Lenten Perspective: The Narrow Door

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The Narrow Door

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.

Mark 1:15 (NRSV)

I try to be good enough

But I'm nothing without Your love

Savior, please keep saving me

From "Savior, Please" by Josh Wilson

Jesus has been traveling throughout the region, announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God and challenging people to change their hearts and their lives.  One day, someone approaches Jesus and asks, "Lord, will only a few be saved?"¹  Basically, this person wants to know whether or not only a select few people will be allowed to be a part of the Kingdom that Jesus is proclaiming.

So often, Christians approach matters of faith from an exclusivist mindset.  We tend to think about either the Kingdom of God or Heaven as if it was the most exclusive party in the cosmos.  We imagine ourselves standing in line at the pearly gates, hoping and praying that the bouncer, who may or may not be St. Peter, lets us in.  Many then understand salvation to be the VIP pass that ensures one's admission to the party.  Christians tend to think that they are the only people who have this special pass, which they obtained by praying a certain prayer or by assenting to certain theological beliefs or by doing good works, and that all other people will be turned away.

Jesus replies, "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able."  He goes on to say that there will come a time when this "narrow door" will be shut and that the people on the outside will pound on the door, begging to be allowed to come inside.  He says that the people on the outside will watch with dismay as people from all around the world are invited to join the party.²

Jesus paints a picture of the Kingdom of God that seems exclusive but strangely pushes back against exclusivism at the same time.  A lot of people who are expecting to be welcomed to the party are being kept out, but a lot of people who are expected to be kept out of the party are being welcomed.  Jesus typically directs such warnings not toward average people on the street, but toward religious people with an exclusivist mindset.³  Such people, especially those who think they already have a foot in the door, so to speak, run the risk of ending up on the outside looking in, while the people they've excluded are invited to come inside.

In the novel The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis tells the story of a group of ghosts from Hell who take a flying bus ride to Heaven.  When they reach their destination and step off the bus, they find Heaven uninhabitable.  Though the residents of Heaven invite - or rather beg - the ghosts to stay and grow accustomed to the environment, most of them choose to get back on the bus for the return trip to Hell, which they find more comfortable.⁴

Religious or not, we all know that the world is not as it should be.  Christians hold on to the hope that Christ will someday return to set all things right in the world.  We can understand the Kingdom of God to be the place where God's will is "done on Earth as it is in Heaven."  I do not believe that a truly loving and gracious God would want to exclude anybody from the Kingdom, but, like Lewis, I do not necessarily think that all people would consider the Kingdom of God to be a habitable environment.  It would be utterly foolish and arrogant of us to assume that our own dreams for the world are the same as God's dreams.  This is why Jesus coupled His good news about the Kingdom of God with a call to repentance, a change of heart and mind that works its way outward.

Many believe that sin is what would keep a person out of the Kingdom of God.  Salvation is then understood to be something that accounts for our wrongdoings, thereby granting us admission to the Kingdom.  Salvation is more than justification.  Justification is what allows us to put our wrongdoings behind us so that we can move forward.  Salvation also includes sanctification, the process by which we are transformed into Kingdom people.  St. Paul writes that, in the Holy Spirit, we are being transformed "from one degree of glory to another" into the image of Christ.⁵

Jesus encourages us to "strive to enter through the narrow door," implying that entering the Kingdom of God involves struggle.  Dr. William Barclay writes, "The Christian way is like a climb up a mountain pathway towards a peak which will never be reached in this world...  For the Christian, life is ever an upward and onward way."⁶  Sanctification is a grueling, lifelong journey we cannot take by ourselves: we need the help of the Holy Spirit.

