I’m sure you’ve likely heard or read Jeremiah 29:11. It’s a great verse. It really is!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

It’s an inspiring verse of hope and an encouragement to trust in God. He will provide for us and take care of us. God has our best interests in mind. He doesn’t want us to fail but to succeed and prosper as his people.

But let’s put this verse back into context, and it might just be even more relevant for us. (Read the full letter from God/Jeremiah to the exiles here.)

God, through his prophet Jeremiah, is writing a letter to the Jews who are in exile. They have been conquered by the Babylonian Empire, and thousands of them now have been uprooted and forced to live as foreigners in Babylon.

Imagine your entire life being torn from you. Imagine an invading army destroys your hometown, burns down your church, demolishes your schools, and takes you and all your friends hundreds of miles away. You don’t know the culture or the language or the religion or the food. You have no rights and none of the comforts of home. What would you do?

Would you fight, resist, and rebel? Would you assimilate as quickly as possible, go along to get along?  Would you do just enough to get by, holding onto the hope that any day now God would deliver you and bring you back home? Or would you be somewhere in between?

In Jeremiah’s day there was a little of all of that. And in this letter God addresses all these groups with all their different outlooks and attitudes.

God tells them:

• Don’t stop living your life. Marry, have kids, build homes, cause you’re gonna be here a while.
• Seek the peace and prosperity of Babylon; if it prospers then you will also prosper.
• Don’t stop believing. Hold onto that feeling. (Just seeing if you’re paying attention)
• Don’t listen to those who give you a false hope that it will all be over soon.
• Don’t listen to those who are inciting violence and rebellion. It won’t end well for them.
• Get comfortable because you’re going to be here for 70 years.

God wants his people to still be his people even though they are in exile. Even without the Temple, they can still worship. They can still pray. They can still live out the covenantal laws. They can still seek him with all their heart. The true test of their faith in him is this: can they remain faithful to God even if they aren’t the ones to directly benefit from that faithfulness, but rather for the sake of their children or grandchildren?

God promises to be found by them, even in Babylon. God will be found by us, even in the midst of political turmoil and a global pandemic. We are living as foreigners and exiles, but we must continue to seek God with our whole heart, and we must not put our trust in the false hope offered by others.

God has plans for his people – including our own children and grandchildren. What choices can we make today that will improve the lives of those who come after us? What legacy do we want to leave for the future generations?

God makes one thing clear to his people. The exile will end. Sure enough, right at 70 years after the initial wave of Israelites were taken into captivity (609BC), Babylon was overthrown by Persia, whose emperor, Cyrus, released the people of Israel to go back home (539BC).

God is faithful. God keeps his promises. God has plans for us, too. This pandemic will end. The political turmoil will pass. Your “now” is not your “forever.” But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hope placed in God in never a false or misplaced hope.

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Feel free to download these images and set them as your phone’s lock screen as you focus on Jeremiah 29 this week.

Hey Jesus, I have a question for you. I heard something you said recently, and I think I need a little explanation. You said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.”

Yes. What don’t you understand about that?

Well, it’s just that I hear a different message in our churches and from Christians online. I hear pastors on TV and the internet talk about how God is supposed to bless us with money and whatever else we want. They toss around the phrase, “Name it, and claim it.” They point to the time you said we will get whatever we want if we ask for it in faith. So…if I don’t get what I want, then doesn’t that mean I don’t have enough faith? Doesn’t that mean the poor simply aren’t faithful enough for God to bless them?

I see. I think those people are referring to what I told my disciples before I went to the cross. During our last Passover meal together I told them I would send the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to them and through his power they would do even greater things than they saw me do. This was all for the advancement of the Kingdom so the church would grow and thrive in Judea and Rome. This has nothing to do with personal wealth or blessing. In fact, I told them they would also face the same kind of hatred and suffering as me. I was poor. I suffered greatly. I didn’t live a comfortable, easy middle-class life. If “name it, and claim it” were true, then I guess I didn’t have enough faith when I asked the Father to let the cup pass from me.

No, let me make this clear. A person’s wealth and status are no indication of their level of faith or of God’s blessing and approval.

Ok, I think I understand that the whole “prosperity gospel” isn’t what you taught. But to call the poor “blessed?” I mean, from what I hear they are only poor because they’re too lazy. They would rather live off of unemployment or disability checks than go to work on a regular basis. We live in a world that rewards personal responsibility and work ethic. Isn’t that how we solve poverty?

