Weekly Reading: Luke 6-7
Here’s my suspicion: One of our deepest desires is to get got. When we encounter someone who gets our intentions, our wit, our brilliance–our sheer persona–without great explanation, a kind of homecoming happens in us. (Personally I experience a curious paradox: I spark with energy and simultaneously feel at rest.)
Yet getting got is a bit of a mystery. It can be developed through shared history; it’s that friend who saw us through our big hair days, our jock crushes, and our post-graduation funk. Or at times it’s someone who shows up in our lives suddenly, swaps secrets, and adores our quirks. We point to each other and declare, “You’re my people.”
This gift of getting got is a treasure—and often a rare treasure. We can wait and wait and wait for that best friend, that sense of community, that soul mate. Wait. And wait. And wait.
And in the interim we can get missed a million times. We encounter people who just don’t catch on to how freak’n funny we are, how nuanced our look at the world is, how much we have to offer. And when that happens we can feel a bit banished, like displaced people. (I can revert to that fourth-grade feeling of being picked last on the kickball team.)
JESUS, NO STRANGER TO IT ALL
This longing to get got and the reality of being missed are fundamental to the human experience…and so not foreign to Jesus.
During Jesus time on earth his family and dearest friends misunderstood him, his religious community rejected him, one of his followers betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver, and strangers chanted for his death.
And yet Jesus shared deep and at times instant affinity with the most surprising of people: tax collectors, prostitutes, scholars, and Roman soldiers.
In Luke 6 and 7 we get just a glimpse of Jesus’ relational life—with its deep rejections and soulful interactions. And through it we might gain wisdom and strength in our own waiting to get got.
In Luke 6:1-11 we get two snapshots of Jesus on the Sabbath (the Jewish weekly day of rest and worship). In both scenes certain Pharisees (religious leaders) criticized Jesus’ actions.
I can only imagine how frustrated Jesus was. The Pharisees were supposed to be Jesus’ people. They had committed their lives to studying God’s law and seeking God’s face. They should have recognized Jesus when he said he was Lord over the Sabbath and celebrated the fact that he healed others on a day of worship. But instead, these guys were enraged and became hell-bent on attacking him.
In the face of striking rejection from the religious community Jesus’ response is fascinating. He didn’t fiercely pursue revenge tactics or reputation-management strategies. Rather, he stole away for a time of prayer and solitude.
In Luke 6:12-16 we see Jesus go to a mountain and pray the whole night. He sought God and had time alone—I suspect to be reminded of his true identity. No matter what others said, he remained God’s Son, beloved. And then he chose his twelve disciples the next morning.
I am in awe of Jesus’ response.
Perhaps prayer and solitude are the most potent guardrails to dealing with rejection and for developing community. Out of communion with the Father and comfort with himself, Jesus pursued others.
REFLECTION EN ROUTE: How do you respond to rejection? How do you approach friendships?