Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Jesus must have made things awkward for his hosts at times. Sitting in the house of a prominent religious leader, he breaks into a story about the futility of the very formalities among which he sat. As if that weren’t enough, he also challenged those around him to turn that very establishment upside down. That’s the Kingdom of Jesus, but it certainly wasn’t the culture of his day.

Did you know that all of Jesus’s Sabbath miracles were healing miracles? Here, when he is questioned on the matter, he compares it to being set free. Captivity is what prevents us from being who we were fully intended to be, and Jesus helps this woman get closer to that.

Jesus follows yesterday's reading about dividing families with today's about making peace on the way to court with an adversary. This is a good illustration that the Gospel sometimes take some wrestling. Good news is always good, but it's not always easy. While we certainly may find ourselves at odds with others, Jesus is still the Prince of Peace.

Jesus is speaking in this passage of some things coming surrounding his death and resurrection. The baptism he is bringing is the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that we are baptized into when we come to be part of the body of Christ. The spirit is fire, but it is a purifying fire.

Jesus takes a pretty radical approach to possessions. Where surrounding ourselves with things might be considered a mark of power in the world, it is not so in Jesus’s kingdom. He is looking to create disciples who are focused on the things of God, not distracted by the things they see around them.

Why was Jesus charging the "current generation" with the blood of the prophets? Because they reject him in the same way their ancestors rejected Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah. No lesson has been learned, and the prophetic Jesus now stands before them as proof. Even more, just like the Queen (outside the people of God) came to Solomon, so will God build his church with those outside the Jewish world. The Kingdom is on the move, and it's no place for elites.

Jesus must have had some pretty impressive power if people thought he was working for the devil. Of course, God’s power trumps the devil’s every time, but the people around him were probably speaking more out of fear of what they thought he might be able to do. It’s sometimes difficult to trust God when we sight big things happening, but just like Jesus, God’s work is always for the good.

Jesus continues building a picture for would-be disciples of what his upside-down Kingdom looks like, and it’s even crazier: now, he’s talking about Samaritans who were honorable and loving. Samaritans were hated by the people Jesus walked among, and to call one of them such things would have been shocking. So it is with Jesus: the people you think belong may not be the ones who are actually part of his plan.

Is it any wonder that Jesus sends out a larger group of disciples with nothing, and when they come back, he talks about authority? This is how the upside-down Kingdom of Jesus works. Our strength doesn’t come from power or numbers, but by learning to live in humble submission.

As Jesus approaches Jerusalem and starts coming nearer to the end of his ministry, he is more urgently putting out the call for disciples. This isn't panic, but the culmination of God's plan. Just as Jesus became a person, so will the mission of God on earth be passed into human hands when Jesus returns to the right hand of the father. No pressure, right?