Blind Spots
Luke 4:21-30 New International Version (NIV)
21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy[a] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
Oh so blind right. Those people in the synagogue. And so temperamental. One moment they’re amused and praising Jesus words and next they want to throw the poor guy off the cliff! I was sitting with my wife drinking morning coffee listening to this very passage on Monday. And that was her response to the rejection by the people, “oh so blind.” And maybe that is our reaction, “If Jesus said those things here we’d believe him!” Would we though? Remember, these people didn’t really see his miracles, but only heard about them. How often do we hear of Gods works and say within, “Yeah, right,” in a snide incredulous way. I am quite the skeptic myself. As I read passages or listen to patients share “miracles” in their lives I sometimes huff inside. There’s a part of me that wants to believe, but it’s often hope that is too soon extinguished by “real” life, that which I can see, touch, taste, smell, and hear. I’m comfortable with what I know. Scripture clearly states how Christ will come again, there’s no way I’m going to miss that. Well folks, that’s exactly how the people in the synagogue saw it. They had heard and been taught exactly how the Messiah would arrive and this Jesus guy did not fit the bill.
We really aren’t so unlike these people.. We hear what we
want as Jesus in the previous passage reads from the scroll, “The Spirit of the
Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He
has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the
blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
yes, Yes, YES! But then he says in essence in today’s passage, “When you were
broken, when you were hungry, your God sent to others because you would not
repent, you would not believe.” Ouch. It’s that moment someone you trust and
respect says, “I had thought better of you, guess I was wrong.” Is God
petty and heartless, turning His back on His people? By no means. What He’s
doing is refusing to be an enabler. Sometimes we need consequences to open our
eyes, to be left to our own devices. God doesn’t need to punish, sin has its
own built in consequences and does that for us.
A quick aside, it’s interesting that as Jesus quotes the
Prophet Isaiah he leaves out the next verse, “And the day of vengeance of our
God.” In doing so, I believe, he’s transforming the idea of God as wrathful and
moving people to see God as he himself is, loving, compassionate, self-giving,
and good. This is the Jesus hermeneutic. So as
you’re reading the Bible think about this:
If
your understanding of Scripture leads you to experience any or several of the fruits
of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)—I think
you can trust that this interpretation is from the Spirit, from the deeper stream
of wisdom. As
you read, if you sense any negative or punitive emotions like morose delight, feelings
of superiority, self-satisfaction, arrogant dualistic certitude, desire for revenge, need for victory, or a spirit of dismissal or
exclusion, you must trust that this is not Jesus’ hermeneutic at work, but your own ego
still steering the ship.[1]
So, how do we react when the ego is triggered, when...you
fill in the blank. “The discomfort we feel when the boundaries shift is the
measure of our allegiance to the way things are.”[2] When things don’t fit our paradigm, our comfortable kind
of life, we sometimes get angry. In the end, I see this passage as a challenge,
a check on the self to really stop and reflect. Do I disregard Jesus in my
everyday life as I speak to others? Am I short with my spouse or significant
other? Do I internally judge others? It’s an important question to ask. Comfort
kills in spirituality, in religion. What are your blockages, what are you so
sure about. I invite you to reflect on what those things are.
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