Please do not think that I am saying that we need to work our way into God's good graces.  I am saying that we need to be individually transformed by God if we want to be a part of a world transformed by God.  Paul writes that salvation is a gracious gift from God that we accept by faith and not something we earn, but he goes on to write that we were created to do good works.⁷  Good works are not the means to the end; good works are the end.  God does not want us to just do good works; God wants us to become people whose inclinations are to do good works.⁸  In other words, God wants us to love each other in the same self-sacrificial way that Christ loved us.⁹

I wonder if maybe one reason the door is narrow is to prevent people from entering the Kingdom of God with an inflated ego.  Jesus says that "some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."¹⁰  We must never allow ourselves to think that we have one foot in the door because of our religious identity.  Sadly, we live in a world where the label Christian does not always connote Christlikeness.  Being conformed to the image of Christ means rethinking everything about ourselves.  We must never fool ourselves into thinking that we already have everything figured out, and we must always be humble enough to admit our need for growth.


Notes:

1. Luke 13:22-23 (NRSV)
2. Luke 13:24-29 (NRSV)
3. Adam Hamilton.  Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics.  2008, Abingdon Press.  p. 116
4. For more thoughts on C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce, check out my Lenten series from 2015.
5. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NRSV)
6. William Barclay.  The Gospel of Luke, Revised Edition.  1975, Westminster Press.  p. 183
7. Ephesians 2:8-10
8. C.S. Lewis.  Mere Christianity.  bk. 3, ch. 2
9. John 13:34-35
10. Luke 13:30 (NRSV)

The photograph of the narrow door was taken by Peter Facey and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Sermon: God of the Valley

Delivered at Bethel United Methodist Church and at Salem United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on February 21, 2016

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

God of the Valley

Audio Version

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.  And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.  Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.  They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.  Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.  Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" - not knowing what he said.  While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud.  Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!"  When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him.  Just then a man from the crowd shouted, "Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child.  Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him.  I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not."  Jesus answered, "You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here."  While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.  And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

Luke 9:28-43a (NRSV)

I will swim in the deep

'Cause You'll be next to me

You're in the eye of the storm

And the calm of the sea

You're never out of reach

From "Let the Waters Rise" by MIKESCHAIR

During the latter half of my years in college and during the first few years after I graduated, I was involved with the Wesley Fellowship, the United Methodist group at the university I attended.  Some of the happiest days of my life were the days I spent with this group on the retreats we took throughout the academic year.  These retreats gave me the opportunity to leave the cares of my life at home and to simply enjoy some time away from everything with my friends.  Some years, at the beginning of the fall semester, we went on a short "mountain getaway" at Asbury Hills, a nearby camp.  At the end of one such mountain getaway, when we gathered for Communion before heading home, Edward, our campus minister, read us a particular story about Jesus.

One day, Jesus and His three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John, hiked up a mountain to pray.  The three disciples were rather sleepy, but they managed to stay awake to witness something amazing.  While praying, Jesus suddenly took on a heavenly appearance: His face changed, and His clothes became brilliantly white.  Moses and Elijah, two of the most important figures from Jewish history, appeared with Jesus, and the three began discussing events yet to unfold in Jerusalem.  Peter, James, and John caught a glimpse of Heaven.  It was a true "mountaintop experience" if there ever was one.

Totally awestruck but ever the first to speak, Peter made a rather odd suggestion.  He said, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  While Peter was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped everyone.  Within the cloud, the three terrified disciples heard a voice say, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!"  Suddenly, the three disciples looked around themselves and saw that everything had returned to normal.  The experience was over.

We don't really know exactly what Peter was trying to say on the mountaintop.  The Bible tells us that Peter, as awestruck as he was, didn't really know exactly what he was trying to say at that moment.  After reading this passage, my friend Edward suggested that what Peter might have been trying to say was, "Let's all stay up here."  Perhaps Peter didn't want that brief intersection between Heaven and Earth to end, so he thought it would be a good idea to enshrine Jesus, Moses, and Elijah on the mountain.  The story of Jesus' Transfiguration was indeed a fitting story to ponder right before heading home from a "mountaintop experience" like a retreat.  When such experiences come to an end, at least part of us wants to stay on the mountaintop.

So often we grow weary of the trials and tribulations of life, so we reach upward toward a transcendent God - a God "up there," high above the world and the chaos therein.  We seek out so-called "mountaintop experiences" so that we can connect with the God "up there."  Churches work very hard to engineer such experiences through dynamic preaching, poignant worship music, and retreats at beautiful natural settings, to help people experience the transcendence of God.  Mountaintop experiences have a profound effect on us, but sadly they can be few and far between in life.  Furthermore, the feelings we feel on the mountaintop are not sustainable.

