The Bible Challenge, Day 360: Zechariah 14, Psalm 143 and Luke 5
The prophet Zechariah concludes his proclamation by declaring that God is going to release the Israelites from their captivity and reestablish Jerusalem as the Holy City, the center of God’s kingdom. Violence and disease will devastate the enemies of God’s people, and yet God welcomes all the nations to celebrate together the fall Festival of Booths, an observance that remembers God’s faithful presence with the Israelites as they wandered for forty years in the wilderness. It is an odd mixture of threats and invitation. Perhaps we are glimpsing a transition in theological thinking that begins to wonder about the possibility of God’s concern for all the people in the world.
Psalm 143 expresses well the sentiment of one who has been experiencing hardship because of persecutors. The psalmist longs for some reassurance of God’s compassion as morning dawns and concludes by begging God to “destroy my enemies and bring all my foes to naught” – reminding God of the speaker’s deserving status. Surely Zechariah’s audience has felt the sentiments expressed in these verses.
But from the beginning of his ministry, Jesus does not treat people in categories, and certainly not in categories of “us” and “them” – the beloved and the rejected. In Luke’s fifth chapter, Jesus shares “God’s word” – likely a mixture of encouragement and wisdom – to fishermen and country folk. The country folk have come to see and hear for themselves the wonderworker who has been teaching in synagogues and healing the sick. They are eager listeners. The fishermen are here by the grace of God – for their own benefit and for the welfare of the Gospel they will be entrusted to proclaim in just three short years. The fishermen are transformed by the encounter and walk away from the security of their day-to-day activities to follow this Master. These fishers-of-folk-in-training immediately witness Jesus’ loving compassion. He responds to a leper’s request for healing and sends the restored man off to show his clean skin to the priest, who can pronounce him now welcome back into human company. Jesus declares a paralyzed man forgiven and sends him back home carrying his cot with him. Jesus invites the tax collector Levi to join his band of followers, and Levi throws a party, where he gathers his disreputable friends around the dinner table with Jesus.
Jesus’ acts of mercy are a joy to many, but the religious leaders feel confused, and likely threatened as well. They have been the keepers of the Torah – the interpreters of God’s law and the judge and jury of human faithfulness and human frailty. They jealously guard this responsibility and keep pointing out where Jesus is not adhering to the letter of the Law. Jesus says he is here to usher in the Kingdom of God, something unimagined previously. The old rules blind us to the fullness of God’s care and concern for all. The divine vision Jesus has come to disclose cannot be contained in the old codes.
The new can be very unsettling. The old structures keep the chaos at bay. I am surprised by the questions people ask me about pious practice. For example, last week someone asked “I am not supposed to take communion if I ate breakfast before church, am I?” I appreciate the desire to live a holy life, but we can get caught up in this kind of hair-splitting and miss the big picture: the forgiving, the working for justice and the loving of neighbor. Where is Jesus inviting you to see with a graceful heart?
Jennie Lou Reid+
The prophet Zechariah concludes his proclamation by declaring that God is going to release the Israelites from their captivity and reestablish Jerusalem as the Holy City, the center of God’s kingdom. Violence and disease will devastate the enemies of God’s people, and yet God welcomes all the nations to celebrate together the fall Festival of Booths, an observance that remembers God’s faithful presence with the Israelites as they wandered for forty years in the wilderness. It is an odd mixture of threats and invitation. Perhaps we are glimpsing a transition in theological thinking that begins to wonder about the possibility of God’s concern for all the people in the world.
Psalm 143 expresses well the sentiment of one who has been experiencing hardship because of persecutors. The psalmist longs for some reassurance of God’s compassion as morning dawns and concludes by begging God to “destroy my enemies and bring all my foes to naught” – reminding God of the speaker’s deserving status. Surely Zechariah’s audience has felt the sentiments expressed in these verses.
But from the beginning of his ministry, Jesus does not treat people in categories, and certainly not in categories of “us” and “them” – the beloved and the rejected. In Luke’s fifth chapter, Jesus shares “God’s word” – likely a mixture of encouragement and wisdom – to fishermen and country folk. The country folk have come to see and hear for themselves the wonderworker who has been teaching in synagogues and healing the sick. They are eager listeners. The fishermen are here by the grace of God – for their own benefit and for the welfare of the Gospel they will be entrusted to proclaim in just three short years. The fishermen are transformed by the encounter and walk away from the security of their day-to-day activities to follow this Master. These fishers-of-folk-in-training immediately witness Jesus’ loving compassion. He responds to a leper’s request for healing and sends the restored man off to show his clean skin to the priest, who can pronounce him now welcome back into human company. Jesus declares a paralyzed man forgiven and sends him back home carrying his cot with him. Jesus invites the tax collector Levi to join his band of followers, and Levi throws a party, where he gathers his disreputable friends around the dinner table with Jesus.
Jesus’ acts of mercy are a joy to many, but the religious leaders feel confused, and likely threatened as well. They have been the keepers of the Torah – the interpreters of God’s law and the judge and jury of human faithfulness and human frailty. They jealously guard this responsibility and keep pointing out where Jesus is not adhering to the letter of the Law. Jesus says he is here to usher in the Kingdom of God, something unimagined previously. The old rules blind us to the fullness of God’s care and concern for all. The divine vision Jesus has come to disclose cannot be contained in the old codes.
The new can be very unsettling. The old structures keep the chaos at bay. I am surprised by the questions people ask me about pious practice. For example, last week someone asked “I am not supposed to take communion if I ate breakfast before church, am I?” I appreciate the desire to live a holy life, but we can get caught up in this kind of hair-splitting and miss the big picture: the forgiving, the working for justice and the loving of neighbor. Where is Jesus inviting you to see with a graceful heart?
Jennie Lou Reid+
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