Taking food for granted
This week is on Luke 4:24-29:
Jesus is teaching a few things at once here. The people don't like what he's saying though. They rise up to try to lynch him. (Spoiler alert: he escapes.) People are like that.
Jesus is talking about how we take things for granted. And how God doesn't always work the way we want him to. And about how he planned to reach the Gentiles, not just the Jews.
No prophet is accepted in his hometown, because people already think they know who that person is. That person is so-and-so, and couldn't possibly be God's messenger as well. We miss the unlikely messenger, and so we miss the message. We have to live based on assumptions in order to not constantly analyze everything, but when we stop being flexible in those assumptions about who people are, and what God does with them, we miss out on contact with the divine. That makes people angry.
We also take God for granted, and assume we know what he's going to do. Sometimes he doesn't do what we want him to do. It didn't rain for three and a half years during the time of the prophet Elijah. Can you imagine living in Israel during that time? No crops for three and a half years. You've eaten all of your reserves. People are starving to death all around you and resorting to cannibalism. Every day is weakness and a pain in your stomach. You call out to God and it still doesn't rain and there's still no food. Meanwhile you find out that someone who isn't even a Christian gets an answer to their prayers. That makes people angry.
Or what about the leprosy? All kinds of people probably had leprosy during the time of the prophet Elisha. I'd imagine they probably prayed and made sacrifices in the temple. But who does God end up healing? A foreign dignitary from one of Israel's enemies. That makes people angry too.
The Jews took their position with God for granted. They were God's chosen people. He didn't want those dirty Gentiles. They were dirty! But God went and sought out the Gentiles and included them in his kingdom though. That made the Jews angry!
The people in the synagogue probably wanted a nice inspiring message, and maybe some miracles to be performed for their entertainment. What they got was a reality check. God loves people, but he does things his way. Nobody wants to hear that.
There is always more truth about who God is. Sometimes there are things he can do that we never thought of. That widow and that foreign dignitary had no reason to believe that God would help them. The danger is when we take God for granted. If we think he'll provide for us because it's his job, we're bound to be disappointed. If we think he's in a relationship with us because we're better than those who don't have one, we're bound to see someone "worse" get touched by him. He confounds people who think they have everything figured out.
If someone you know becomes a Christian, accept that who they are may change for the better. Accept that God can use people you wouldn't think of. If you're healthy and well-fed and your needs are being provided for, be thankful and aware. Many people don't even have access to reliable clean water or basic sanitation. Lots of people are crippled and sick. If you know God, don't just assume that's normal. For centuries, only a small tribe in the Middle East had that privilege, from what we can tell. The fact that we can know the creator of the universe now is a blessing.
A humble attitude of thankfulness helps. If you've ever known someone for whom nothing was ever good enough, you know what it's probably like for God to deal with someone who is arrogant and unthankful. No matter what they have, they always complain. No matter what you give them, or what sacrifices you make, they always want something else. Don't be that guy! Be thankful for what God has given you. Be aware of how blessed we are. Don't get angry when things don't go your way. God is still our provider. He does it his way, not ours.
“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.
Jesus is teaching a few things at once here. The people don't like what he's saying though. They rise up to try to lynch him. (Spoiler alert: he escapes.) People are like that.
Jesus is talking about how we take things for granted. And how God doesn't always work the way we want him to. And about how he planned to reach the Gentiles, not just the Jews.
No prophet is accepted in his hometown, because people already think they know who that person is. That person is so-and-so, and couldn't possibly be God's messenger as well. We miss the unlikely messenger, and so we miss the message. We have to live based on assumptions in order to not constantly analyze everything, but when we stop being flexible in those assumptions about who people are, and what God does with them, we miss out on contact with the divine. That makes people angry.
We also take God for granted, and assume we know what he's going to do. Sometimes he doesn't do what we want him to do. It didn't rain for three and a half years during the time of the prophet Elijah. Can you imagine living in Israel during that time? No crops for three and a half years. You've eaten all of your reserves. People are starving to death all around you and resorting to cannibalism. Every day is weakness and a pain in your stomach. You call out to God and it still doesn't rain and there's still no food. Meanwhile you find out that someone who isn't even a Christian gets an answer to their prayers. That makes people angry.
Or what about the leprosy? All kinds of people probably had leprosy during the time of the prophet Elisha. I'd imagine they probably prayed and made sacrifices in the temple. But who does God end up healing? A foreign dignitary from one of Israel's enemies. That makes people angry too.
The Jews took their position with God for granted. They were God's chosen people. He didn't want those dirty Gentiles. They were dirty! But God went and sought out the Gentiles and included them in his kingdom though. That made the Jews angry!
The people in the synagogue probably wanted a nice inspiring message, and maybe some miracles to be performed for their entertainment. What they got was a reality check. God loves people, but he does things his way. Nobody wants to hear that.
There is always more truth about who God is. Sometimes there are things he can do that we never thought of. That widow and that foreign dignitary had no reason to believe that God would help them. The danger is when we take God for granted. If we think he'll provide for us because it's his job, we're bound to be disappointed. If we think he's in a relationship with us because we're better than those who don't have one, we're bound to see someone "worse" get touched by him. He confounds people who think they have everything figured out.
If someone you know becomes a Christian, accept that who they are may change for the better. Accept that God can use people you wouldn't think of. If you're healthy and well-fed and your needs are being provided for, be thankful and aware. Many people don't even have access to reliable clean water or basic sanitation. Lots of people are crippled and sick. If you know God, don't just assume that's normal. For centuries, only a small tribe in the Middle East had that privilege, from what we can tell. The fact that we can know the creator of the universe now is a blessing.
A humble attitude of thankfulness helps. If you've ever known someone for whom nothing was ever good enough, you know what it's probably like for God to deal with someone who is arrogant and unthankful. No matter what they have, they always complain. No matter what you give them, or what sacrifices you make, they always want something else. Don't be that guy! Be thankful for what God has given you. Be aware of how blessed we are. Don't get angry when things don't go your way. God is still our provider. He does it his way, not ours.
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