Pastor Brian Martin: Hey everyone, and welcome to the Calvary Callback, a podcast where we take a deeper dive into the weekly sermon at Calvary Evangelical Free Church here in Rochester, Minnesota. I’m your host, Brian Martin, and I’m here again today with Kyle Bushre, who preached a sermon titled Recover Your Sight, looking at Luke 18: 35 – 43. Returning to our ongoing series.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Returning, our annual return to the Book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke. It’s the gospel that never ends.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: It goes on and on. No, it’s a fantastic book. I love the Gospel of Luke. But yeah, we do like our breaks.
Pastor Brian Martin: What’s not to like? I mean, am I remembering right? The first year, did we kind of line up Luke 2 with Christmas?
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Uh, I’m trying to remember that actually.
Pastor Brian Martin: That’s long enough ago now.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah. You know, actually I think it did. I think it actually lined up.
Pastor Brian Martin: I think so.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah. Luke 2 yeah, because we got to, we started Luke 1. And of course, of course I took forever in Luke 1. So, uh, so we got…
Pastor Brian Martin: I didn’t say that.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: We started that in September. And I think by Christmas we were in Luke 2.
Pastor Brian Martin: So us and Linus were there. I love that there’s just a full proclamation of the gospel every Christmas on everybody’s TV.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Did you know it was controversial at first?
Pastor Brian Martin: Really?
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah. I don’t know how we’re talking Christmas right now, but. Yeah. Uh, yeah, it was controversial. Then it just became a thing.
Pastor Brian Martin: And now we just kind of accept it.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Everybody, everybody watches it.
Memories of 9/11 and how it shaped faith life in America
Pastor Brian Martin: I’m okay with it. I’m okay with it. Uh, so, I mean, I guess we did kind of start light there, but, you know, let’s pause here maybe to, you know, be a little somber and remember, of course, um, you know, we commemorated 25 years since September 11th. And, you know, I guess I’m just going to start kind of personally like, where were you? I mean, this is the thing, this is the way we commemorate, right? And some of our listeners might not be old enough to actually remember…
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yes.
Pastor Brian Martin: ..this event. But, you know, you and I remember it so vividly. What do you remember about that day?
Pastor Kyle Bushre: I remember I was a young pastor. I, in fact, I was in my first pastoral role, um, prior to seminary even. Uh, I was a youth pastor of a church plant. So I was sort of just a helper. And we planted this church in very small eight, eight people in the church to begin with. So real small church plant. And, um, I remember that morning, it had to have been a weekday, I don’t remember. Do you remember which day of the week it was?
Pastor Brian Martin: I don’t, but I know it was a weekday because I was, yeah, I was in school.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: I want to say it was early in the week, like a Monday or Tuesday. I, I can’t quite remember that, but I remember waking up and of course, this was not, this was pre phone days. So you didn’t like wake up and immediately know what was going on in the world. And I just remember getting up and getting around and I was getting ready to, to head into work and flipped on the TV and um, yeah, the whole world changed. And we, I, I remember just turning it on. I was, Rachel was off to work already. She was at school, she was teaching, she was teaching kindergarten. And I just sat there and I just didn’t go in. I called and everybody was watching. Everybody was glued to the TV. Right. So we all went in late, and I was just trying to process it and I couldn’t process it. Like, and I had, uh, just immediate stirrings inside of myself of what does a pastor do here? I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. And so then I went in and I, I did talk with, uh, my lead pastor at the time who was planting the church.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: And, we immediately, uh, we spent the day organizing a prayer meeting that night. So we just got the word out. Um, in that day was, you know, in a lot of ways, it was, it was more difficult, uh, to get word, get the word out. But we, you know, making phone calls and, um, and that sort of thing. And by that evening I was exhausted. And I remember we went and I had to say something up front. I remember just losing it emotionally. Um, as I was trying to help the people that came process the, the, the difficulty of it all through, through a biblical perspective. And I am a young pastor at this point. I, what am I? 21, 20 something like that. 21,22 no, I was married, so it had to be, I had to be 22 or 23 years old. And it, I just, I just, I, I didn’t know really even how to help other people. That’s how, that’s how young in the faith I was. And, and new to pastoring, I was. I didn’t know how to help. All I could do is pray.
