God's Heart for the Nations - Lesson 5

            So, the scriptural gist this week has been that Jesus came not just to make the nation of Israel great, but to be a light for gentiles, for all nations/peoples/races; to restore the tribes of Jacob AND the world - to be a light for all people living in darkness.

            We are sometimes - often? mostly? - just as insular as the Jewish people of Jesus' time. I think sometimes the unwritten lyrics after "God bless America," are actually "but not those other nations (or even the other people in our own country) that are not like us." May we never forget that we are ALL children of God, and he came for us ALL. May our outrage and sorrow for the Boston & West victims carry over to outrage & sorrow for other peoples and nations who are suffering. Syria is in the midst of a civil war and may be using chemical weapons; 340 Bangladeshi died in a factory collapse, and thousands are now protesting the unsafe working conditions (& burning some factories down). And so much more is going on out there. May they all receive the prayers of our hearts, broken for them.

            And yet....and yet, I do not feel a call to leave this country and serve abroad. But that does not mean I am free to ignore the other peoples/nations of the world. Let us pray, and take one step at a time where we are to relieve the suffering in the world, much as we discussed last class regarding sharing the Word.

            OK. So Luke 4:14-30 has always bothered me. It appears that Jesus has been teaching and receiving much praise - even in his hometown - and then they all turn on him and want to throw him off a cliff! I never really made the connection before that the reason for the shift is that Jesus was attacking/challenging their belief that the Messiah was only for the Jewish nation and not the gentiles/rest of the world. Their pride & joy had turned against them, so to speak, and this was SO NOT OK.

            Before we are too quick to judge their narrow-mindedness, don't we all get this way - at least to some extent - when our beliefs/values/world views/life assumptions are challenged or even turned on their head? Maybe we don't try to throw anyone off a cliff, but I often choose to tune-out voices I just don't want to hear. Sometimes, it's the right thing to do; but sometimes, perhaps, I am just being stubborn & hard-hearted, like the nation of Israel in Jesus' time. And so many other times. History does tend to repeat itself. Open our hearts and minds Lord, open our hearts and minds. Amen.