We know that he got angry at times, but rarely do we see him depicted in art with nostrils flared and spit flying. We see him looking lily white, surrounded by sheep and children or eating with the disciples, but right here in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is definitely angry. I guess as “the pioneer and perfector of our faith,” it is easier to imagine that Jesus was always nice or always trying to please everyone around him. On urbandictionary.com, a pop culture website dedicated to defining the slang of our day, one definition for Jesus asserts that Jesus died for saying “how nice it would be if everyone was nice to each other.” Of course such a definition is a gross understatement of who Jesus was and is for us and also it leads me to question Jesus’ assignment as first and foremost a nice guy. Certainly, most of us find the nice Jesus to be more palatable. But I wonder whether this Jesus, this Jesus we meet here in Luke is the very Jesus that changes us.
I wonder if a super nice Jesus would have made it all the way to the cross, would he have been able to stand up to the religious and political leaders? Would he have been able to speak up in a crowded room? Would he have been able to risk everything if he had stuck to the manner of the day?
Now to be sure, Jesus didn’t start here. After he was baptized and heard God’s words that he was God’s beloved son, we don’t immediately read of any ill-tempered speeches or unsettling behavior. We don’t immediately see his holy impatience manifest. He was gracious with his disciples, although sometimes just a tad irritated, yet even early on in his ministry Jesus makes it clear what God has called him to do and sometimes he does it with a bit of an edge. Earlier in Luke, we read the series of woes. “Woe to you who are rich…Woe to you who are full…Woe to you who are laughing now… Woe to you when all speak well of you…” But of course that is not the end, after his impassioned tirade he says, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” Certainly words of overwhelming grace, but sharp and difficult words rooted in his ministry of radical love. It makes me wonder whether sometimes God called Jesus, whether God led him to his work of healing using Jesus’ holy impatience. Maybe those things that tugged at Jesus at night- that pulled in him, that holy impatience, was the way God reminded him of all he had been called to do.
When we meet Jesus in this story in the Gospel of Luke, he is teaching in the Synagogue on Saturday, which is the Jewish Sabbath. A woman approaches him. She is bent over and in pain, crippled by what the author tells us is from an evil spirit of some kind. She has not been able to stand up straight for eighteen years. Jesus says to her, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” He never says her name or offers her a word of kindness; he just lays his hands on her and heals her. The leader of the Synagogue was furious. He repeats loudly throughout the crowd, that he shouldn’t be healing on the Sabbath- that such behavior is against the law. And Jesus doesn’t respond with a “Yes sir,” or a “Let me explain.” Instead he shouts, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” You can almost picture Jesus’ mother Mary tilting her head and saying something like, “Now Jesus is that how you speak to your elders?” It is a tad unsettling. It is definitely not the softer side of our Savior. It wouldn’t make a great bedtime story, for sure. But maybe this Jesus is the Jesus that changes us. This is the Jesus that calls us to follow God even when it is uncomfortable. This is the Jesus that invites us to stand up and follow even to places that are unknown and frightening. Surely Jesus knew that calling the religious and political leaders hypocrites- that healing one of God’s precious creatures even on the Sabbath was a huge risk, but he did it anyway. It seems that maybe this Jesus, this impassioned, driven Jesus, pulled to love creation with holy impatience just might be the very Jesus that turns our hearts outward.
Yet for most of us, this is the Jesus that makes us squirm a bit. It seems we don’t have much practice following this Jesus. We don’t have much practice following the Jesus that speaks out even when the authorities challenge our faithfulness. We don’t have much practice following the Jesus that boldly speaks for those who the world tells us are not quite included in God’s loving embrace. But why is that? Well for me at least, this kind of discipleship feels wildly unknown. And as Christians being nice is generally easier. Yet maybe sometimes this Jesus with a bit of an edge is the Jesus that God longs for us to follow. Jesus was certainly not a conflict avoider, like most of us, or maybe he just understood that he could not follow God the way God asked him to if he didn’t follow his holy impatience. Maybe sometimes God uses our holy impatience, to call us out of our comfort zone, to invite us out into the world, to work with God to heal and love creation.
I have thought about this around the crisis with AIDS in Africa, which leaves 6,000 children orphaned everyday. Or the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. Or the death of teenagers and children around the world in wars of our own making. They stir in me a swirl of anger, it is the kind of pull that keeps me awake at night, compels me and moves me. The very word, mission, from the Latin missum in English is sent. And maybe one invitation to be sent out is through our holy stirrings of impatience with our longing for the Kingdom. Maybe Jesus’ anger, his holy impatience led him closer to the realm of God, invited him to respond, sent him to do God’s work.
The mission team shared its covenant at church council this week. It is a part of Christian discipleship that can sometimes be intimidating. It requires us to get uncomfortable, to get dirty to look out. But from what I have seen these past weeks, this community has all of that. Nearly the entire congregation showed up at the crack of dawn to set up for the craft fair and worked for weeks ahead of time and most of you have invested money, sweat and lots of your time fixing up the parsonage. When our budget is tight, we have dared to believe that sending our resources out is just as important as anything in here. These are not small accomplishments. It seems that this congregation already knows that it is in opening our hearts out there, that our hearts are healed in here. And so because I have seen the passion with which you have worked and the courage you have expressed, I can’t help but wonder whether God might use this passion, this work this yearning to invite us to think big as a congregation. Some of us, led by our impatience with the plight of economic disparity have been led to serve God and God’s creation at the Miracle Kitchen. Others of us have been led by our impatience with the fact that children are hungry and have raised money to care for them. And the Jesus we meet this week makes me wonder what holy impatience might be stirring in us, as a whole congregation. What might happen if we shared our holy impatience together as a congregation? Might we invest our energy and time to build houses for the homeless here on the Cape? Might we invest our sweat and tears in walking together as a congregation to raise money for something that pulls in us?
The covenant of the mission team reminds us that we are gathered here in part not just to be changed, to have our hearts healed and renewed but to renew the hearts of the rest of God’s creation as well. Jesus shows us that sometimes following God fully means boldness and courage, speaking up for those who cannot. And sometimes, God will lead us, will change us, God will set us free to stand up for those who have no name, no voice. In Jesus, we are set free to look out, look up, to stand up for those who cannot. Amen.
www.urbandictionary.com “Jesus”