Stroll through Scripture for April 6, 2025

Based on Luke 18:31-19:10

The Narrative Lectionary gives us three stories again.  On the surface, the stories feel random and unrelated.  But when we look deeper, there is a theme running through them.  It starts in the first paragraph.  Jesus tells the 12 what is going to happen.  When I read this paragraph, I was most surprised by the end of the paragraph – “In fact, what he said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”  How very interesting.  Jesus was plain spoken in what he was saying – he was going to handed over, insulted, beaten, and killed.  How much more plain language can you get?  Yet they didn’t understand?  Or did they not want to understand?  But the passage tells us – it was hidden from them.  Jesus was speaking their language, but in a way, they were speaking different languages.  In our own context it feels as though we are all speaking English, but we are speaking completely unrelated languages because of how words are used and what people mean by them.  

In the second story, Jesus approaches Jericho and has an encounter with a blind man begging.  The man is bold.  When he is told to be quiet, he shouts louder so that Jesus can hear him.  In this case language is again a barrier designed to separate – designed to keep things and people apart.  How could the crowd who was telling the blind man to be quiet not understand what Jesus was about?  At the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he proclaims that he is going to cure the sick, restore sight to the blind, raise the dead, proclaim good news to the poor, etc.  It’s as if the crowd heard something else.  They wanted to make Jesus into something or someone else.  

In the last story, we hear about Jesus and Zacchaeus.  Language is again highlighting the conflict that is going on.  Jesus says he is going to Zacchaeus’ house and all who saw the interaction, we are told, began to grumble.  Their words expression division.  Jesus on the other hand offers salvation and forgiveness.  

In all three stories, language divides and language move people in the direction of shalom wholeness.  But we also see that not many want that shalom to take place, at least initially.  The people want to maintain the status quo for several unspoken reasons.  Maybe it’s about privilege.  Maybe it’s about making Jesus into a celebrity and therefore more distant.  If Jesus was close to the people, then others might look inward and realize how they need him too.  Maybe it’s about maintaining a status quo that is known.  Who knows.  In each case Jesus though, Jesus disregards the division and proclaims truth that sets people free.  

Questions for Further Reflection:

• Where do you see language being used to divide or exclude in your own life or community? How might Jesus’ way of speaking truth challenge those divisions?
• When have you, like the disciples, struggled to understand or accept a difficult truth? What helped you see more clearly?