentance is return to land (shuv)	Repentance is return to God (metanoea)	Repentance is return to God (metanoea)	The "flock" accepts to be found
A meal for the psalmist	__	A celebration with friends	A celebration with friends	A meal for 5,000
A good host(ess?) and a meal	__	A good host and (offered food)	A good hostel and (offered food)	Jesus produces a meal
Opponent: death and enemies	Bad shepherd	Bad shepherd loses a sheep	Careless woman loses a coin	Herod: bad shepherd and murderer
Story ends in the house	Story ends in the land	Story ends in the house	Story ends in the house	At the end, people go home.

Jesus' Response to the Murder of John the Baptist

Jesus Responds to a Horrific Murder (Mark 6:7-32) 

"Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest" (Mk 6:31b).

v  How do you respond when a very good person you love is brutally beheaded by an evil person?

v  How did Jesus respond when his cousin John the Baptist was murdered by a drunken despot?

v  How did Jesus fulfill his role as a good shepherd when under enormous pressure to respond to a bad shepherd?

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve (6:7-13)

1.    By sending out the Twelve two by two (Mk 6:7), how many teaching/preaching voices would there be (Mk 6:6b)?

2.    What would Jesus' instructions teach them (Mk 6:8-9)? Who would they need on their mission?

3.    What did Jesus teach them about failure (Mk 6:10-11)? What does "shake the dust off your feet" teach them? If they are bent on success, are they in the right business?

4.    What was their primary proclamation (Mk 6:12)? What did they do (Mk 6:13)?

Herod and the Horrific Murder of John the Baptist (6:14-29)

1.    Why was John put in prison (Mk 6:17-18)? Why did Herod protect John and like to listen to him (Mk 6:20)?

2.    Who were Herod's dinner guests (Mk 6:21)? Notice that 3 classes of people were invited. What kind of people were they? Who do they represent?

3.    Why (Mk 6:19) and how did Herodias manipulate a banquet into a murder scene (Mk 6:22-25)? Why didn't/couldn't Herod back down from his drunken oath (Mk 6:26-28)?

4.    How was John regarded (Mk 11:32; Lk 3:15; 20:1-8)? Why did his disciples gather around him (Mk 6:30)? Why were so many people coming and going (Mk 6:31a)? What do you do when a relative of your leader is murdered?

5.   How did Jesus regard John the Baptist (Mt 11:11; Lk 7:28)? How did he respond to his murder (31b-32, 33-44)?

6.    Did John's brutal beheading (6:14-29) disrupt the mission of the Twelve (6:7-13, 30-31)? What can we learn here?

The outline and setting of the emergence of Jesus the good shepherd in Mk 6:7-52 are:

1. Jesus sends out the twelve (6:7-13)
2. Herod and John [and the ministry of Jesus] (6:14-20)
3. Herod the bad shepherd feeds the powerful [at a banquet of death] (6:21-29)
4. The twelve return to Jesus (6:30-32)
5. Jesus the good shepherd feeds his flock [at a banquet of life] (6:33-43)
6. Jesus, as shepherd, leads his disciples and creates "still water" for them (6:43-52)

Who represents Who in Luke 15

Why the shepherd (Lk 15:4-7), woman (Lk 15:8-10) and father (Lk 15:11-32) in Luke 15 are symbols for God and Jesus.

Allegory reigned supreme for many centuries as a method of interpretation, and the fatted calf in the parable of the prodigal son became a symbol for Christ because the calf was killed. Through allegory, interpreters were able to locate their favorite ideas almost anywhere, and confusion and finally meaninglessness conquered. This is probably why parables ceased to be sources for Christian faith and were limited to ethics.

In reaction to the fanciful exaggerations that the allegorical method produced in past centuries, across the twentieth century there was a stream of scholarship that argued for “one point per parable.” Others allowed for several themes in a parable. The purpose was to protect interpretation from adding meanings to the text that could not have occurred to Jesus or his audience. 

But if the great parable of the prodigal son has “only one point,” which shall we choose? Should the interpreter choose “the nature of the fatherhood of God,” “an understanding of sin,” “self-righteousness that rejects others,” “the nature of true repentance,” “joy in community” or “finding the lost”? All of these theological themes are undeniably present in the story and together form a whole that Kenneth Bailey calls “the theological cluster.” Each part of that cluster is in creative relationship to the other parts. The meaning of each can only be understood fully within the cluster formed by the entire parable. The content of the cluster must be controlled and limited by what Jesus’ original audience could have understood.

Simply stated, our task is to stand at the back of the audience around Jesus and listen to what he is saying to them. Only through that discipline can we discover what he is saying to any age, including our own. Authentic simplicity can be found the other side of complexity.

Reference: Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey.

