Confronting the Discomfort of Our History and Our Present
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Confronting the Discomfort of Our History and Our Present
Herb Montgomery, January 31, 2025
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Our reading this week is from the gospel of Luke, and it encourages us to address parts of our own history two that are uncomfortable.
He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ ”
“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. (Luke 4:22-30)
How quickly the story changes in our reading this week!
Many interpreters see this story as part of a theme of expansion in Luke’s gospel. At the time of Luke, the early Jesus movement was predominantly a Jewish community, and it began including uncircumcised Gentiles. You can read about this expanding inclusion as well as the pushback to it in Acts chapters 10, 11, and 15.
Some other interpreters see this as a story about enemy love. Both Sidon and Syrian had been part of the historical Seleucid empire, which had oppressed Jesus’ people.
Still other interpreters, including those I resonate with, see this as Jesus confronting his own community with uncomfortable parts of their history. These two references to the stories of Elijah and Naaman refer to times when God had passed over Jesus’ people because of the injustices they committed against the vulnerable in their society. Instead, in these stories, God showed favor to people outside of that culture.
Consider the following examples:
In the last days
the mountain of the LORD’S temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it. (Isaiah 2:2, emphasis added)
These I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:7, emphasis added)
When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” (Luke 7:1-5)
I have a difficult time believing that the people in this week’s story got upset simply because these were stories of God including Gentiles in miraculous blessings. Many of the Jewish people at this time of this story were very open to Gentile conversions. I find it much more plausible that the people became incensed to the degree that they would attempt to throw Jesus off a cliff because he was calling them to confront uncomfortable parts of their history.
Let me offer a modern example.
White people turned critical race theory into a hot political talking point over the past few years. Critical race theory is an academic field that analyzes the relationships between race and ethnicity and our system of laws, social rules, politics, and the way race is discussed in the media. It is focuses largely on analyzing systemic racism in our society, not the racism of individuals. Critical race theory encourages better and more honest ways of telling our nation’s history in relationship to race. It calls us to confront and allow ourselves to be confronted by truth-telling about the racism that is baked into our social and political systems.
So when we read Luke 4 through the lens of how some White people in the U.S. today respond to any discussion of race, racism, racial history, or way racism shapes our present system, it makes the rage Jesus’ listeners feel in our story, to the degree that they want to throw him off a cliff, much more believable.
I also think of the reaction to the movement to remove Confederate monuments from many public spaces in the South and here in Appalachia. These monuments represent a commitment to telling American history in a way that supports the supremacy of White people. Under the false concern for preserving history, protecting these monuments is actually a concern for preserving the ways we tell our history. In the context of critical race theory, some White people would prefer we don’t talk about our history in relationship to race. But in the context of Confederate monuments, for these people, our history in relation to race becomes something that must be protected and preserved.
In Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter, Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas quotes New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu:
“So when people say to me that the monuments in question are history, well,…it immediately begs the question why there are no slave ship monuments? No prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks? Nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives of pain, of sacrifice, of shame…? So for those self-appointed defenders of history and the monuments, they are eerily silent on what amounts to historical malfeasance, a lie by omission.” (p. 82)
These concerns about our history are really about telling our history in a certain way that preserves White privilege and power in our society, and does not honestly confront the harm White supremacy and supremacists have done and continue to do both to non-White people and to White people as well.
In our story this week, Jesus is touching on parts of his community’s history to which his audience responds with immediate, vitriolic, and even murderous rage.
However we explain that rage, it foreshadows the Roman cross that Jesus will end up on later in the story. Both instances Jesus mentions were stories of Divine punishment on a society for practicing systemic injustice while God favors those outside of their community. Is their rage because these stories challenge a “chosen-people,” exceptionalist, supremacist worldview?
Our story this week reminds me of choices I have to continue to make in my own life. Those of us who benefit from the racism in our nation’s history and in our present economic, political, and legal systems must allow ourselves to be confronted by the discomforting parts of both our history and our present.
Not everyone responded to Jesus with this anger and rage, however. Those on the margins to whom Jesus would extend inclusion and a path toward justice saw Jesus’ teachings as good news, as gospel!
Today we need to pay close attention to responses that answer justice and reparations movements with rage and responses that define these movements as good news. Consider recent passion around the work to remove programs for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), beyond diversity, equity and inclusion in relationship to race. I think of cisgender rage against defining gender in nonbinary ways. I think of the response of some men to gender equity. I think of responses to calls for LGBTQ justice. I think of the rage against social safety nets for elderly people and children: there is more passion to “put prayer in schools” (anyone can already pray in school. Public schools simply cannont privilege one religion over another) than free lunches. I think of the rage certain sectors of our society feel toward calls for economic justice for the poor.
This week’s story reminds me that if at times I feel like throwing the Jesus of the synoptic gospels off a cliff, I’m in the right story! I’m being confronted with the discomforting truth of why we too often respond to calls for justice in our time with the same resistance and rage. What our story whispers to us is that this rage against justice today is the same rage that placed our Jesus in our gospel stories on that Roman cross. And it calls us to reject that rage and instead embrace a future where we live in a world that is a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone.
Discussion Group Questions
2. What do you think produced the abrupt rage in this week’s story? What lesson does our story hold, today? Share and discuss with your group.
2. Do you consider economic justice as foundational to other areas of social justice? How so? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
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My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.
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Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 2, Episode 45: Luke 4.21-30. Lectionary C, Epiphany 4
Each week, we’ll be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend in the context of love, inclusion, and social justice. Our hope is that our talking will be “just” talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week we’ll be inspired to do more than just talking.
If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out at:
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 2 Episode 5: Confronting the Discomfort of Our History and Our Present
Luke 4:22-30
“Today we need to pay close attention to responses that answer justice and reparations movements with rage and responses that define these movements as good news. This week’s story reminds me that if at times I feel like throwing the Jesus of the synoptic gospels off a cliff, I’m in the right story! I’m being confronted with the discomforting truth of why we too often respond to calls for justice in our time with the same resistance and rage. What our story whispers to us is that this rage against justice today is the same rage that placed our Jesus in our gospel stories on a Roman cross. And it calls us to reject that rage and instead embrace a future where we live in a world that is a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
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