Pastor Brian Martin: Well, I mean, I think you’re right that you’d have more to say today than you would have 25 years ago. But sure, no one had a playbook for this.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh, no.
Pastor Brian Martin: I mean, yeah, nothing like this had ever I mean, Pearl Harbor, I guess. But even that felt this scenario was different because we were at war in Pearl Harbor, you know.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Right. Well we weren’t until that, but yes. Yes, we knew about the war. We knew the kind of world we were in. We didn’t know that we were in this world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you, what did you do?
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah. So I was a senior in high school. And it was sort of unique, so I was a part of this student council organization. It doesn’t matter. And so I was actually in a meeting, I was presiding over a meeting for this statewide organization I was a part of. And in the middle of our meeting, one of the adults came in and just like, came in and told us what was happening. And I remember what he finished what he was saying. He said, our nation is under attack.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Wow.
Pastor Brian Martin: And I’m just like, whoa. And so there were, there were a couple of TVs around. And so what I remember, and in some ways it feels kind of silly. But what I remember was we, you know, we ended up breaking for lunch or whatever it was. And like walking past and seeing like the first tower on top on fire or whatever on the TV and being like, I don’t know what to do with that, you know? Like I just had. And so I just went to lunch, you know, like with everybody else. And I think we just didn’t really know what to think about it. And then later everybody was glued to the TV, like you said. And yeah, eventually, but it took us a little while to sort of catch up to what was happening which was interesting. And so. Yeah and…
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Did you have any fear that other things were going to happen? Um, like…
Pastor Brian Martin: I don’t think immediately, but later I definitely did. Yeah. Yeah.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: There was some of that with me as well. Like what is next? What’s going to happen?
Pastor Brian Martin: I mean, I remember there being like lists published of possible next targets kind of a thing. And I know my family, we went to Disney World in July, uh, over July 4th weekend actually. Uh, so this was after I would have graduated, you know, that summer and, uh, we were a little apprehensive. And actually we had a weird experience with something related to that, but it doesn’t matter. Um, but everybody was like, oh, don’t you think they’d probably go after this or go after, you know? And everybody was sort of trying to like, think of what they were going to do next, which was just a weird sort of cultural psyche thing going on.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah, yeah.
Pastor Brian Martin: What do you remember? I mean, you shared a little bit about your own church experience there, like immediately that weekend, but in those days, weeks, months following it what do you remember about like the spiritual temperature in America around that time of history?
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Ah, boy, you know, I was again, I’m 23 I think at that point. I’m not real good at gauging the spiritual temperature of what’s happening. I can tell you that it from, from my young perspective, it did feel like there was a lot more, um, camaraderie, more binding together. And I’m talking about as a nation. I’m not talking about as a church. I’m not saying there was a spiritual bond, but it did seem like there was more of a human bond. Um, and, and interestingly, uh, one of the things that I can remember inside that was happening in me was a, a readjustment of my own calling and, and saying, okay, if this, you know, I’m thinking the world is changing, it’s going to be a different world. Yeah. You know, Lord, what would you have me do in it? And I hadn’t yet gone to seminary and I thought, but I was I was done with college. I had my Bible degree and I thought maybe I should be a chaplain. Uh, it was the only time in my whole life…
Pastor Brian Martin: Meaning military chaplain.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Military chaplain, I, uh, to explore. I was the only time in my life I explored it. In fact, I called a recruiter and just asked him, you know, what does it take for this? And they and they said, you need an MDiv to be a chaplain in the military. And I didn’t have that. And I said, okay, thank you. Um, and, uh, and actually that’s kind of what started getting my mind and heart moving toward, uh, master’s studies at Trinity and beyond. So yeah, um, it didn’t end up leading to chaplaincy. Um, but it did kind of move me in that direction. So there was a part of me that wanted to be part of the solution.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yes.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: So, and that’s kind of the unique way that I felt it, but I think a lot of people felt that way.