The Woman is a Symbol for God and Jesus (Luke 15:8-10)

1. Why would a story with a woman as the hero be startling, surprising, bold and daring? [In the past, Ruth, Esther, Judith, Deborah and Jael were heroes (Jud 4:4-22). But by the time of Jesus they were clearly inferior (Ben Sirach).]
2. Why would Jesus tell a similar parable when the parable of the good shepherd was already told (Gen 1:27)?
3. How would this parable reclaim the long-neglected female component in Psalm 23:5?
4. Who likely had a major influence on Jesus' attitude toward women as he grew up (Lk 1:26-38, 48)?
5. Did Jesus have women disciples (Lk 8:1-3; 10:38-39; Mt 12:48-50)? If so, did this make a difference in the content and style of his teaching (Lk 4:25-27; 5:36-39; 7:36-50; 18:1-8; 13:18-21; 20:27-36; 21:1-4; Mk 15:40-47; 16:1-8)?
6. What is significant about the coin being lost in the house in contrast to the sheep being lost in the wilderness? How might this suggest two distinct types of "lostness" as in the final parable (Lk 15:11-32)?
7. What is the worth of a drachma (Lk 15:8)? Does the value of the coin ever change?
8. What suggests that the woman is a symbol for both God and Jesus (Lk 15:6, 9)?

1. Introduction (Lk 15:8a)             Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and

2. Lost (8b)                       loses one.

3. Found (8c)           Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

4. Rejoice (Lk 15:9a)         And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, "Rejoice with me;

5. Found (Lk 15:9b)          I have found

6. Lost (9c)                       my lost coin.

7. Conclusion (Lk 15:10)               In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

I. You One 99 (Lk 15:4a)

1. Lost (Lk 15:4b)

2. Find (Lk 15:5a)

3. Rejoice (Lk 15:5b)

4. Restore (Lk 15:6a)

5. Rejoice (Lk 15:6b)

6. Found (Lk 15:6c)

7. Lost (Lk 15:6d)

III. You One 99 (Lk 15:7)

Luke 15 questions for reflection

1. Why would Jesus' loving welcome and eating with tax collectors and sinners upset the Pharisees and scribes ( Lk 15:1-2)? What is "this parable" (Lk 15:3) that Jesus told them?
2. What is the cost for the shepherd to leave the 99 sheep to go search for one lost sheep (Lk 15:4-6)? Who are the "99 righteous persons who do not need to repent" (Lk 15:7; Isa 53:6; Eccl 7:20; Rom 3:23a)?
3. What is the cost to the woman looking for her one silver coin she lost (Lk 15:8-9)? What do we learn in these two parables about what it means to repent (Lk 15:7, 10; Ps 23:3)? [The answer is not easy or obvious.] Who does the good shepherd and the good woman represent (Lk 15:1, 2b)?
4. What does the younger son's request mean in a Middle Eastern context (Lk 15:11-12a)? How would the father (and his village) normally respond? What does the father's response show about him (Lk 15:12b; cf. Gal 6:13)?
5. What was the result of his "wild" /extravagant /spendthrift /wasteful living (Lk 15:13-16)? What does "he come to his senses/himself (Lk 15:16-17)? Was he genuinely repenting (Lk 15:18-19)? Who in the O.T. seemed to repent (Exo 10:16)? What was his own plan (Lk 15:19b)? Was this acceptable to the father (Jn 15:15)?
6. What does the father's action upon seeing his younger son show about him (Lk 15:20; 23:34; Mt 11:29; 2 Cor 5:19a)? Why was this shameful and unexpected? How would this protect his son from the village's wrath?
7. Compare the son's prepared and actual speech (Lk 15:18b-19, 21)? Why could he not make his final request (Lk 15:19b)?
8. How did the father restore him to sonship (Lk 15:22-23)? Were they celebrating the son's return home (Lk 15:24)? How was the son found? Did he repent? How? [See Q3 above.]
9. When the older son found out what happened (Lk 15:25-27), why was he so angry (Lk 15:28a)? What does his refusal to join the celebration mean in a Middle Eastern context (Lk 15:28a)? How was this worse than what the younger son did (Lk 15:12)? What does his insulting response (Lk 15:29-30) to the father's plea (Lk 15:28b) show about him? How was he similar to the Pharisees (Lk 15:2)?
10. What does the father's plea (Lk 15:28b) and his response to his son's insult (Lk 15:31-32) show about the father? Who is this father? Did he welcome his father's plea and join the celebration? How is "this parable" (Lk 15:3) the answer to the Pharisees' muttering (2)?

See & Hear in 2019 & 2020

See Jesus More Clearly in 2019; Hear our Good Shepherd in 2020 (12/19/2019)

2019: "Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes…and he saw everything clearly" (Mk 8:25).

2020: "The sheep hear his voice … for they know his voice" (Jn 10:3b-4).

A wholesome Christian requires orthodoxy (right beliefs), orthopraxy (right practices) and osteopathy (right emotions / feelings). Since I became a Christian in 1980, I focused exclusively on orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Once I even said to my wife to her chagrin, "Feelings don't matter." It took me 3 decades to realize the error and distastefulness of my insensitive statement. So in my attempts to rectify myself…

The Good Shepherd

"Always insightful, always fresh, consistently surprising, Bailey has produced yet another book that will get many of us rethinking beloved passages of Scripture in completely new ways."

"What a feast Ken Bailey has prepared for us in this book, and what an overflowing cupful of insights and illumination."

"Kenneth Bailey refreshes the souls of readers... he deftly introduces us to a fresh understanding of the Good Shepherd. Anyone who loves the 23rd Psalm will love this book."