As much as we want to stay on the mountaintop, we must inevitably descend from the mountain, and soon we will find that the valley is waiting for us.

The next day, when Jesus, Peter, James, and John hiked down the mountain, they found a large crowd gathered around the other nine disciples.  A desperate father approached Jesus and begged Him to help his son, who was suffering the violent torment of a demon that might now be labeled as epilepsy.  He then told Jesus that he first brought his son to the disciples and that they were unable to help him.  Frustrated, Jesus chastises the disciples, saying, "You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you?"  The beauty, awe, wonder, and joy of the mountaintop had given way to the frustration, disappointment, and failure of the valley.  Jesus instructed the man to bring his son to Him and then dealt with the problem himself.

The inevitable comedown after a mountaintop experience can be rather brutal, especially when a person is going through an otherwise difficult season in life.  One spends a few days enjoying life as it should be, before being abruptly thrust back into life as it is.

Later that fall, on the Sunday evening after I returned home from another retreat, I went to Wal-Mart for some reason, perhaps to delay going home for the evening, and I ran into a man I knew from a job I had when I was in college.  He asked me how I was doing, and I replied, as I often do, with a boisterous, "Pretty good!"  It was really more of a programmed response than an outright lie, but I was not telling the truth.  Moments earlier, I was crying in my car.  At that time, I worked for a casino vendor, and, though I didn't really hate my job when I accepted it, what began as a lingering shame for working in a corrupt industry had mutated into a hellish mixture of anxiety, belligerence, and despair that had all but taken over my life.  My crash back to reality had made my usual Sunday night blues a lot worse.

---

One of the most well-known and cherished parts of Scripture is the Twenty-third Psalm.  The psalmist David begins this poem with those beloved words of comfort,

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.

Though this Psalm begins with bright, peaceful imagery, it begins to take on a darker tone as the imagery becomes more threatening.  David writes,

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil;

For You are with me.

He goes on to write,

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Interestingly, the same poem that begins with beautiful imagery of "green pastures" and "still waters" also includes menacing imagery of adversaries and a valley as dark as death itself.¹

I have known this passage of Scripture ever since I was a child, but nowadays what I think is truly profound about the Twenty-third Psalm is that it paints a realistic picture of the journey of faith.  David knows that life, even a life of faith, is marked by both good times and bad times.  At the same time he acknowledges God's presence through it all.  He knows that God does not lead us away from the dark valleys of life and that God does not eliminate all of our problems for us, but he knows that God is in the midst of it all.  He knows that God's presence does not depend on one's circumstances or one's feelings.  He knows that God is equally present beside a peaceful stream or through the darkest valley.

David understands that the God of the mountaintop is also the God of the valley.

Though it may seem to us that God is more present with us during the mountaintops of life, God is no less present with us in the valleys.  God is with us in the celebration, laughter, beauty, and joy of life, but God is also with us in the minutia, struggles, frustration, disappointment, and sadness.  Though, at one time, I might have thought that God was more present with me on those carefree days I spent with my friends on retreats, looking back, I realize that God was also with me in that dreary office in that godless industry.  Never in a million years would I ever return to my old job, but, at some point after I started my current job, I noticed that I strangely missed something about my time in the valley.  I wonder if maybe I missed a closeness to God I did not even realize I was experiencing in those days.

Though we might be inclined to stay where we feel safe and comfortable, God leads us elsewhere.  At the beginning of a traditional worship service, one might witness an acolyte bringing a flame into the sanctuary to light the candles at the altar.  The flame is a reminder that God is present in the midst of the worship service.  As my religion professor Dr. Turner would say, "Where there's smoke, there's fire, and, where there's fire, there's God."  At the end of the same service, one might witness the acolyte extinguishing the candles and then taking the flame back out of the sanctuary.  This action reminds us that the presence of God is not confined to a church building and that God is actually leading us out of the safety of the sanctuary and back into the world.

