Luke 4:25-28 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. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.
Jesus told two stories from Israelite history to demonstrate that God didn’t recognize the wall between “blessed” Jews and “cursed” Gentiles. In the midst of a famine, God provided for a gentile widow. In the midst of an epidemic, God healed a gentile military official. God “passed over” deserving Jews to elevate undeserving Gentiles. The audience’s condemnation of Jesus was swift, as they attempted to assassinate him for suggesting that Jews and Gentiles were equal. When have you witnessed this kind of racist anger and hatred? Have you ever felt like you’ve been undeservedly “passed over?” If so, how did you handle it? As a disciple of Jesus, what would an appropriate response be?
Prayer: O God, we so frequently divide people into categories of deserving and undeserving, placing ourselves in the “deserving” group by virtue of our religion, race, ethnicity or status. You remind us again to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought, but to think with sound judgment. Forgive us for building walls on the foundation of false ideas, and help us to remember that your blessings are meant for everyone. Amen.
Tongue on Fire 