Pastor Brian Martin: I agree.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Like, how do I, how do I help this? I, let me tell you, I do not want a tragedy like this ever again. No one does.
Pastor Brian Martin: Right.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: But boy, would I like the idea of a lot of people pulling in the direction going, how can I be part of the solution in this world as opposed to being against everyone and and against everybody who thinks differently than me? How can I, how can we pull together? I think that would help our society a lot. Yeah. Um, this isn’t really a society show, but it is a, um, it is a, is it a thing that I think there is one if, if there’s something that positive that came out of it, I would say it was, it did seem like we were all more on the same page than we are now.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah, I well, and even to that point, I mean, people, the weekend following, I, someone said to me, well, I don’t know how true it was that it might have been the like highest attendance church like church attendance weekend in the history of America.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh, is that right?
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh, I didn’t know that.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah, because people, I mean, I know in my own church, I mean, it was full to the brim.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh, seriously.
I mean, people flocked like. And, you know, um, it was just really interesting and it kind of slowly tapered. But the first week it was this huge spike. And then the second week it was still very large and then it slowly started to taper. But I think one of the things I remember about it was I think there was just this sense, and I think we talked about it among, you know, like among our church and stuff a bit, but people were just looking for something. Yeah. You know, it was this feeling of, I think a lot of people just really felt out of control. Yep. And they didn’t know what to do with that. And so some people turned to the Lord. And yeah, I mean, similar to what you said too. I think the other thing more immediately around me is multiple of my friends enlisted.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh, is that right?
Oh, yeah.
Wow.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yep. And one of my best friends became an army chaplain and, you know, just things like that, too.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: It actually, that’s I did not. Uh, maybe there was a surge there. I’ve never looked it up, but that would be interesting to know that a lot of people felt the way I felt. I just thought I was feeling, the only one feeling that way but perhaps there was a big movement.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah. Yeah. In any case, it’s interesting. Yeah. A couple of those friends are now my brothers in law, but.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh, is that right?
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, two of my, uh, two Vance brothers served and signed up right sort of in response to 911.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Interesting.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah. So in any case, um, yeah, I was just going to say good stuff, but I mean, you know, I mean, important to reflect.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah, 25 years seems like yesterday to me.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: I’ve heard that people say the same sort of thing when they, when they talk about, uh, big world events, like people can tell you where they were exactly when they heard that John F Kennedy had been shot. Right. And the world in their mind changed in some way. And that’s so vivid to them. And, um, that, that for me, when I think of it’s been a quarter of a century since 911 took place. Um, that, that seems wild to me.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah, yeah. And the world’s changed a lot and is exactly the same somehow.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah right.
Pastor Brian Martin: You know, I mean, just Ecclesiastes comes to mind here.
Yes, exactly.
Nothing new under the sun. Right? Yeah. So, um, yeah, it’s interesting. But, you know, I think if there’s a lesson, the lesson, you know, reflecting back is we aren’t in control and we have to trust in God’s sovereignty. And, uh, and we have to, you know, this is maybe an odd angle, but like, we have to love our neighbors well, because probably the people who flew planes into buildings were not loved well, you know. And which doesn’t abdicate them from any responsibility. I’m just saying, you know, if those people knew Christ, that wouldn’t have happened. That is kind of where I’m going.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah. Salt and light.
What is the sobering reality of being a “blind beggar”?
Pastor Brian Martin: Salt and light. Oh, boy. So, um, I don’t think this is much lighter, but, you know, uh, going into the sermon a little bit more. Um, you made the claim, of course, that we’re all blind beggars who can’t help ourselves. And what’s interesting is I would argue that feels fairly countercultural to the American ethos.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh, yeah no question.
