The spirit of God is upon me….
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God.
—Isiah 61.1, 2
Jesus read, “… to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And Jesus rolled up the scroll,
gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.
—Luke 4.19, 20
Yep. Jesus is guilty of cherry-picking.
He reads the part about God’s favor,
and omits the bit about vengeance.
He does that all the time.
You have to.
There are different voices in scripture,
different versions of God:
vengeful and nonviolent.
You can’t have them both. Pick one.
Jesus did.
Take sides.
Commit yourself to grace, to healing,
to redemption.
You don’t need to give equal time to vengeance.
To hell with hell.
The Spirit of God is upon us
to proclaim God’s grace
and omit vengeance.
Only when we get over violence
will the world be saved.
The Spirit of God is upon us.
—January 25, 2019