Perhaps we cannot truly encounter God if we are constantly retreating to our proverbial mountaintops.  If our relationship with God depends on our feelings, then our faith is nothing but a house built on a foundation of sand.  Perhaps it is only when we confront and embrace the fullness of life's journey - both the mountaintops and the valleys - that we truly encounter God.  God is not "up there," far removed from the trials and tribulations of life: God is "down here" with us in the midst of it all.  We be confident of this truth, for we see that, in Christ, God actually joins us in the human experience.

So often, when we ask God for help during difficult times, what we really want is for God to take away the storms of our lives.  Perhaps what we should seek, from the God who is with us in both the good times and the bad times, is the strength to weather the storms.  From a prison cell, St. Paul writes,
I know the experience of being in need and of having more than enough; I have learned the secret to being content in any and every circumstance, whether full or hungry or whether having plenty or being poor.  I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength.²

All of us have experienced both mountaintops and valleys in life.  I suspect that most of us, if we were honest, would admit that we would probably start looking for a detour if we saw a valley ahead of us.  Sometimes it is only when we look back on our time in the valleys of life that we begin to see the hand of God working to bring something beautiful out of the pain.  Wherever you find yourself at this moment, on a glorious mountaintop, by a quiet stream, or in a dark valley, may you realize that God is always with you, regardless of how you feel.  May you never forget that the God of the mountaintop is also the God of the valley.

Thanks be to God.


Notes:

1. Psalm 23 (NKJV)
2. Philippians 4:12-13 (CEB)

The image of the Transfiguration of Jesus was painted by Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov in 1824.  The engraving of the "dark and dismal valley" was created by George Pearson in 1864.  Both images are public domain.

Lenten Perspective: A Clean Heart

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

A Clean Heart

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my thoughts.

See if there is any wicked way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24 (NRSV)

A court is in session

A verdict is in

No appeal on the docket today

Just my own sin

From "My Own Prison" by Creed

One night, at a time when King David should have been commanding his troops in battle, he sat on the rooftop of his palace, gazing out at the city below, and he caught a glimpse of a woman bathing.  He liked what he saw, so he sent his men out to bring her to back to the palace, and he had his way with her.¹  Weeks later, Bathsheba, the woman David raped, informed him that she was pregnant.  Because her husband Uriah had been off at war, there was zero possibility that the child could be his.  David, having failed all of his desperate attempts to cover up his wrongdoing, arranged to have Uriah killed in battle and then married Bathsheba himself.²

After these events unfolded, the prophet Nathan paid David a visit and told him a parable about two men.  One was very wealthy, and he owned an abundance of livestock.  The other was dirt poor, and he had only one little lamb that was really more of a family pet than livestock.  He would feed her from the table, let her sleep on the corner of the bed, and talk to her like she could understand what he was saying.  One day, the rich man had a guest staying overnight at his house, and, instead of killing one of his own animals, he slaughtered the poor man's pet lamb and served it for dinner.

David, who happened to be a shepherd in a past life, became furious that someone would so such a horrible thing.  He said, "That man deserves to die!"

Nathan replied, "You are that man."³

A younger David, who professed through his poetry his unwavering devotion to God and his passionate desire to follow in God's ways, might have heard Nathan's story and said, "That will never be me!"

I will bless the Lord at all times;

his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord;

let the humble hear and be glad.

O magnify the Lord with me,

and let us exalt his name together.

Come, O children, listen to me;

I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Which of you desires life,

and covets many days to enjoy good?

Keep your tongue from evil,

and your lips from speaking deceit.

Depart from evil, and do good;

seek peace, and pursue it.⁴

At that time he had not imagined that he would someday be at the wrong place at the wrong time, in a moment of weakness with a lot of power to abuse.

