Lent Exercises: Expand - Learning to Love as God Loves
Tensions between the NYPD and the black Brooklyn neighborhood I lived in were simmering. After one of our neighbors, a man my age, was shot and killed by undercover cops, the tension was thick. The funeral procession turned into a protest. The protest turned into a losing confrontation with police.
I was about fifteen feet from the police barricade when the violence started. There was never any contest. Mounted riot police corralled protesters, while others bound hands with zip ties. Helicopters hovered overhead.
The scene I’m describing took place in the spring of 2000. I was a young campus minister learning to love and serve students at a historically Black campus nearby. Scenes like this have become far too common since then. Though an older campus minister, I’m still trying to love and serve communities across difference.
In Luke 4, Jesus claims to fulfil the words of Isaiah’s prophecy.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
These words are powerful for their immediacy. Jesus’ ministry isn’t abstract, idealized, and disconnected. God is with him. God is interested in the poor, captive, blind, and oppressed. Jesus’ ministry is directed towards the vulnerable.
Everyone listening grasps this appreciatively. After all, most in Jesus’ audience saw themselves as poor, oppressed, and captive. They inferred that Jesus’ message and ministry was for them. Until it wasn’t.
Jesus challenges his listeners with stories of God’s generosity towards a Sidonian widow and a Syrian official. Suddenly, the crowd wants to kill him. Jesus’ stories are too much. We love a God whose priorities are on the poor, as long as the poor don’t include the ones we fear or dislike. We love a God who sets captives free, until the captives are people we want in custody. We want the year of the Lord’s favor, until God’s favor turns toward our enemies.
The way of Jesus is not the way of this world. Jesus’ vision of the poor, captive, blind, and oppressed are larger and more expansive than ours. Followers of Jesus learn to love like God loves.
Perhaps this scene in Nazareth, or the one I described at the start of this post, stirs something in you. If so, this is a good opportunity to enter into prayer. Jesus isn’t interested in baptizing our perspectives. He is interested in transforming them. Imagine yourself in the synagogue with Jesus. Imagine Jesus’ words challenging you. Notice Jesus’ love for you, and for the crowd, even as they turn on him. What do you want to say to Jesus?
How is Jesus inviting you to grow in love?