Lost by Rejection

Friday March 13

Readings: Gn 37:3-4, 12-13A, 17B-28A; Mt 21:33-43, 45-46

Genesis tell us the famous story of Joseph (yes, the Joseph with the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) – whose brothers are jealous of his favor and talents – so they beat him (originally planning to kill him) and sell him to travelling merchants.  Little do they know that he will ultimately become a key player in their fate (and all of Israel) years later in Egypt.

Stories like this remind me a lot of what has happened to marginalized people and evoke the line from Isaiah 28:16 (that Jesus quotes in his ministry), “the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

Whenever people are rejected, ostracized or oppressed, something precious is lost in the community.  The community may not be able to see it (because they are numbed by their own power and privilege), but something is lost.  The same is true of our interior lives.  When parts of ourselves are rejected or marginalized, something is lost.  Until the interior and exterior parts are reconciled – so that we have the full complement of wisdom – we will go astray or lead a fragmented life.

Then Jesus tells a story of a landowner who goes away.  The tenants beat the landowner’s servants and eventually kill the landowner’s son as they plot to steal his inheritance.

Jesus then uses this story to basically tell his audience that their special status will be taken away from them because they have failed to heed God’s word.  It is no wonder the religious leaders wanted to arrest him.  They see themselves in the story he was telling.

I don’t know about you, but I can find it easy to think of the scribes and Pharisees as misguided, petty and closed because they were not open to Jesus.  I can even find myself thinking, “If Jesus were around today, I’m sure I’d listen to him….I’m one of the good people.”

My guess is that the scribes and Pharisees were people a lot like you and me.  They believed what they believed and were trying to do what they thought was right.  Jesus rattled their cages and questioned the foundations of their assumptions.  This made them upset.  And I know that, as a Christian, I was often taught to read the scriptures with myself on the same side as Jesus.  I was always in his company and not the recipient of his critique.

Now you and I may not be beating and killing anyone because they upset us, but if we’re honest we probably have to admit that there are people (or groups of people) that we interact with who rattle us.  They upset us with their critique.  They don’t give us a break.  They challenge our lifestyle what we find important.  And there are probably a thousand ways we can convince ourselves that “those people” are wrong, but do we ever ask ourselves what truth they hold or represent that we might need to hear.

This is not to say that we have to “learn from” everybody or everything.  The great James Baldwin wrote, “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”

The question for me is whether we can let in truth that we might disagree with and/or that might challenge us.  Jesus warned that our “righteousness” must be greater than the scribes and Pharisees who could not do this.  For today let’s pray for the courage to let in a truth that is hard to hear and let it work on us.