Pastor Brian Martin: It’s pick yourself up by your own bootstraps, you know, conquer the frontier. All of that, right? Yeah. Um, so why is this a hard truth to claim and understand about our relationship with the Lord? Like this idea of being a blind beggar who’s helpless.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Because nobody likes helplessness. We just don’t. We’re just. We like the idea that we’re in control of things. Um, that we’re successful. I mean, who celebrates failure, right? You celebrate success. People go after, uh, a life where they can live on their own terms. Uh, they’re self-sufficient. Um, I mean, that’s certainly built into the DNA of our culture here in the United States. Um, but I think I would go so far as to say it’s sort of built into the very fabric of what a human being is. We’re all aspirational to some degree. And so the idea that everything in your life would have failed to the point that you would be this man on the side of the road is, is not just counterculture. It’s, it’s counter to the very being that I am. And so I think that is what’s so hard about that aspect of our relationship with the Lord. Um, to recognize that we are completely helpless, unable to see on our own. Uh, unable to, um, unable to grasp the gospel without God opening our eyes and transforming our hearts, regenerating us. Breathing, uh, breathing his spirit into the dead bones of our souls and bringing us back to life. That we require that in order to have a relationship with God, people do not want that. They want to know, like the rich ruler, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What, what thing can I do to make sure I have it? And as I said on Sunday, and add Jesus and eternity to my already awesome life. How can I how can I get a little…
Pastor Brian Martin: Diversify my portfolio.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Exactly, yes, exactly. Let’s make sure that we’ve got our bases covered here so that in every way we have the, you know, the future we want. And that that is all a self-propelling way of thinking about things. And, and the blind beggar on the side of the road has nothing. He has none of that. There is no opportunities for him except for this one narrow window of opportunity that opened and all he did was scream mercy into it. So no, I yeah, nobody likes the idea of being like this, but that’s why Luke said it in this chapter. He said it as contrast. You don’t want to be this guy. You want to be this guy. And, I think it’s brilliant. I think it’s brilliant. And like I said, if I hadn’t preached the rich ruler like a year ago, you’d see that contrast a little bit more. But it’s not, it’s not been a year, but it’s been a while.
Pastor Brian Martin: It was good to revisit it to see the contrast.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: It was like way back in the spring. Yeah, but yeah, that’s a great question because nobody wants this. Nobody wants to be this guy.
Pastor Brian Martin: Right, I mean, I would maybe argue independence is an idol.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Um, yeah.
Pastor Brian Martin: I think it is. Yeah. And, you know, and Lewis illustrates this well in the great divorce, right? That’s the name of the book.?
Pastor Kyle Bushre: The one that he got on a bus and go to hell? Yeah
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah. And, there’s more than one person who probably shows versions of that, but there’s this one guy in the story who talks about, you know, basically like, I’m my own, I’m self-made and I don’t need anybody’s help, you know, and you know, the sort of extreme version of that is including God’s help. Right? But I honestly, I think that’s where unless we actively decide not to be that way, that is the way we are.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh, yeah.
Pastor Brian Martin: Right. If you’ve ever raised a toddler, you understand this.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: That’s right.
Pastor Brian Martin: I do it. Yeah. You know, or whatever.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah, exactly.
Pastor Brian Martin: It’s like well okay. Yeah, but if you do it, it’s gonna be a big old mess, you know, or whatever. Like you could use a little assistance.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah.
Pastor Brian Martin: Fine motor skills.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: You ever had a toddler, uh, see an open door in your house and go running outside, like, to freedom, you know, and you go, they get out there and they stop. What is the plan here, buddy? What? Where? What are you thinking is going to happen next? You are not going to be able to be sufficient on your own here. You’re going to need assistance. And most of that assistance will be to get back into this house. Yeah. Where you are safe. Yeah. We don’t like it. You’re right. You’re totally right.
Pastor Brian Martin: I don’t know if I ever had a kid actually do that. No, but I just I just had a great picture of little Sammy doing that.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh I know yeah, yeah. Halfway through the front yard. And then it’s like, I don’t know where I’m going.
Pastor Brian Martin: You know what’s so funny about that? You know, for guys who have to, like, tell stories about our lives, right? Right. My, so my dad was a teacher in my high school and he taught a sociology class. There was a lot of conversation about like family and stuff. And so my sister and I were never in high school together. So when she was in high school, he would tell all the stories as if they were me.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh.
