Jesus Challenged Our Attitudes!

 

WED Evening Prayer Reflection 111120 (Joel 2:12-19; Luke 15:1-10)

Jesus is addressing our attitudes in the Gospel according to Luke. It begins with Pharisees resenting Jesus for associating with people who are considered sinners. What’s fascinating in real life, is that though we may not say it, but we may be thinking it! [that we may not want to associate with each other for any given reason] Well, the truth is: We are cliquey and we have no intention to stop anytime soon. People who aren’t like us are usually not on our radar. As Christians, we are expected to embrace everyone regardless. There are plenty examples of humans shunning other humans for all kinds of reasons. This particular issue in Israel of not mixing with sinners is rather common in other societies. The Tax collectors were despised by the Jews because they were corrupt and considered as traitors for colluding with the enemy (Rome). So, they were considered as sinners. The Pharisees and teachers were not concerned with them. But Jesus had a divine heart that longed for all his children to return.

Jesus challenged the attitudes of the Pharisees using the parable of the lost sheep. If one sheep is lost, the shepherd would do everything in his power to get it back, so leaving the 99 wouldn’t put them in danger since there were other shepherds. God’s people are often identified as the flock of God, Jesus means that caring for the tax collector and sinners is rather the right thing to do. They need to hear the Good News of the Gospel. Here Jesus was, in front of them: an incredible occasion for them to listen and follow him. If those who are responsible for teaching them despise them, then who will teach them the Good News? How will they repent if they have not been taught the right way?

I can see the repercussions of this thinking: Are there people, we wish to exclude from our midst, from our groups, from our club? If so, for whatever reason, such exclusion robs the excluded of the opportunity to learn from us. Unless we believe we have nothing positive to teach, then maybe we should indeed not include anyone. In this story we are seeing the heart of God at work.

The Pharisees were offended by how Jesus was sitting with sinners and teaching them. I want to draw our attention to Jonah. He was clandestinely refusing to be sent to Nineveh because he really didn’t want to go warn them with God’s word. Could the heart of Jonah match the heart of the pharisees in a way that they both despised the people they were sent to? How would you react if you learned that God is sending you to the very person who despises you and whom you despise back? Does this scenario sound like what our Father in Heaven would do?

The word of God in Joel 2 tells us that God is prepared to forgive and bless the truly repentant. God says: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”

Should we stay away from others whom, our society may frown on if we associated with them? Our societies may have improved a great deal from a time when segregation was rife but still, it does not mean we are where we should be. I come from a land with deep divisions, a society that have experienced mass community violence, gross human rights abuses. It means that community peer pressure has astronomical powers there. Sometimes healing can come from people who are totally sold out to Jesus; people whom being ostracized by both sides wouldn’t put a dent in them.

With close examination, we may realize that we are not far from the attitudes of Pharisees and teachers, because we also have issues to deal with in our own societies. Issues that deal with our own perceptions of other people, as we use the lenses of our past experiences. Jesus offered his heart. He sat with them, he taught them. He restored their human dignity. The sinners were exposed to the light, and found their way back to God. Perhaps God might be trying to use you, to bring someone back to himself. 

Be blessed today and forever. Amen.