Prophets (Easter - Day 16)

(Based on Luke 4:14-30)

Were there not many widows around the time of Elijah, yet he was only sent to one of them? And were there not many lepers around the time of Elisha, yet he was only sent to one of them? The prophets of old were good, but let me tell you about something even better. See all the widows and lepers, the battered and burdened, the blind and the imprisoned? I've come to set them all free, something the prophets of old couldn't even come close to.

These were essentially the words of Jesus' first teaching. His audience was full of devout Jews who idolized the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Yet, Jesus claimed that he was here to not only care for the widows and lepers, but to set the captives free.

This set the Jews on fire. They couldn't believe someone would come into their temple, and claim to be better than their ancestors. They immediately drug Jesus out of the temple and took him to the edge of a cliff, only to have him give a disappearing act and escape free from harm. 

The message of Jesus is for anyone and everyone. He came to unlock the shackles of blindness, imprisonment, leprosy, and anything else that is binding. For the Jews sitting in the temple that day, there could be no such thing. They couldn't even see in front of their own noses the bondage that Jewish law had wrapped them up in. 

When we talk about the message and life of Jesus, we have to talk about grace and freedom. If we don't talk about these, we are merely reducing the life-changing, unbinding principles into binding, stagnant law. Inevitably, when we talk about grace and the implications thereof, there will be complications and opposition. People will want to use the law to explain it away, and try to make in irrelevant. 

From the get go, Jesus teaches that the blind will see again, the imprisoned will be pardoned, the battered and burdened will be set free, and the poor will hear the Message of good news. And, he'll be the one to do it, to do what the prophets of old couldn't do. 

The law that was originally meant for good was abused and turned into a machine that oppressed. Jesus represented a radical shift back to the original intent of the law, which was freedom and grace. Now fast forward to 2013.

Are the poor hearing the message that Jesus preached that day in the temple, or are the poor "out there" while we are "in here"? Are prisoners being pardoned by the Church, or is that a job better left to the government? Is the Church participating in the recovery of sight to the blind by using their finances to invest in breakthrough advances in optics? Is the Church setting the burdened free from the law of shame and guilt? Is the Church caring for and setting free the battered and abused? Is the Church participating in canceling debt, like in the year of Jubilee in which Jesus refers to?

Better yet, are we each doing this? Do we believe this is the message of Jesus, that we all have the capacity to be free? 

Although I love the Church, I can't help but doubt her intentions. I get just as thrown off as anybody when I walk up to a structure that cost millions of dollars to build, while poverty lingers in its own backyard. Yet, there's something to be said for the Church about it's longevity. It has hung around, and probably isn't leaving anytime soon. At some point in time, the government and non-profit organizations stepped in to the social injustices happening all around the world, and decided to take action. Is it possible that the organizations and institutions outside of the walls of the Church are actually being pulled forward into the revolutionary ways of justice and peace which Christ talked about, while the Church figures out how to catch up? 

I don't know the answers to these questions, but I want to search and dig and try new things and fail and succeed and grow more in love with the God who restores and sets free and loves without expectation. I want to acknowledge my own chains and the chains of others, and play a part in the unbinding work of Jesus. 

If we are chained, we have the opportunity to be free. If we are not chained, we have the opportunity to set others free. How are we doing?

Today's Action: Chances are that today we will run into one of the types of people Jesus is talking about. Here they are: the poor, blind, imprisoned (physically, emotionally, spiritually), blind, burdened, and battered. I think this covers just about all of us. May we plan one way before we leave for work of how we can participate in restoring freedom to whoever we run into today. It may be a kind word, a twenty dollar bill, a gift, lunch on the house, etc. Whatever it is, may we tangibly carry on the message that Jesus taught in the temple the day he nearly got thrown off the cliff.