St. Michael's Lutheran Church, School, & Childcare Richville, MI
  • Church
    • Church Staff
    • KIDZ Ministry
    • Bulletin/Newsletter/Calender
    • Sermon 2022 C >
      • Sermon 2021 B
      • Sermon 2020 A
    • Youth
    • Outreach >
      • Hmong Ministry
    • Stewardship
    • VBS
    • Confirmation
    • Passion Drama
    • Endowment >
      • Grant Application
    • Thrivent Choice
    • Electronic Giving
    • Crossroads Counseling
  • School
    • School Staff
    • Quality Christian Program
    • Admissions Infomation >
      • Application Form/Enrollment Form
    • SCRIP
    • Athletics
    • PTL (Parent Teacher League)
    • Media Center
    • Bulletin Board/News
    • Links
  • Child Care/Preschool
    • About US
    • Child Care and Preschool Staff
    • Child Care Enrollment Information
    • Preschool Enrollment Information
  • Music
    • Church Music Ministry
    • School Music Ministry >
      • Instrumental Music
      • Choral Music
      • General Music Education
    • Music Events (Church & School)
  • Auxiliary
    • Lutheran Laymen League >
      • Men's Club Activities
    • Mary Martha Guild
  • Contact
  • Pastor Blog
  • Calendar

Not All The Same

5/24/2021

0 Comments

 
When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people, he returned to Capernaum. 2 At that time the highly valued slave of a Roman officer was sick and near death. 3 When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some respected Jewish elders to ask him to come and heal his slave. 4 So they earnestly begged Jesus to help the man. “If anyone deserves your help, he does,” they said, 5 “for he loves the Jewish people and even built a synagogue for us.” (Luke 7:1-5 NLT)

This is the start of a fascinating series of events during Jesus' ministry about a specific Roman military officer. The Jews did not like having the Romans occupy their nation. Many of the Romans found the Jewish people rebellious and hard to deal with.
Sounds to me like there was prejudice on both sides.

​But we have to be careful about prejudice because it puts a group of people into the same category that is used to justify poor treatment of them. But people are people. Prejudice against a group of people is wrong. The only category everyone fits into is "sinner," because we are all guilty. Jesus paid the debt for everyone's sins on the cross. 

This Roman Officer broke down the walls of prejudice by loving the Jewish people and building a synagogue, a house of worship, for them. The Roman officer was not asking for help for himself, but for servant or slave. (Both translations of the New Testament word are possible.) Jewish Elders begged Jesus to intervene.

Prejudice is one of the results of our sinful nature. Jesus loves us all. He tells us to love our enemies. With God's help we can overcome prejudice and live in a way that gives glory to God by helping and serving others. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    My name is Larry. Right now I am serving as the Intentional Interim or Transitional Pastor at St. Michael's Lutheran Church, Richville, MI. This blog is part of my daily personal time reading the Bible and talking with God. It is more of my personal thoughts than a deep theological discussion. Thanks for taking the time to join me in reading and thinking about what God has to say to us today.

    Archives

    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed