Today's Gospel

A New Vision of You

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant, where each day we explore the gospel of the day, looking for a word or phrase or an idea to anchor our day in the life and teachings of Jesus. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 9, verse 35, in chapter 10, verses 1, 5A, and 6 through 8. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. And he called to him, his 12 disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every disease and every infirmity. These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And preach as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of God is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse leopards, cast out demons. You received without pay, give without pay.'" What jumps out at you today? This otherness, we've spoken about at different times in our journey. There is this tendency to impose otherness on people in the gospels, is to see people as different to us or separate from us or other than us.

And this otherness prevents us from learning powerful and valuable lessons from the gospel. And so to counteract this otherness, the challenge is to see ourselves in every single person in the gospels, to see ourselves in every single person, the best and the worst as we judge them, to see ourselves in all of them. And then sometimes, we see these lists of things that Jesus did. And in this case, the list of things that his disciples did or being called to do. And I always find these lists interesting. And the thing that jumped out at me today was the list at the end where Jesus sent them out to preach that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. And then to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leopards, cast out demons. I like to look at these lists and think, "Okay, heal the sick. How am I the sick? How is God wanting to heal me? Raise the dead. In what ways am I dead? What aspects of my life are dead and need to be raised from the dead, or maybe there's a relationship in my life that needs to be raised from the dead or cleanse lepers? In what ways am I like a leper and need to be cleansed of my leprosy and cast out demons? What demons are roaming around in me at this moment and need to be cast out?" We all have them.

You can get a demon of anger around a situation. You can get a demon of unforgiveness. You can get a demon of selfishness. You can get so many ways to explore these ideas rather than the actual literal physical infirmities that we associate with them in the gospels. And so challenge today, look at the gospel and see yourself in someone different to who you've seen yourself in the past and ask, "How is God calling you to transformation through that person's story?" Have a great day. Remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best-version-of-yourself, all that God created you to be.