31 Days of Unityنموونە

(Re)deem: Have you ever paid attention to the types of people that Jesus criticizes? They have certain things in common. First, they are all pretty religious. They were the sort of people who read and memorized the scripture, regularly worshiped, tithed back to God, and raised God-honoring families. They absolutely would have been the sort of people to use their Bible app daily if it was available to them!

Another commonality was that they were people who did not spend their lives focused on justice. They ignored the suffering of the poor and the powerless. Somehow all their religious practice never included finding ways to demonstrate God’s love to and for the poor. It can be difficult to read these words from Jesus because we might find we identify with them a bit too much for comfort. Jesus made it very clear that many people who claim the name of God and practice plenty of religion, in fact, don’t know Jesus at all.

In this passage from Luke, Jesus uses several metaphors for those who appear to be his followers but are actually imposters. They are like a cup that is clean on the outside but on the inside is actually filthy. They are like unmarked graves that people walk over, making all who have contact with them unholy and unclean.

We cannot claim to love God if we do not love our neighbors. And part of loving our neighbors is paying attention to and providing for the poor and practicing justice. God’s kingdom offers blessing and redemption for all people, especially those ignored or harmed by the world. So too must our churches create space for those denied justice by the world to experience justice among the people of God. Otherwise, our church buildings are shining facades that are actually funeral homes, filled with the dead and the decaying.

Our pursuit of unity comes with a call to repentance for all the ways we have failed to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus gives us a very specific category, in this passage, that we should reflect on and repent as necessary. In a world of inequality and exploitation, the followers of Jesus must provide for the poor and help them discover the good news of God’s justice. No amount of Bible knowledge or religious faithfulness will ever overcome our failure to love our poor and suffering neighbors as ourselves.

After reading the passage, ask yourself:

• It is easy to be tempted to appear religious rather than to be transformed by faith. Ask God to reveal to you any place where your life resembles the dirty cups and unmarked graves of this passage.
• Who are the poor in your community? What would it look like to treat them as neighbors?
• Is God’s idea of justice similar to or dissimilar to our own? How are justice and love connected?

Our Prayer for (Re)demption

Jesus, you did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to bring salvation. May your light shine brightly through your children, that in our love of one another, the unity of the Church, and our service to the world, all may see your glory and be drawn into life with you. Amen