After having laid out a vision of the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus begins to move north in his ministry, out of the Jewish heartland and into the border regions.
He has an encounter with a Roman Centurion who asks that his slave be healed. Jesus heals the slave. Jesus encounters a woman in a village near Endor (where the famous seer lived during the time of Saul) who has lost her only son and Jesus raises the woman's son from the dead. He has emissaries from John the Baptizer who ask him if he really is the Messiah. Jesus tells the emissaries to report to John what they see happening with their own eyes and let John decide.
And then Jesus talks about the meaning of John's ministry and challenges those who would not receive it. Jesus uses an odd turn of phrase about how the generation he is speaking to is like children in the square - complaining that they played the flute but others refused to dance, or they wailed and the others would not weep.
An odd turn of phrase isn't it?
Essentially I've understood to this to mean that Jesus is taking people to task for trying to tell God how to be God. Playing the flute for people and expecting them to dance - perhaps while they are weeping is to try to force a group of people into a behavior that is exactly the opposite of what they need; or to weep and expect others to join in with you when they are celebrating and then be angry with them because they wouldn't do what you wanted is to try to force other people into your own mold.
Jesus' point appears to be that we do this with God. We want a certain kind of God all the while claiming that we are God's followers. What we're really doing though is only following God when God is taking us where we have decided we want to go.
We want a Messiah, but when the Messiah shows up doing all the things that prophets promised would the Messiah would do, our first response is not to follow, but to question.
There was a Saturday night live movie spoof based on the life of Jesus, that must have been shown recently (judging from the number of times I'm seeing it on my friend's Facebook feeds). It is a parody in the style of a Quentin Tarentino film . The parody is in the "historical revenge" genre and shows a resurrected Jesus taking revenge on the Jewish leaders, the Romans, and Judas; all in the bloodiest, most violent gun using way. The visual key is Jesus wearing the crown of thorns, carrying a backpack cross and using a very large assault weapon to extract his revenge and to even the score.
It's not as funny as I think the people who made the parody imagined. It's insulting - not so much to God (who seems to have a great deal of patience towards us and our sophomoric humor) as it is to any number of us who want a Messiah who will "kick butt and take the names of our enemies". Our enemies…
In the beginning of this chapter of Luke, Jesus is expanding the reach of his ministry and is starting to connect with people that the Jews of his time didn't expect the Messiah to connect with. And he's connecting by healing them, freeing them, releasing them from sin. He's not taking revenge for the slights that the gentile people have shown toward the chosen people of God. He's not acting like the Messiah of their dreams. He's acting like the Messiah of the prophets.
So here's something to meditate on today… how are you and I in our own day dreaming of a Messiah that responds to our dreams and not to those of the prophets?
Do you remember this quote?
You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. — Anne Lamott
It's worth meditating on that today I think - especially in light of this seventh chapter.
Bishop as I read the four stories in this chapter, I hadn't picked up on what you've commented on here so thanks!
ReplyDeleteI did however notice something in the story of the sinful woman. One of my ministries is taking church to and spending time with some of the folks at Eleanor Slater Hospital. There are a few of us who accompany and help Rev Sean Manchester. Over the course of time one really gets to know the patience in a certain kind of intimate way. I say intimate because these good folks suffer from either a number of mental disorders or severe physical disabilities and for some, both. They are who they are because they are not able to be any other way. What I see and experience is a sort of total honesty.
So a short story relating to just one of the patience whom I was reminded of while reading about the sinful woman. This poor woman has lost all of her faculties except one, her faith. It is truly amazing to watch her participate in the service we provide. Her face lights up, her demeanor changes and she is most grateful that we are there spending time and worshiping together with her and our other friends there. She can hardly speak and it is difficult to understand her, except during worship. She knows at what point in the service to stand even though no one is asked to, some of them can't. During "The Lords Prayer" She holds the hand of the person sitting next to her whomever they are. So here is where "The Sinful Woman" story comes in. One Sunday while I was helping to set up the altar, she made her way toward me. I saw her big smile headed straight for me. She then leaned over a bit and whispered in my ear "I was an (expletive) this morning and I'm going to see the people that I wasn't nice to and ask them for forgiveness. Wow! I was blown over. There was "The Sinful Woman" falling on Jesus's feet and asking for forgiveness. God at work right in my midst working and living in the poor folks who know this place as home.