Sunday, May 18, 2014

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Luke 4:16-30

“…to let the oppressed go free...”

            Today’s Gospel is a powerful one for me. Jesus emanates such confidence. He knows who he is. He knows whose he is. He is completely convinced of his mission to those in need.

As I read today’s story, my mind goes to a recent encounter. I was in a shopping center and witnessed a scene that, to me, was distressing.  Apparently, a toddler had wandered off from her mother and was running down one aisle. I saw the mother run after her, snatch her up and begin to scold her loudly. “You know better than to run off like that!” She repeated the scolding over and over. The mother put her down, grabbed her arm and pulled her forcefully back to their cart, all the time yelling at her daughter and blaming her for the incident. She quite literally threw her in the cart and yelled, “Now you’ll stay in there forever!” The young girl, of course, was crying uncontrollably.

            I was deeply saddened by this interaction. The whole situation felt very wrong to me. My first impulse was to somehow console the daughter. I wanted to say something to the mother, but what? Was it any of my business? Is it ever okay to intervene in someone else’s parenting? What would you have done?

            When I got home, I sat with the situation for a long time. I tried to understand why I was feeling the way I was. I tried to see the incident through the eyes of both the mother and daughter. I can only assume that this behavior was common between the two. How will this shape the daughter as she grows up? What stresses was the mother under? What was her own upbringing like? Similar events from my past bubbled to the service: times when I felt oppressed by my parents, or times when I’m pretty sure I dished out a little oppression and humiliation of my own. I tried to connect with those deep feelings of frustration, shame and fear that I had known in the past and that, perhaps, the mother and daughter were then experiencing. My favorite spiritual teachers say that this is the best way to grow in compassion: to connect with these deeply-held and shared human experiences.

            This helps me to see Jesus and his mission in a clearer light. Jesus offers good news. He offers freedom and release to captives and the oppressed. In some ways, we are all held captive by our past, by negative experiences that have marked us, by the hold of our own ego that we rely on to protect our vulnerable selves. We all at some time or other can identify with either the mother or the daughter in that mall. But I think we can also all identify with moments when we have experienced God’s unconditional love, the very good news that Jesus offers. It is the succession of such moments of grace that slowly, over a lifetime, frees us from our own captivities and allows us to follow Jesus in bringing that freedom to others.

            I pray that both the mother and the daughter experience this love and freedom.

-David Shumaker