God's Ways

[Teaching Wednesday on Luke 4:16-30, we spent two full weeks on this chapter and I have written about it several times as well. So much there, so very much! Many of you will hear this Gospel Sunday (Revised Common Lectionary and usually the Roman Catholic are the same) so hopefully these reflections will be relevant.]

As we already saw, Luke has taken an event from later in Jesus' life (according to Mark//Mathew) and set it at the beginning of Jesus' ministry as a summary statement of Jesus' mission and ministry as well as a foreshadowing of the rejection and crucifixion. As the story ends, we read that Jesus is taken outside the city to a hill where they want to throw Him over, but He passes through their midst. Passing through is a phrase used over and over by Luke to indicate that Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem (to die). The crucifixion is on a hill outside the city...

As we know from the story an initially positive response devolves into a negative reaction. Luke's Jesus expresses this by saying "...you will probably say, "Do here what you have done in Capernaum [i.e. miracles]" In Mk and Mt He does not say this. Instead it is merely unbelief which is expressed, and Jesus, amazed at this lack of faith is "only able" to do a few healing miracles among them. Luke heads elsewhere in his rendition. By referring to Jesus' broader ministry at Capernaum (which ironically begins in the next verse; Luke is chronologically out of order as we said) Luke is emphasizing the "insider-outsider" Jew/Gentile dilemma. All four Gospels shape the material of Jesus' life and shape it by emphasizing key issues and themes. Luke has his own (Holy Spirit inspired) emphasis. One of those is "the poor." Another is "the Holy Spirit." Here it is "the God Who acts freely as He chooses."

In reflecting on this question, "Why don't YOU do here what you did there?" I shared with the groups I teach that this is actually one of the Atheist/Agnostic's primary arguments against God. As Michael, my most expressive commenter shared some weeks ago: If God is good and powerful why does He allow bad things to happen. In Luke 4:24-27 Jesus gives His answer. Retelling some stories about Elijah and Elisha, Jesus reminds His hearers (and us) that there were lots of needy folks (a widow and a leper in particular) but God chose to only heal two foreigners. Now this is what set off the crowd. Luke is conveying, in narrative, a key element of Jesus' teaching. He says God Ways are not our own. While we may scrutinize those ways and critique God, in the end, Jesus is much less concerned with defending God then He is proclaiming God.

The God who saves Gentiles is, of course, one stream of the ancient covenant. After all, the story begins with Adam & Eve (and all humanity). The covenant with Noah is universal. Abraham is not a Jew. He is a father of nations (remember his offspring include the fathers of many tribes beyond Israel). It is, however, a particular line (Isaac, then Jacob/Israel) with which God makes a covenant (for the sake of blessing the world). Herein lies the mystery. God chooses a people and sets them apart, but He does not (at least in one dominant stream of the text) limit salvation to them, He offers salvation through them. For example, He makes Persian Cyrus an unknowing Messiah. Then there is the Balaam story (which I am reading in my personal prayer). Balaam is a pagan prophet, yet He knows God, BY NAME! He calls God YHWH and he is in communication with God. He is sent to curse Israel, but obedient to God, he blesses them (along the same lines as the Abraham blessing in Genesis).

Reading about Balaam took me deeper into Jesus' discussion in the synagogue. I told the class I frequently bring up things there which show up a day or two later in Morning Prayer readings, or on the radio, or in other readings. As if to prove the point, the next day a psalm I refered to in class (Ps 116, "I love the Lord because He answered my plea") was our first psalm in prayer. [I refered to it as illustrating our tendencies, we love when God does what we want--'do here what we heard you did there' and it is part of our sinful desire to have God serve us, rather than us serve God.] While Jesus is THE ONLY way to the Father, I am not sure the way we define it is accurate. Many are 'nicer than God' (those progressives with whom I am often so cross) and they say things like "Jesus is our savior" or "Jesus is my way." Such a slippery approach to truth makes me, well, it makes me quite cross. I find it silly. However, my conservative friends (and they are) bother me when they talk about salvation in such limited fashion that they seem to forget that God's desire is that everyone is saved. And the Bible, both the older and more recent sections, frequently mention events and words which provide every reason to think that God has a plan B, a plan C and a plan D to compensate for our failure to bring all creation under Christ. And I am clear, Jesus is the only way, and I am clear that Jesus is bigger than the preferred option plan for acquiring salvation being peddled among us.

God's ways are mystery, both (per Luke and the synagogue) "gracious sounding" and "irritating." I do not claim to know or understand, it is paradoxical. I only know that God is at work and I am at work trying to figure out what He is doing. And my vocation is to follow Jesus. To believe in and love Him, and to pick up a cross of my own and "pass through" this world to my appointed destiny. To live and die like Him....