June 26th 2016 Gospel: Luke 9:51-62 ‘Not a straight path’

The Gospel text today begins a new section of Luke’s Gospel, one where there are many ups and downs for Jesus and the disciples as he ‘set his face towards Jerusalem’. This journey to Jerusalem will not be a straight path for them. It will be filled with many banquets and opportunities for teaching but also filled with moments of rejection and struggle; and so it is for the Christian journey, it is not a straight path.

Why do the Samaritans reject him? There was no love lost between Jews and Samaritans and the disciples want to punish them. But perhaps the Samaritans were fearful of the consequences of associating with ‘heretics’ who were on their way to Jerusalem to challenge a particular system that held power over them. It is interesting how Jesus deals with the disciples who want to rain down fire on the Samaritans, he rebukes them and not long after this he will tell the parable of the Good Samaritan in which the Samaritan becomes the hero of the story. This has much to say to Christians today about the right kind of attitude towards those we consider to be ‘heretics’ or who differ in opinion from ourselves. Jesus respects their position and moves on to the next village.

The second part of the Gospel is harsh but reminds us that His call is one that radically uproots people and it is a difficult walk that should deeply challenge us if we are really living the message of the Gospel. 

Sunday 19th June @ Luke 9:18-24 ‘What kind of Messiah?’

To declare Jesus the Messiah was not only a challenge to the religious authorities of the time but it was also a political statement. As Messiah, Jesus is the Anointed One, The King of Israel, and immediately becomes a threat to Herod and the Roman Empire. It is no wonder Jesus ordered the disciples to keep quiet for fear of early opposition from the authorities.

A deeper reflection of may conclude that Jesus did not want the wrong sort of success. He gives the disciples a new title in today’s Gospel: ‘Son of Man’ and a new definition of Messiahship. Jesus does not want to be a leader of a violent revolt against an establishment. He has rejected that sort of power earlier in the Gospel. Jesus leads in a different way, the least are the greatest and the poor own the Kingdom. The message of His way is of a great reversal and this forces his followers to re-examine what ‘Messiah’ (and disciple) actually mean. There can be no violence, no hunger for power, yet it is also not a passive way. Jesus still opposes suffering and evil. His leadership is one of solidarity with those who suffer and who are oppressed and that way is not an easy journey.

“Jesus did the ultimate violence to violence: he laid it bare, and still did not succumb to it…. People like Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, by having violence turn against them, they unmask it and thereby begin to undo it. It is to this costly alternative that Jesus is inviting his disciples both in ancient times and today.” (Justo Gonzalez)

June 12th 2016 ~ Luke 7:36-8:3 “Celebrate Mercy”

In today’s Gospel Jesus is invited to Simon the Pharisee’s house for dinner when an ‘unwanted’ guest arrives. This woman has a bad reputation in the town; we are told nothing of her past except that she was a sinner and that she is carrying something that she wants to be free from. There are many things to say about the text but perhaps today we can focus on her celebration. The woman is able to receive God’s grace in contrast to the Pharisee who is unable to grasp what has happened. Those present find it difficult to comprehend a God who accepts sinners and they are also finding it difficult to accept someone who celebrates forgiveness so joyfully and extravagantly as this woman does.

Often when we receive forgiveness from others we are unable to forgive ourselves, unable to free ourselves from our own mistakes. We can take a good example from the woman in today’s Gospel who celebrates abundantly when she is freed from whatever it was that she was carrying. 

The last lines of the Gospel remind us of the prominent role of ‘many’ women who covered the expenses of Jesus and the twelve and journeyed with them.

“God's mercy can make even the driest land become a garden, can restore life to dry bones... Let us be renewed by God's mercy, let us be loved by Jesus, let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives too; and let us become agents of this mercy, channels through which God can water the earth.” (Pope Francis)

June 5th 2016 ~ Luke 7:11-17 “Restoration”

In this section of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus speaks through his actions and today we hear about a miracle of resurrection. This widow has nothing left, her security and her loved ones are gone. Jesus reaches out to her, crossing cultural boundaries, as to come in contact with a dead body according to the laws of the time would make one ‘unclean’. The crowd must have been shocked as Jesus moved towards the bier. No one approached Jesus or asked him to intervene in this situation. He acts out of deep sympathy and compassion for the woman who has lost her only son.

Often we can give up on people, those who suffer addiction, refugees, prisoners, people who endure one tragedy after another. In today’s Gospel we see an example of Jesus restoring someone to life. He reaches through the social, moral and cultural stigmas of the time and performs the ultimate miracle. We can ask ‘did he really do this?’; ‘is this possible?’ but one clear  interpretation of the passage for us today is that Jesus restores people; He restores life to the man; He restores the son to his mother; He restores the crowd’s faith through his deep compassion. Through Jesus the crowd experience God’s presence among them in a time of total despair. Today we might recall moments where God reached into our desperate situations and restored life.

“Our task is not to protest the world into a certain moral conformity, but to attract the world to the saving beauty of Christ.” Brian Zahnd