Pastor Brian Martin: When I was in high school, he would tell the stories as if they were her. And to this day, he can’t remember half of them who it actually was.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: That’s so funny. That’s hilarious. Yeah.
Pastor Brian Martin: Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. But we all are blind beggars.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah. We are.
A more nuanced understanding of mercy
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah, yeah. And so then with that, and you mentioned this like just now. So mercy is what he called for. Yeah. And I think, you know, that’s a key theme of understanding this passage for sure. I don’t know about you. I would say my background emphasized grace over mercy, probably like 10 to 1.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah. It’s difficult because they’re often used interchangeably and to both mean grace.
Pastor Brian Martin: So why do you think grace is emphasized in evangelicalism? Because I kind of think it is.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: It should be. First of all, it’s the heart of the gospel. So grace is the heart of the gospel. But it is. But the showing of grace is an act of mercy. And that’s where we get the confusion. That’s where the confusion lies, that the showing of grace is an act of mercy, because he gives us a free gift that we do not deserve. His forgiveness, his his dying, on Christ dying on the cross for us. The gift, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us comes to us as a gift. It is grace, but it comes to us as a gift of grace because of the mess we’re in. And so we need mercy. It is an act of mercy to us that God would give us this grace.
Pastor Brian Martin: And that’s what I’m almost wondering. Do you think grace is emphasized because grace is a gift, right? And gifts are, when is gift ever bad, right? Yeah. Whereas mercy requires an admission that we’re guilty.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Um or that we’re in trouble. Yeah. Or in need.
Pastor Brian Martin: Or that we’re dependent.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Dependent
Pastor Brian Martin: I suppose.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah, that could be. I don’t know. I don’t know. I can’t say for sure. But it’s possible that maybe we don’t cry out for mercy because we don’t want the idea that, you know, deep down, like we were just talking about we’d like to be autonomous, independent, or at least sufficient self-sufficient in some way. Not fully. I wouldn’t say most Christians wouldn’t say I’m fully self-sufficient. You really can’t understand the gospel if that’s the case. But I would say that there probably is a lot of, there are a lot of us who, while we understand grace and mercy, we’d like to still maintain some sufficiency on our own. And, uh, and then then then grace becomes this wonderful theological concept of how I am saved. But mercy feels like I’m weak. Yeah. And I need. And we, we shy away from the truth of that. But we do. We are in need desperately.
Pastor Brian Martin: I almost wonder, There’s a part of me that feels like this is a pendulum swing. And what I mean is a generation or two before me, I think there was a lot of fire and brimstone. You’re going to hell.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Okay.
Pastor Brian Martin: Cry out for mercy. And people sort of felt like, I don’t really like that way of explaining the gospel. And so it kind of swung the other way. And now it’s it’s grace. You know, like God loves you and wants to have a relationship with you and…
Pastor Kyle Bushre: …plan for your life.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Um, and I, I don’t know. Would you, would you say, would you agree that you really have to understand both grace and mercy to fully understand the gospel?
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah. Well, yeah. To fully understand the gospel, yes, I would, I would say there’s lots of aspects of the gospel that we need to really understand, to fully understand the gospel. And I would say that that, um, understanding your own inability to save yourself, the need for grace and your in your inability to get yourself out of the mess you’re in. The need for mercy are both aspects of the gospel. And to fully understand the gospel, that’s why we, that’s why we talk about the gospel all the time. This is why we keep returning. You go, why is the church talk about the gospel so much? It’s because we don’t ever plumb its depths.
Pastor Brian Martin: You don’t graduate from the gospel.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: You don’t. You don’t. We got to understand. We got to fully understand how it how it comes to us from the Lord, what he communicates to us about it, how we’re to live our lives because of it. How are we to now live. Right. That that that idea of what does it mean for me to apply all these truths in my life? What does it mean? What does that do to my self, inner self talk. How I see myself, how I see others, how I see the world around me, God’s creation. How do I see the Lord himself? Yeah. What does my relationship look like with him because of this gospel? So, um, yeah, I mean, I think we need to look at it. It’s a, grace is an act of mercy. Grace is an act of God’s love. Grace is a, expresses to us God’s character, his nature. We learn a lot of things, a lot of different aspects. And this week we were just really focused very closely on his mercy because of this cry from this beggar who acutely understands, uniquely understands the brokenness of our world in a way that I don’t think we think about too much, our own state, our own, our own brokenness, our stuckness, our, our, the messiness of our lives, um, that require God’s mercy. Um, so I’m thankful for passages like this.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah. Um, so this next question, I’m not sure it’s a fair question.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh, here we go then. All right, the unfair question.
