Daily Lesson for July 2, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 21 verse 14: 

“The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them.”

The blind and the lame were not supposed to be in the Temple. A prohibition in 2 Samuel chapter 5 was very clear. When David first wrested control of the city of Jerusalem from the Jebusites, he called them “blind and lame”.  So it became a rule that the blind and lame were not to enter the Temple. 

But Jesus had a way of gathering the excluded — the poor, the lame, leper, the blind, the outcast. And though they were prohibited from coming, they came anyway.  They came to Jesus because with Jesus the once-excluded were included. They were excluded by the laws of society and religion, but they were included by the law of love.

For 2,000 years, the socially rejected and outcast have continued to show up with Jesus. It has never been easy for these persons to come. It takes courage to risk rejection.  It takes strength to hope for an acceptance which has not been found elsewhere. I am sure many — millions — stayed home.  The risk was too much, the pain too great. But, nevertheless, some did come. They overcame their fears and all their many past experiences of rejection and exclusion and they came. And in certain places, amongst certain very extraordinary communities, they found open hearts and open arms. And in those extraordinary communities, they found their healing. 

I want to be a part of that kind of extraordinary community. I want to build and be that kind of Temple.  I want to be a part of a church where the dignity of everyone is seen and valued and cared for. 

How about you?