Luke 13:1-17 | Acts 22:1-21 | Gospels in Lent Track: John 1-2
Do you watch the news? How does it make you feel? Sometimes it can be paralyzing. It can certainly be distracting. Some feel they have a responsibility to know things. Maybe you feel like you need to know so that you can respond somehow. Perhaps some people even do in ways that affect what we see, hear, and read about in distant lands.
…but probably not too many.
Jesus responding to these two stories of Pilate and Siloam are perhaps the closest thing we have to Jesus responding to media reports. They seem like they could be stories that were well-known and had an impact throughout the land. They involve governmental politics/corruption (Pilate) and disaster (Siloam). We should note Jesus’ response.
In short, he basically says, “You…do what you can within your own influence, which is the situation of your own life.” That might sound ignorant or lacking compassionate to we who have been formed to think that the impact of our vote and dollar goes far.
Paul, having been beaten and now standing in chains in front of the angry crowd, government & military leaders, and religious authorities, decides to tell his own story. His testimony. How God captured his own life.
It’s one possible strategy.
Luke 13:1-17
Some who were present on that occasion told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices. He replied, “Do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves that they were more sinful than all the other Galileans? No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did. What about those eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them? Do you think that they were more guilty of wrongdoing than everyone else who lives in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.”
Jesus told this parable: “A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He said to his gardener, ‘Look, I’ve come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I’ve never found any. Cut it down! Why should it continue depleting the soil’s nutrients?’ The gardener responded, ‘Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer. Maybe it will produce fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.’”
Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. A woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and couldn’t stand up straight. When he saw her, Jesus called her to him and said, “Woman, you are set free from your sickness.” He placed his hands on her and she straightened up at once and praised God.
The synagogue leader, incensed that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded, “There are six days during which work is permitted. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath day.”
The Lord replied, “Hypocrites! Don’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead it out to get a drink? Then isn’t it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day?” When he said these things, all his opponents were put to shame, but all those in the crowd rejoiced at all the extraordinary things he was doing.
Acts 22:1-20
[Paul is speaking]
“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.” When they heard him address them in Aramaic, they became even more quiet. Paul continued, “I’m a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia but raised in this city. Under Gamaliel’s instruction, I was trained in the strict interpretation of our ancestral Law. I am passionately loyal to God, just like you who are gathered here today. I harassed those who followed this Way to their death, arresting and delivering both men and women into prison. The high priest and the whole Jerusalem Council can testify about me. I received letters from them, addressed to our associates in Damascus, then went there to bring those who were arrested to Jerusalem so they could be punished.
“During that journey, about noon, as I approached Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven encircled me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice asking me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you harassing me?’ I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are harassing,’ he replied. My traveling companions saw the light, but they didn’t hear the voice of the one who spoke to me. I asked, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ ‘Get up,’ the Lord replied, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told everything you have been appointed to do.’ I couldn’t see because of the brightness of that light, so my companions led me by the hand into Damascus.
“There was a certain man named Ananias. According to the standards of the Law, he was a pious man who enjoyed the respect of all the Jews living there. He came and stood beside me. ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ he said. Instantly, I regained my sight and I could see him. He said, ‘The God of our ancestors has selected you to know his will, to see the righteous one, and to hear his voice. You will be his witness to everyone concerning what you have seen and heard. What are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash away your sins as you call on his name.’
“When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I had a visionary experience. I saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Hurry!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem at once because they won’t accept your testimony about me.’ I responded, ‘Lord, these people know I used to go from one synagogue to the next, beating those who believe in you and throwing them into prison. When Stephen your witness was being killed, I stood there giving my approval, even watching the clothes that belonged to those who were killing him.’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go! I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”
Prayer
God,
I know I say it often, but there’s so much going on. I really have reduced my intake of the news media. But I still pay attention. I have lots of thoughts, you know. If everyone would just go with my opinion, I’m sure the world would be a better place. My candidate, my war plan, my humanitarian strategy, my vision…
Not that anyone’s listening to me.
It seems that Jesus was almost always - if not completely - focused on those situations within his physical proximity. Is this what you want me to do? Technology has broadened our proximities well beyond Jesus’, so it’s hard, Lord.
So help me, God: Help me know how to spend my capacities. Certainly I mean my influence and the resources in my care. But also help me as I try to do better with my emotional capacity. I want to be healthy and have healthy thoughts. I particularly don’t want to miss the opportunities and responsibilities around me.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.