Pastor Brian Martin: Well, but I think you’ll understand what I’m getting at nonetheless.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Okay.
How to read the gospels well
Pastor Brian Martin: So in this story. Um, and it’s funny, I feel like the word story sometimes gets put under attack. Like, I think there are true stories like..
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh, yeah, it’s an account. Yeah. Yeah. It’s an account of something that happened. But you know, you know, we say tell the story of what happened. We don’t mean tell us lies. We mean.
Pastor Brian Martin: Just or fairy tales or whatever.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah, right.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah. I just mean the true story in this true story. Why did Jesus give sight instead of, for example, explaining to him the gospel. Like, and we have other gospel accounts where Jesus addresses this I suppose, not specifically with this guy, but like.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: So you’re asking, well, let me let me let me clarify here. You’re asking, why does Jesus give this man sight instead of explaining how to be saved?
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Well, so explaining the gospel, explaining the good news is not the fullness of the story of the good news of Jesus is his life. So they would not have shared in the first century when Jesus was alive, the gospel the same way we share it, because he would not say to this man, well, trust that my death is for you, right? He wouldn’t say it in the same way we would. So the gospel is being lived out and formed. And in this case, this, Jesus doesn’t have to say, here’s what will happen for you. If you have faith right now that I am who I say I am, if you trust in me, you will receive your sight. Why doesn’t he have to explain that? Because the man is already expressing that faith. Your faith has made you well. Yes, this man has already transformed in heart and so and is crying out and receives exactly what he’s asking for. And not, not not just because God is merciful to him physically, but as an illustration of what has happened to him spiritually. He has gained his sight. And so that’s, that’s the that’s the beauty of what’s happening here is that it’s happening at two levels, right? As, as all Jesus miracles are, all Jesus, all of Jesus miracles have a spiritual message behind them that show us spiritual realities that are just as real as physical realities. It’s showing us spiritual realities, but showing us a world we can’t see otherwise. It’s revealing, uh, revealing the truth of, of God, of, of the gospel. Um, so that I know that I’m spiritually blind. That I, you know, blessed are the poor in spirit. Right. So poverty is a, is a, is a way of looking at poverty or experiencing poverty is a way of realizing that we don’t have what we need and that we’re all spiritually poor in a sense, which is an aspect of this that’s also in this story, because he’s a blind beggar. Um, but mostly it’s focused on his sight, which is why I focus mostly on the sight that he receives, because that’s the that’s the real illustration there.
Pastor Brian Martin: And I think it would be completely reasonable to assume this was not the only blind man Jesus was ever around.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh, no.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: We have other accounts of him healing other blind people.