I suspect that David, once he was forced to confront the utterly cruel and despicable nature of his crimes, found himself shocked by his own actions.  Acting out of pure selfishness, he took the life of one of his most loyal soldiers and destroyed the life of another innocent person.  Not long afterward, David penned what is now known as the Fifty-first Psalm.  In this song of penitence, he confesses, "Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me."⁵  David is not claiming that he literally emerged from his mother's womb evil - as the doctrine of original sin might suggest - but is rather acknowledging that his own sinfulness runs deep, perhaps deeper than he previously thought.⁶

So often, we think we're incapable of certain actions, but we really have no idea what we might do if our circumstances were radically different, for better or for worse.  When tempted to judge others for their mistakes, some people keep their pride in check by reminding themselves, "There but for the grace of God, go I."  Though I personally prefer not to attribute matters of circumstance or privilege to the grace of God, I do think they make a valid point: we must not confuse a lack of opportunity or a lack of desperation with virtue.  The potential for great evil lurks within each of us, whether or not we want to admit the fact, and we would all do well to be wary of our own darkness.

David, having gained a greater understanding of what was going on within himself, realized that he needed God to transform him from the inside out.  He writes, "You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart."⁷  Our circumstances in life may change, opening up new opportunities to do either good or evil, but what ultimately determines our actions is what is going on in our hearts and minds.  Our sin and brokenness are deeply rooted, so we need healing, cleansing, and transformation at our very deepest levels.

It is currently the beginning of Lent, a season marked by introspection and repentance.  Lent is an invitation to look deep inside ourselves and to reconsider anything and everything about our lives.  It is a good time to ask God to search our hearts and to bring to light the things deep within us that need to be redeemed.  God will give us healing and transformation if we only pray as David prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me."⁸


Notes:

1. A lot of people will say that David committed adultery with Bathsheba, but I don't think we can rightly say that she had any choice in the matter.  There was a reason why God didn't want Israel to have a king: kings always get what what they want from their subjects, or else.  See 1 Samuel 8:10-18.
2. 2 Samuel 11
3. 2 Samuel 12:1-7
4. Psalm 34:1-3,11-14 (NRSV)
5. Psalm 51:5 (NRSV)
6. See the notes on Psalm 51:5 in the Wesley Study Bible.  2009, Abingdon Press.
7. Psalm 51:6 (NRSV)
8. Psalm 51:10 (NRSV)

The photograph of the lamb was taken by Nevit Dilmen, and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Perspective: How to Start a Riot at Church

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

How to Start a Riot at Church

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Romans 12:3 (NRSV)

You're right, I get it
It all makes sense, you're the perfect person
So right, so wrong
Let's all live in your imaginary life

From "I Get It" by Chevelle

Some people claim that they like to listen to preachers who step on their toes, figuratively speaking.  Those people are lying.  I suspect that what they really like is to listen to preachers who step on the toes of people they especially dislike.  Though most people probably don't really mind when someone preaches against the flaws they're willing to own, people become rather perturbed when a sermon hits a little too close to home, bringing to light the things they're trying really hard not to acknowledge.  Still, I imagine it's a rare occurrence when a preacher delivers a sermon offensive enough to incite a congregation to violence.

Jesus once preached a sermon so utterly offensive that the congregation tried to throw Him off a cliff.  What's truly remarkable about the incident is the fact that He happened to be preaching at the synagogue in His own hometown!¹

Jesus has just started His public ministry.  He has been traveling throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in synagogues and miraculously healing people.  At one point, His journeys lead Him to His hometown of Nazareth, and on the Sabbath day He goes to the local synagogue to speak.  He stands up in front of the congregation and reads a passage from the Book of Isaiah.

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

because the Lord has anointed me;

he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,

to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and release to the prisoners;

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor...²

Jesus closes the scroll, and the congregation watches with baited breath as He sits down to preach.  He says, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."  As Jesus preaches, the congregation is clearly impressed with the beautiful words coming from this homegrown prophet, whom some people are beginning to think might actually be the long-awaited Messiah who will defeat the Romans and restore Israel to it's former glory.

As the congregation beams with pride, the sermon takes a turn for the worse when Jesus says the following:

Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, "Doctor, cure yourself!"  And you will say, "Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum."  Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown.  But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.  There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.

And that's when the riot started.

Because we live nearly two thousand years later in a very different culture, some of the offensiveness of Jesus' words is lost on us, so I will attempt to explain why the first-century Nazarenes would have been so angry with Jesus.

