When Grace Ends at "My Own"

Comparing a heartless Zophar and a border-loving Nazareth.

Yikes.

Zophar’s a jerk.

Sorry for my language, but it’s true. Just read Job 11. As a pastor, it makes me mad. I’ve sat in enough situations of suffering to know that these kinds of assumptions still exist today. On the one hand, I wish that we could look at the ancient status of the book of Job and believe that we’ve come to fuller understandings of God and suffering today, but there is still such a strong pull to believe in some kind of Judeo-Christian karma. Karma is not a Judeo-Christian doctrine. Yes, it is true that sin and recklessness can result in punishment. But it is hardly automatic.

So Zophar’s words to Job…I reject them. And we’ll see tomorrow that Job does, too.

Jesus is in Nazareth. He reads from the prophet Isaiah in his hometown synagogue. For the moment, it is beautiful. Who wouldn’t want what Jesus is declaring? Well…who wouldn’t want what Jesus is declaring for themselves, their loved ones, and their own people?

But the Nazarenes’ assumption of the liberating power of God apparently has limits. This is where human love and grace so often end - at the border of “my own.”

This isn’t completely disconnected from Zophar’s heartlessness. Zophar reduces suffering to moral math. Nazareth reduces salvation to hometown privilege. Both assume they understand how God’s justice should work. And both reveal how quickly we draw lines around mercy, deciding who deserves it and who does not.

Luke 4:16-30

Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been raised. On the Sabbath he went to the synagogue as he normally did and stood up to read. The synagogue assistant gave him the scroll from the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to liberate the oppressed,
and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the synagogue assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the synagogue was fixed on him. He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.”

Everyone was raving about Jesus, so impressed were they by the gracious words flowing from his lips. They said, “This is Joseph’s son, isn’t it?”

Then Jesus said to them, “Undoubtedly, you will quote this saying to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we’ve heard you did in Capernaum.’” He said, “I assure you that no prophet is welcome in the prophet’s hometown. And I can assure you that there were many widows in Israel during Elijah’s time, when it didn’t rain for three and a half years and there was a great food shortage in the land. Yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to a widow in the city of Zarephath in the region of Sidon. There were also many persons with skin diseases in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them were cleansed. Instead, Naaman the Syrian was cleansed.”

When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with anger. They rose up and ran him out of town. They led him to the crest of the hill on which their town had been built so that they could throw him off the cliff. But he passed through the crowd and went on his way.

Job 11

Zophar from Naamah responded:

Should all these words go unanswered or a wordy man be justified?
Will your idle talk silence everyone; will you mock and not be put to shame?
You’ve said, “My teaching is pure, and I’m clean in God’s eyes.”

But oh, that God would speak, open his lips against you
and tell you secrets of wisdom; for sound insight has two sides.
Know that God lets some of your sin be forgotten.
Can you find the secret of God
or find the extent of the Almighty?
They are higher than the heavens—what can you do?
Deeper than the underworld—what can you know?
Its measurement is longer than the earth
and broader than the sea.
If God passes by, imprisons someone, and calls a trial,
who can stop him?
He knows worthless people,
sees sin, and certainly takes note.
A stupid person becomes intelligent
when a wild ass of a person is born tame.

If you make your mind resolute
and spread your palms to him,
if you throw out the sin in your hands
and don’t let injustice dwell in your tents,
then you will lift up your face without blemish;
you will be secure and not fear.
You will forget trouble;
you will remember it as water that flows past.
A life span will rise brighter than noon;
darkness will be like morning.
You will be secure, for there is hope;
you will look around and rest safely.
You will lie down without anyone to scare you;
many will beg for your favor.
The eyes of the wicked will grow faint;
flight has vanished from them;
their hope is a dying gasp.

Prayer

God,

Open my borders. Extend your grace beyond what I understand, even as I seek to be a good steward with the things and people entrusted within my care.

By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.