Pastor Brian Martin: For sure, but he still didn’t heal all of them is part of my point.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Oh, yes. Right.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yes. So I think that’s an important thing for us to remember too. Like Jesus didn’t come just to make all the sick people not sick anymore. That’s right. That was never the point. And, and I think one of the reasons the crowds were big and then small is because they thought the point was, yeah, here’s this magician or whatever who can heal stuff. And they were just there for the thing and not for the person and not for the message and not for the truth. They were just there for the thing they could get out of it. They were there for the free lunch. They were there for the, you know, whatever.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: In fact, that’s what we’re told. If you go, if you go to the account of Jesus feeding the 5000, you’ll see that same people, they race around the lake to the other side and they say, hey, Jesus, can you do more miracles? They’re looking for breakfast, right? They just want the next meal. They don’t actually want what’s behind it. Jesus doesn’t feed them. That’s, that’s the part of that story we don’t tell very often, right? But the same people he fed loaves and fishes to, he didn’t feed again because they missed the point of the bread. Yeah. And so because they missed the point of the bread, there wasn’t more bread. He had to teach them something else by removing bread from them. He taught them something. And again, we don’t like to talk about that sort of thing. But the truth is, as you said, there were lots of miracles Jesus could have done. He wasn’t on a miracle mission. He was on a mission to save the world through his death and resurrection, and teaching the kingdom of God that you’ll enter into. And to the degree that the miracles helped with that, then he did them. Um, but yeah, uh, that doesn’t mean we should be less generous with people. Um, but it does mean, I think to your point, it does mean we should be pretty clear when we do what we do as a church, that we are a gospel proclaiming organization, right? And we as a church are not, we’re not, we’re not just here to help people, uh, have a little bit better life without on their way to hell without knowing Jesus. Our goal is to help them to see Jesus. And if in helping people to see Jesus, we help others physically along the way and as we should. Um, fantastic. But the goal is that they would have eternal flourishing. I heard John Piper say that we, uh, one time or maybe I read it, I don’t remember exactly, but he said something. We care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering. I’m paraphrasing. No, but that’s something like that.
Pastor Brian Martin: That’s a phenomenal point. Like, yeah, because it’s one of the to me, it’s actually one of the best sort of counterarguments to the problem of evil is the eternality of the human soul. That, you know, temporary suffering, if you look at it from an eternal perspective, is different, if you think this life is all you have, then yeah, God looks pretty unfair. But if you realize that people are eternal. Then sometimes suffering is actually a way to eternal…
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah.
Pastor Brian Martin: Better betterment, betterment. But you know, a better, eternal situation I guess.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: The pain is … To quote Lewis again in this podcast. Pain is God’s megaphone to a deaf world. Deaf world. Yeah. So the idea that that God is using the suffering to bring people to, uh, to an understanding of who he is and his need and our need for him to show us our blindness and our, and our need on the side of the road, as you, you know, as it were. Um, that’s what God’s doing with suffering. It’s hard. Now we’re getting into a full theology of suffering, which is a very difficult thing to form. But if you look at it biblically, you’ll see God’s using it all. And, and this, this man on the side of the road is a very good example of that.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah. Yep. Mhm. Well, as we come back into Luke, what do we need to remember or understand about the genre of scripture that we’re in, in, in a gospel in order to get the most out of reading it. And even if you could even comment on this, like any tools to help with that or articles you would read or whatever.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah. Gospel literature is unique in that it is not strictly biography.
Pastor Brian Martin: Right. Elements of biography.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: There are elements. I mean, it’s biographical. It’s biographical of Jesus ministry. But it is a it’s theologically driven. So the, the, the accounts that are selected and put together by the different writers Matthew, Mark, Luke, John are put together for the purpose of, of teaching the theological truths of the kingdom of God and what Jesus has accomplished. Um, all of them are, are sort of, um, cross, they’re cross stories. They’re, um, they’re, uh, stories of Jesus march to the cross and what he accomplished on the cross with the prelude of about a three year ministry of his life. And in the case of Luke, um, a little bit of his birth, a couple of chapters of that, but mostly three years of ministry that lead to a cross. And every gospel writer is looking to communicate, um, the theology of what that cross accomplishes through their book. Uh, and, and they’re very, they’re, they’re going after it through eyewitnesses. We know this, they’re not just putting together stories. This is not legendary. Luke tells us this right up front, um, that he, you know, oh most excellent Theophilus, I’m gone to find the eyewitnesses to make sure that the faith you have, you can have certainty of it. Yeah. Right. So that’s the point of Luke, uh, is that we would have certainty in our faith. And he goes to eyewitnesses and the book is filled, filled with, uh, with pointers to the fact that that he did, in fact, put together these accurate accounts of what happened with Jesus. Uh, you know, you have characters that will be named in stories. Um, we’re about to have one just this next week with Zacchaeus. Why does Zacchaeus get named but not the man on the side of the road? Probably because Zacchaeus was the eyewitness account that he went to receive the information from. Yeah, right. Otherwise, he would have just been the short man in the tree. Right. But he’s not, um, this blind beggar on the side of the road. Probably not the source of the story. Uh, that was probably told by someone else.
