Proper 5 Year C
Taken from Lectionary Reflection Year C
Description
Proper 5
1 Kings 17.17–24
Galatians 1.11–24
Luke 7.11–17
We do not always notice the simple compassion of Jesus. We are often so busy looking for the deeper meaning, or finding the application for ourselves that we barely notice the actual motivation in the context of the real situation. Yet compassion is clearly one of the hallmarks of Jesus’ personality. Over and over again, the Gospels tell us that Jesus goes out of his way to help the outsider. Jesus lived in a society with, by and large, quite a capacious net for rescuing those in need. Certain things were laid down for Jews through proper observance of the law, and the family operated in a way that we alternately dream of and run from, depending whether we would like to be on the receiving end or the giving end. But even if their net was better mended than ours, still some people fell through it, either because of their race, or because they had no family to care for them. And these people called forth from Jesus unerring love and compassion...