One subtle but noteworthy detail is the exact point at which Jesus stops reading.  Jesus reads the prophet's proclamation of "the year of the Lord's favor," but He stops just short of reading the declaration of "the day of vengeance of our God" against the enemies of Israel.³  If Jesus had read just a little bit further, the congregation would have heard a prophecy that the Israelites would someday be served by foreigners.⁴  Basically, Jesus is declaring the fulfillment of the prophet's good news of recovery, release, and freedom, while disavowing the supremacy of the Jewish people and the subjugation of non-Jewish people.

Assuming that the prophet was truly anointed by the Holy Spirit to speak good news on behalf of God, does Jesus close the scroll when He should keep reading, or did the prophet keep speaking when he should have closed his mouth?  I suppose that's a question for another day.

More overtly offensive are the two biblical stories Jesus calls to mind.

The prophet Elijah lived in a time when the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel turned away from God because the king and queen promoted idolatry in the land.  Elijah announced that God had stricken the land with a drought as judgment for the people's unfaithfulness, and the prophet had to go into hiding.  When his own source of water dried up, God arranged for a widow to take care of him in a neighboring country.  When Elijah arrived, he found her collecting sticks so that she could cook one last meal for her son and herself before her supplies ran out.  Miraculously, the widow's flour and oil never ran out, and the three had enough food until the drought ended.⁵

Years later, another king of Israel was visited by Naaman, the general of an enemy army who had been very successful in his military campaigns because God had blessed him.  Naaman had a skin disease, and an Israelite girl he had captured as a slave told him that a prophet in Israel could cure him.  At first, the king panicked, thinking that Naaman was trying to incite a conflict.  When Elijah's successor Elisha heard about the king's problem, he sent for Naaman and instructed him to bathe in the Jordan River seven times.  After some initial objections, Naaman followed Elisha's instructions, and he was cured of his disease.⁶

These stories are offensive for two reasons.  First, the stories are offensive because they depict the Israelites in a negative light.  In both stories, the Israelites are enduring punishment because of their unfaithfulness to God.  Second, the stories are offensive because, at the same time, they depict non-Jewish people in a positive light.  The widow unknowingly became a servant of God by caring for God's prophet, and she was blessed because of her faithfulness.  The military leader became a devout believer in the God of Israel because he was miraculously healed.

The Jewish people understood themselves to be God's chosen people, but many forgot that they were blessed to be a blessing to the rest of the world.  Many saw themselves as insiders and all others as outsiders, forgetting that God promised their ancestor Abraham, "All the nations of the earth will be blessed because of your descendants."⁷  The Nazarenes, to whom Jesus is preaching, might be tempted to see themselves as insiders among the insiders if the Messiah is indeed someone who grew up in their town.  They think that Jesus will give them special treatment, but Jesus counts himself among the prophets who called their own people to repentance.

Basically, the Nazarenes become enraged with Jesus because nothing infuriates good salt-of-the-earth religious folk like an attack on their sense of superiority.

I think that a lot of the criticisms Jesus makes about first-century Jews could also be made about twenty-first-century Christians, for we too think that we're special to God.  We are right; all other people are wrong.  We're the sheep; they're the goats.  We're going to Heaven; they're going to Hell.

We all like to think that we're better than other people, but Christ calls us to surrender our pride.  We must never forget that God loves all people, and not only people of a certain religion or nationality.  We must remember that, if we are chosen by God, we are chosen for a purpose and that, if we are blessed by God, we are blessed to be a blessing to others.  The good news is that there is enough room for all people in the Kingdom of God, but the bad news is that there is no room for our inflated egos.


Notes:

1. This perspective is based primarily on Luke 4:14-30.  Quotations from this passage are taken from the NRSV.
2. Isaiah 61:1-2 (NRSV)
3. Isaiah 61:2 (NRSV)
4. Isaiah 61:5-6
5. 1 Kings 17:1-16
6. 2 Kings 5:1-14
7. Genesis 22:18 (CEB)

The photograph of the Isaiah scroll is public domain.