Monday 22 October 2018

Psalm: Psalm 17

Background

Jesus went to the lake again, a huge crowd gathered and he taught them. When he moved on he saw Levi at the tax desk. “Follow me,” Jesus said, and he did.

Later, Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house. There were taxmen and dodgy characters with him and his followers; these were the people he attracted. When the religious teachers (think ‘Puritans’) saw him eating with these lowlifes they asked his followers, “Why’s he eating with these reprobates?” They weren’t at all subtle when they asked so Jesus replied to them, “Healthy people don’t visit the doctor, sick people do. I didn’t come for the ‘pillars of society’ but its rejects; you rejected them. There’s no point in bothering with the ‘virtuous’, but those who are in touch with themselves, however flawed they are, are already on the road to healing. You can’t heal people without breaking a few laws …”

In my re-imagined story ('Jumbled up in Jerusalem') I see Jesus being even more irritated, more of a troublemaker and more explicitly winding up his critics. I also focus on the impact on the critics and how this motivates them, so the story continues:

They were too embarrassed to say anything, but of course they were fuming and their opposition to Jesus grew; it was another nail in his coffin … When they accused him at his ‘trials’ in his last days they never mentioned all the trouble he caused by taking notice of society’s rejects, or reflected on what kind of society would reject someone whose entire mission was peace and love.

To Ponder

• How has the church ended up in the same place as Jesus’ critics by calling people sinners?
• In what way is Jesus saying that sin is not a problem but virtuousness is?