The Gospel for TUESDAY, May 24, 2005 (Jackson Kemper)
Luke 15:1-10
The tax collectors and sinners, however, were all crowding round to listen to him, and the Pharisees and scribes complained saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he told them this parable: ‘Which one of you with a hundred sheep, if he lost one, would fail to leave the ninety–nine in the desert and go after the missing one till he found it? And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, I have found my sheep that was lost.” In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner repenting than over ninety–nine upright people who have no need of repentance. ‘Or again, what woman with ten drachmas would not, if she lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly till she found it? And then, when she had found it, call together her friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, I have found the drachma I lost.” In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner.’ -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
A Study
John Dominic Crossan points out that Jesus, by continuing to eat with these outcasts of Palestine, was engaging in radical egalitarianism -- and in a society in which equality was not a sought-after quality. By associating continually with those beneath everyone else, Jesus proclaime d that the outcasts had no need of shame, and -- perhaps more to the point -- that the elite had not claim to pride.
A Reflection
It appears that Jesus is making peace with the religious elite who accuse him of eating with the unclean (and who will in different places accuse him of feasting when he should be fasting like the Pharisees, or John Baptists' disciples).
I rather feel that Jesus is poking them in the eye. He knew, and they knew, that they were far from upright people. By making his statement about the 99, they came to appreciate that He knew their secrets as well as they did.
In the same way, sweeping out the house might eliminate a lot of righteous-wannabees along with the dirt and other refuse, and this became another thinly-veiled threat to those religious elite badgering Jesus. Perhaps because he spoke in a Pharisaic code that only he and they -- and not the peasant masses around them all -- could understand, Jesus gave the elite a way gracefully to convert to Jesus' way of thinking.
We are told of one only who did so, Nicodemus. If that's the track record for the Pharushim or the Sanhedrin, then the rest missed out on a very good opportunity.
But the radical egalitarianism that Jesus preached was about more than table manners and dinner partners. It claimed everything to be shared by everybody; and so there could be no Sanhedrin (to which Nicodemus belonged) unless the members were chosen by lot. That kind of democracy scared the elite then as much as it might scare us today, if the keeper of nuclear weapons codes were to be chosen by lot.
The Collect
Lord God, in whose providence Jackson Kemper was chosen first missionary bishop in this land, and by his arduous labor and travel established congregations in scattered settlements of the West: Grant that the Church may always be faithful to its mission, and have the vision, courage, and perseverance to make known to all peoples the Good News of Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.
6:54:14 PM 
|
|