Ah yes, laziness. The unpardonable sin of a capitalistic society. Do you remember when we passed a man born blind? The disciples asked me who had sinned – the man or his parents. Do you recall my answer?

Um…you said neither?

Right. My disciples wanted to blame the victim or his parents for his circumstance. It’s not always “personal responsibility” that gets someone into the terrible situation. It’s not always a smoker who gets lung cancer. It’s not always a drunk driver who gets killed in a car wreck. Just because someone is poor doesn’t mean they’re lazy. We want to look for easy answers to complex problems. But “time and chance happen to them all.” If someone can live more easily on an unemployment or disability check from the government than they could working full time, doesn’t that say something about the greediness of employers?

Whoa, Jesus you’re starting to sound socialist. We believe in free market capitalism. Even Paul said that if someone doesn’t work, then they shouldn’t eat. Right?

Yes, and so I made all 5,000 men wash dishes to pay for the meal I fed them.

Oh….

Paul was writing to my followers in Thessaloniki. They thought I was going to come back at any moment. They believed my triumphant return was imminent, so many were quitting their jobs and becoming idle waiting around for me. They became a burden to others when they were fully capable to providing for themselves. It was a fundamental misunderstanding that Paul was trying to correct.

But you are still equating poverty with laziness. Do you remember the story I told about the vineyard owner who went out at different points in the day to hire workers?

Oh yeah! And the lazy ones who got hired last were paid the same as those who had slaved away under the hot sun all day. That still doesn’t really seem right to me…

Who told you they were lazy?

I mean, they weren’t hired until late in the day. They obviously slept in and goofed off all morning, right? That’s how I heard it.

But that’s not what I said. I never said those workers were lazy. I simply said that no one else had hired them. I never gave a reason. You read into that. This is a story about how the Gentiles would be invited into the Kingdom and receive the full blessing of salvation right alongside the Jews. But it also has real world implications. Those hired last still needed to feed their families. And the vineyard owner had the right to do what he wanted with his own money–and that meant being more generous to his workers.

Yeah, so that’s why we have a minimum wage.

Have you tried living on $7.50/hour? Didn’t you see the recent headline stating minimum wage is not enough to afford the average rent in any single state in the US? The CEOs are making billions while the workers are living in poverty. This is the exact kind of behavior that my prophets scolded the leaders of Israel for. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. This is not sustainable.

Ok, Jesus. It’s starting to sound like you don’t believe in The American Dream.

And what is this “American Dream?”

Well, from what I can find on Wikipedia…

The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals (democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement” regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.

You know, the whole – spouse, 2.5 kids, suburban home with a dog and white picket fence, a steady job and a 401K so we can retire early and enjoy life.

Oh, so the American Dream ultimately ends in laziness.

Wait, no–

Do you remember another story I told, sometimes called “The Rich Fool?” Maybe you should go back and read it for yourself real quick:

“The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

If you want to talk about laziness, look at the man in this story. He didn’t plant the entire field himself. He didn’t tend the crops by himself. He didn’t harvest all by himself. He didn’t even build the barns by himself. He most certainly had workers to help with the entire process. But he only gives credit to himself. He only thinks of himself and how he won’t have to work anymore. He could have given his workers a bonus. He could have fed the town. He could have given seeds to other struggling farmers. He could have done so much good, but be was selfish and lazy, and it cost him his life.

Read also what my brother James wrote:

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

It’s not a sin to be rich. I had many wealthy patrons supplying for our financial needs during my ministry on earth. The earliest church met in the homes of wealthier believers. But they provided for each others’ needs. There were no needy persons among them – which is exactly what I wanted. Money is not evil, but my servant Paul was right in warning how the love of money leads to all sorts of evil. Wealth and power was one of the temptations Satan flaunted before me, but it would have required worshiping him. Many people still face that same temptation today, even in the church.

My kingdom has always thrived away from seats of wealth and power. Even today my church is growing in the global South and East while it is shrinking, or being pruned rather, in the global North and West. My mission was to bring good news to the poor. The good news is that the kingdom of heaven is theirs! But often good news for one group is bad news to another. The kingdom of heaven is for the poor, but the rich will find it incredibly difficult to enter.

