I’m curious how rest appeared to you this past week. Did meetings get canceled, meals get extended, friendships get deepened? I hope it was a refreshing seven days. I’m still musing about how those angels might have attended to Jesus, and how they might have their sights on my own recovery.

As we venture into this week, ask yourself these questions: In the scope of my life where am I longing for good news, but least expecting it? In that area why is it so hard to hope?

ANCIENT STORYLINES

So here we are: Jesus has been declared God’s beloved Son, he’s won a cosmic battle with the Devil, and he’s supped with the angels. Where does he go from there?

In Luke’s gospel Jesus goes home. And, like for many of us, returning home has its challenges. (And yes for some, a smack down with Satan may seem more pleasant. But I digress…)

Luke’s account of Jesus’ homecoming in Nazareth has all the makings of a TV Mini-series. (Read Luke 4:14-30). Jesus seems initially embraced as the hometown hero. Carpenter son makes it big as traveling prophet. Yet, soon enough the plot twists. The townspeople turn on him.

Why did loyalties suddenly shift? It seems to start with something Jesus didn’t say and didn’t do.

The opening scene has Jesus in the synagogue. He’s given the scroll of Isaiah, finds these words and read them:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Quoted from Isaiah 61:1-2.)

Jesus does a curious thing. He stops mid-sentence omitting the “vengeance of God” at the end of Isaiah 61:2. And, this is where the trouble begins. Many Jews believed that when the Messiah came God’s judgment would immediately follow. Sinners would be punished so the world would be set aright. Rather, Jesus inaugurates the Kingdom of God, a time when God’s mercy would woo sinners as the oppressed were freed. (See Matthew 13:24-30.)

Besides not declaring God’s vengeance, Jesus doesn’t perform the array of miracles the locals were expecting. And then he does something even more annoying. He tells the story of these prophets reaching out to a widow and a leper—the socially marginalized. And Jesus’ examples weren’t your average widow and leper; they were Gentiles living in enemy territory.
The hometown became infuriated with Jesus. The scene ends with people dragging Jesus to the top of a cliff with the intent of flinging him off it. Yet somehow he nonchalantly escapes.

PROVISIONS FOR YOUR LENTEN JOURNEY FOR THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS

REFLECTION: The people of Jesus’ day weren’t expecting such good news. They were anticipating political liberation and righteous judgment. But when Jesus came offering mercy, they were confused. When he spoke of God’s favor being doled out to the socially and religiously marginalized some became angry.

The first-century scenario continues on to our day. Jesus comes with unexpected good news. He offers freedom to the imprisoned parts of us; he gives insight to liberate us from our blind spots; he releases us from our arrogance and insecurities, from our family of origin wounds and our irresponsible choices, from our self-loathing and bitterness, from our anger and despair. He proclaims the year of the Lord’s favor.

Where are you expecting God’s judgment when he is offering his mercy?

Where do you feel marginalized from God?

Embracing God’s mercy can be challenging. It calls for humility and repentance. It’s a confession of need. And, we’re not a people comfortable with need.

Yet, perhaps more challenging is realizing that Jesus’ unexpected good news is not only for us. He offers it to those we’d least expect. And, he calls us to share that good news—to impart it, live it out, embody it and pass it on the socially, religiously and relationally marginalized.

Who do you know that might feel marginalized from God’s love? How might God long to use you to deliver unexpected good news?

DISCUSSION: Why is the good news of God’s mercy feel so often unexpected? How do we share Jesus’ message with others—especially the marginalized—who might be skeptical about good news?

Feel free to share this with us; go the DISCUSSION BOARD.

IMAGE OF GOD: The people of Jesus’ day were expecting a Messiah to act a particular way, and he surprised them. He turned out to be more merciful, less judgmental, and frankly less showy than they were expecting. How does this story of Jesus challenge any assumptions you have of God?

CONFESSION AND HOPE: I don’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t what came my way when I was in Beirut, Lebanon. I had been backpacking from Rome, making my way to Jerusalem. By the time I straggled into Lebanon I had just had a harsh break-up with my amoeba (parasite), I had had bitter fights with taxi-drivers across the Middle East, and on top of that I was absolutely undone by the generosity of strangers I had met en route. I was physically, emotionally and spiritually zapped.

While in Beirut I spoke with a priest named Father Nektarios. I asked him, like so many others, to describe God. Father Nektarios description of God was winsome and thoughtful but it was what he shared with me after his formal response that shook me and stilled me.

Father Nektarios didn’t know my story, but he turned to me like an omniscient mentor and told me, “Our relationship with God is not a peer relationship; God is our Father. It’s a relationship where you have to learn to take. We learn to love others without expectations when we learn to receive God’s love.

“The most precious gift we can give God is to accept. Only accept. When a daughter is tired, she becomes selfish. What does a father want? He wants his daughter to only to accept his love.”

My struggle with people’s generosity was ultimately a fight with God, a fight to receive his grace. So, I was expecting my selfishness to be exposed and for me to be judged a poser pilgrim. But my selfishness got named, and then I was extended mercy. I was told that what God desired most was for me to receive his love. Those marginalized parts of me were collected, scooped up, and brought to the epic-center of his acceptance and love.

The good news is that when we can confess, we experience mercy. And, as we experience such stunning mercy we can offer that to others. God happens to have an endless supply.

SCRIPTURE: Luke 1: 46-55 (Mary’s Song)

What does this passage tell you about God? What might it reveal about your true identity? If you deeply believed what it says about God and yourself, how might you be game to receive and give unexpected good news?

LENTEN ASHES FOR YOU: Check out Bono’s speech that references Luke 4 and Jesus’ revolutionary hope for the poor: www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/bononationalprayerbreakfast.htm

INVITE OTHERS INTO IT: Pray each day for God to give you sacred encounters. Meet for coffee or go on a walk with a friend this week to share how you experiencing or praying for surprising good news.