Lectio: Luke 4:21-30
January 29, 2010
29 January, 2010
Then he started explaining, “This passage of scripture has just been fulfilled — while you were listening!”
Those present were giving their opinions of him and were surprised by the gracious words he spoke. They also said, “But this is Joseph’s son, right?”
Jesus replied to them, “The next line you’ll give me is , ‘Doctor, heal your own self!’ or ‘Do here in your hometown, too, everything we heard you did in Capernaum!’ ” Then he said, “This is the way it is: prophets never get a hearing among those who ‘know them best.’ The truth is, there were lots of widows in Israel during the prophet Elijah’s lifetime, when there was a severe three and a half year drought and widespread famine. But God didn’t send Elijah to any of them; he was sent only to a widow of Sarepta in the region of Sidon — a non-Jew. And there were lots of lepers in Israel during the prophet Elisha’s lifetime. But none of them were healed except Naaman from Syria — a non-Jew.”
When the crowd heard this they erupted in anger, took action, and drove Jesus outside the city, leading him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, intending to throw him over the edge. But he made his way between them and left.
____________
We have no health insurance — yes, we’re involuntarily one of that large crowd — and own one car that’s shared between 3 adults since our son totaled his own car a few weeks back. Make that, we “owned one car.”
Yesterday Jody drove to her annual check-up at a public health clinic not far from where we live. While she was inside waiting to be seen, a young man (age 30) was gunned down just outside the clinic while driving a car (which was not his). As he was dying, he lost control of the vehicle and it plowed into ours, knocking it off the street and onto the sidewalk against a tree. This was the first homicide in Cincinnati for 2010.
When I arrived at the scene in a borrowed car the clinic was still in lock-down mode (with Jody inside) and our car and the area around it were taped off as a crime scene, so it was several several hours in bone-chilling weather before it was released to be towed away.
Losing two cars in quick succession is for us a major loss because, quite frankly, we don’t have money for another. On the one hand something valuable to us was stripped away — and it feels like a number of things have been stripped away of late — yet on the other hand a much greater stripping occurred in the murder of a young man. Most things can eventually be replaced. Not so with people.
____________
Whenever I come to this dramatic passage from Luke 4, I’m always challenged by the huge loss that takes place. The people in the synagogue have just heard a stunning pronouncement from Jesus, yet their previous experience and knowledge of him (“Isn’t this Joe’s boy?!”) prevents them from receiving the one person they most need to receive. Furthermore their secret challenge for Jesus to produce something off the hook (“Do here in your hometown what we heard you did in Capernaum!”) prevents them from receiving what he actually might like to give them.
And because of their narrow understanding of Jesus, they flip very quickly from wonder to bewilderment to anger, driving him from the synagogue out to a spot where they can murder him for his “unorthodoxy.”
When I read this I’m reminded that I don’t have the luxury of framing the story as their actual loss. (This isn’t a story about good guys and villains.) The sobering truth is that this is just as much a story about my potential loss. God reminds me that I must be open to seeing Jesus in a different way. God reminds me that my lack of openness will only lead to questioning, skepticism and anger. I’m reminded that God is always pushing, pressing into whatever openness and receptivity of heart are present, and if that means going around me and into some strange places (like to a widow outside Israel or a leper outside Israel), well, God is God.
The Jesus I want to hold onto would give us health insurance, would protect the one car we own, wouldn’t strip anything away, wouldn’t allow people to be gunned down on a street. In short, the Jesus I want to hold onto would do everything according to my desires. If this is the Jesus I want, then of course this is the Jesus I get, but it’s not much, and because Jesus will not suffer being caged, I’ll end up bewildered or angry like his hometown crowd, missing the larger work of God in my life and in the world. God is at work this day. There is redemption waiting for the family of the slain man, for those who shot him, for our family as well. This is for all of us “the year of God’s favor.”
Comments
One Response to “Lectio: Luke 4:21-30”
Got something to say?
I’m reminded of The Problem of Pain by Lewis. In moments of happiness I have often prayed that God will hold nothing back in reminding me of His place in my life. Those prayers used to frighten me. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. If I am able, I will.