Mess with the Menu

We as human beings have a great menu of emotions to "choose" from, to experience. We get sad, disappointed, jealous, greedy, depressed, lonely, excited...we experience joy, concern, worry, anxiety fear, and the list goes on and on. There's no telling what a day might bring us.

One of the emotions that Luke 13:1-9 brings to mind is anger. For the most part, we don't like to be angry. If something has made us angry or brought anger out of us, we would rather not have experienced that situation. If emotions were cuisine, anger would more than likely leave a sour taste in our mouths. More specifically, this passage helps me become aware of self-righteous anger. This is the seasoning that one may add to anger to make it more "tasty." This kind of anger is easier for us to swallow.

This is the kind of anger that says: "I am angry because something did not turn out my way." It makes us feel superior. This dish also reheats very easily; it tastes almost the same every time!

But now we are in the season of Lent, and Jesus is calling us back to God (this is what repentance is). Self-righteousness is by nature a form a selfishness (notice the common preface "self"). The Galileans in this passage are angry, and perhaps they should be. Their anger turns into self-righteous anger because the folks acted like they were better than their enemies. Even if they were, that is not what Jesus was calling them to think about. Jesus called them to repentance, which is focused on God, rather than enemies.

The Galileans from this story expected for Jesus to agree with them, to affirm their stance on the moral high ground, to tell them what a very fine meal they were serving up. But, he didn't. He contradicted them and called them to turn back to God. And I believe that Jesus is still knocking us off our moral high horses. He brings us back to earth, back to reality, and back to God.

This is enough to mess with your menu and with your appetite for self-righteous anger.

Listen to Jesus calling for you to repent.

In Christ,

Jack

P.S. I have found that a helpful question to ask myself when I am angry is "how will this help me love God and neighbor better?" If your anger is based on how someone else acts, it may be self-righteous. This is a tough pill to swallow, so I suggest you go to God when you are angry, using this question as your guide.