Pastor Brian Martin: Good point.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: But there were, there are people around, and, um. So. So what are we looking at here? We’re looking at theologically driven biographical information of Jesus ministry leading to the cross told through eyewitness testimony. And I, I’m not sure I could put together a better description of what Luke is or really… Now John is a little different than that. John is mostly, um, personal recounting because John was there. Um, so they’re all a little bit different, but that would be what Luke is. And so when I read Luke, I’m looking for, I read with the utmost confidence in the accuracy of what I’m looking at or what I’m reading. Um, and, uh, and we also have to remember, um, that the, because of the, the eyewitness testimony, uh, nature of the Gospels, we need to remember that, um, that’s helpful for understanding the differences in the stories because people will see things from a little bit different perspectives and tell the stories in slightly different ways because eyewitness testimony, they’re not contradictory. It’s just that they’re looking at it from a different angle or whatever. Um, and so those tensions can often be relieved simply by understanding that that’s just how eyewitness testimony works. Mhm. but yeah, no, great, great question because it is important for us to hold that in our minds. Yeah. Especially in a time when there are so many detractors who simply point at the, the Bible and say, oh, it’s just a bunch of legends that’s just legendary works. And, uh, you know, if they want to be pejorative about it, they might say fairy tales, but they would, you know, they would talk about, um, this legendary stuff. You know, we have legendary stuff in antiquity. We have.
Pastor Brian Martin: Absolutely.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Legendary works. They look nothing like the Gospels, right? The Gospels look like history told. Um, and that’s just a fact. So you can say anything you want about the Bible, but if you actually study the Bible, study, study these Gospels, you will see, uh, the earmarks of, uh, accurate historicity all over them. And it’s a wonderful thing.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah, this is maybe a weird connection, but do you remember when, um, oh, what was his name? It would have been 20 ish years ago. 25 years ago. Dan Brown wrote what was it?
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Da Vinci Code.
Pastor Brian Martin: Da Vinci Code, right. And I always thought that was so fascinating comparing to what you just said, because people, people were getting all like in a tizzy, as if The Da Vinci Code was revealing some alternate history.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Right Yeah.
Pastor Brian Martin: And, and so it did make some people question certain things about Christianity and the history of America and all these things. And I’m like, he told you it was fiction. It’s in the fiction section. Like he, you get what I’m saying? Like that’s completely different than the Gospels who were there. They’re presenting it as fact.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Yeah.
Pastor Brian Martin: As accounts as witnesses. Yep. Like you. So then you have to give me more information to counter why you don’t think that, why they’re lying about that, right. Whereas this other thing that was clearly said to be fiction then people were taking on as truth. I’m like, this is bizarro world, you know what I’m saying?
Pastor Kyle Bushre: That’s. Yeah, that’s everything. Anytime, anything, some popular thing comes out, people get confused by it. Um, but yeah, there’s, there’s the Gospels, uh, the history, the historical information artfully told, theologically driven in the gospels is, uh, has all the earmarks of trustworthiness as you work through them. Right. And, um, I enjoy pointing some of those things out as we as we go along. Um, every once in a while, it’s, it’s fun to, to, to, to note these things. We don’t always do that when we’re, when they’re, when we’re preaching through a gospel like this. Uh, but I, I, I can just assure you, um, the Gospels are very, uh, well told, uh, biographical historical accounts that we can trust.
Pastor Brian Martin: Yeah. And that’s part of the good news in a sense, is that we can trust it.
Pastor Kyle Bushre: Absolutely.
Pastor Brian Martin: It’s good stuff. Well, thanks as always, Kyle. Appreciate your time and your thoughts. And thanks to everybody for joining us on the Calvary Callback. We hope this time was an encouragement to you. And whether you are a part of our Calvary family, or if you’re listening from somewhere else in the world, we invite you to join us in our mission to pursue passion for Christ and compassion for people, for Kyle Bushre, I’m Brian Martin. We’ll catch you next time on the Callback.
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