Bible Reading for October 9 – Luke 4:24-30

The idea that the gospel is for everyone has never really been popular. In our increasingly polarized America, as the political rhetoric ratchets higher and higher, it becomes easier and easier to dehumanize those who disagree with us. And to think that God loves people who are so hateful, who seem to be trying to tear down everything that is good and right – that’s just a bridge too far for some folks.

But that’s what Jesus said in today’s passage, pointing his listeners back to even earlier examples of God’s boundary-crossing love in the Old Testament. He told them of how God sent a famine on the land of Israel back in the days of Elijah the prophet because of His people’s unfaithfulness. But during that terrible time, God sent Elijah to show mercy to a pagan woman in a foreign land – that’s the Sunday school lesson for this week.

Jesus went on to give another example of God’s boundary-crossing love, one that was even harder for his listeners to accept. For Elisha helped not a poor, helpless widow, but a mighty general who served in the Aramean army, an army that had conducted raids on the people of Israel and even carried off Israelite slaves to serve them (II Kings 5:2).

Today, those who call themselves “woke” want to obliterate even the symbols that remind us of slaveowners who lived in America’s past, denying that heroes like Washington and Jefferson and Madison have anything to teach us because they benefited from slave labor. But God allowed Elisha to cure such a wealthy, powerful slaveholder of his leprosy, even though there were lots of poor, helpless lepers among the Israelites who were not contaminated with the sin of slavery.

What is Jesus trying to tell us? That even though we are all sinners in desperate need of a Savior, none of us is too far gone to receive the blessings of God. No one, no matter how great his sins may be, is beyond the reach of God’s grace. The good news is that Jesus came to save us all, even slaveholders, even pagans, even the “deplorables,” even the “woke.”

So, instead of spending so much time screaming at each other and pointing out each other’s sins, maybe it would be better for all of us to spend a little more time confessing our own mistakes and failures. Instead of being outraged that God would bless deplorables or “woke” people or whatever other groups we look down on, let’s be amazed that God would forgive and welcome us. Maybe if we can see our own sin a little more clearly, we can be more patient with other sinners in both the past and present. Maybe the key to being gracious to others is realizing how gracious God has been to us.

Luke 4:24-30 (NAS)

24 And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his home town.
25 “But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land;
26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
27 “And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things;
29 and they rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.
30 But passing through their midst, He went His way.