Huh, so I guess you were serious about what you said…

If you’re like me–a kid who grew up in church his whole life with Bible classes and VBS and Bible Bowl, etc. etc…–then you’ve probably heard this definition of “parable:”

An earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

Yep. My Bible class teachers always had to make a distinction between a Parable, a story told by Jesus to communicate a deeper meaning about life in the Kingdom of God, and a Fable, a cute little children’s story meant to get us to behave. There is a fundamental difference between the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the story of The Boy who Cried Wolf.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Parables lately. I am a big reader of fiction, specifically sci-fi and fantasy with the occasional YA novel or mystery/thriller thrown in. Right now I have the honor and joy of reading The Lord of the Rings to my nine year old son at night before bed. We’re in The Return of the King, and I don’t really want it to be over. He is experiencing this story for the first time, and in a way I’m also experiencing it anew. Tolkien drew a lot from his experiences in war, and it’s obvious to me as an adult that he is purposefully working in some bigger themes about good and evil, war and peace, heroism and bravery, faith and doubt, death and resurrection, betrayal and redemption. But I don’t expect my nine year old to catch all of that on his first experience of it. All he knows is that the odds are terribly stacked against Aragorn, Frodo, Gandalf, and their companions.

I love this quote from renowned author G. K. Chesterton:

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

Chesterton, Tolkien, Lewis–all great story tellers in their own right–are all drawing from the Greatest Story Teller. I don’t say that lightly. The Parables of Jesus are master works in storytelling. They transcend time, space, culture, language, and even religion. We have spent 2,000 years plumbing the depths of these stories, and we still haven’t found the sea floor. There is always another stone to overturn, another corner to round, another hill to climb, another viewing angle to enjoy.

Are the Parables “earthly stories with heavenly meanings?” Yes. But they’re also earthly stories with earthly meanings. Here’s what I mean.

In the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep in his flock and goes on a search for the one sheep that had gone astray. This is obviously about the lengths God in Christ would go to in order to rescue humanity. However, isn’t it also an example of how we should treat each other? In Galatians 6 and James 5 we are encouraged to chase after the brother or sister who has gone astray and restore them in love. Sometimes we’re the lost sheep. Sometimes we’re among the larger flock. Sometimes we’re the shepherd.

Or what about the Parable of the Prodigal Son (a poorly named one, in my opinion). Sometimes we’re the lost son who wants to find his way back into the family. Sometimes we’re the father who should be looking for our lost ones and welcoming them back with open arms and a party. Other times we’re the older brother who withholds grace and gets indignant at the forgiveness of others. But shouldn’t this story inspire us to be more like the father and less like the older brother in our dealings with each other?

Shouldn’t the Parable of the Vineyard Workers inspire business owners and employers to be more generous in their hiring and in their payment?

Shouldn’t the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus warn those of us who are rich to get over own own entitlement and to give to the poor and destitute who are right outside our door?

Shouldn’t the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant challenge us to be as merciful towards others as God has been towards us, and maybe even LITERALLY cancel debts?

These stories from Jesus teach us about God, absolutely. But they also teach us about our own human nature. They teach us what it looks like (or should or shouldn’t look like) to actually live in the Kingdom of Heaven.

I think the problem is that so many of us Christians have over-spiritualized and/or individualized the things in Scripture. We hear the teachings of Jesus, but walk away thinking he didn’t really mean what he said, or his way of life wouldn’t work in the 21st Century, or we can take things figuratively all the time, or it’s all about me and my individual relationship with God.

The goal of Jesus’ Parables was to present the truths of the Kingdom of God to the people in such a way that only those who really stopped to think them through would begin to understand their deeper meaning and implication. The Parable of the Sower is a Parable about Parables. Not everyone is going to get them! We’ve had two millennia to wrestle with these stories, and we still struggle to sit with them long enough to really understand.

I’m not saying I fully get them either. I’m not trying to place myself on a pedestal. But when we hear the Parable of the Good Samaritan and come away thinking Jesus is just telling us to be a good person who helps people sometimes, we’re missing the bigger point.

I don’t want to live in a world in which the Parable of the Good Samaritan was never told. I don’t want to be a part of the church that doesn’t revisit the Parable of the Prodigal Son frequently. I don’t want to be a part of an economic and religious system that hasn’t been shaped by the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. These stories are not just life changing, they’re world changing.

They don’t just teach us about God. They teach us about ourselves.

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So what’s your favorite Parable and why? What parables do you think we should go more in depth? Let me know in the comments, and subscribe so you never miss a post!