For the past few days I’ve been reflecting on the story of the ten lepers that we heard earlier this week. Usually I reflect on the gratitude/ingratitude of the lepers, but this time I’ve been taken in another direction, and have been sitting with this:
“On the way to Jerusalem Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.”
It made me aware of how often Jesus is a marginal figure in the Gospels. His teaching, his lifestyle, the people he chooses to engage with all mean that he often walks a fine line along the borders of his day. He chooses to embrace this risky endeavour, knowing that as well as risk it gives insights and opportunities that might otherwise be lost.
Part of our call to follow Jesus is a call to the risk being on the margins. It’s a call that can leave us feeling like outsiders, alienated and even abandoned. Yet, it also carries hope, possibilities and blessings.
It can give us insights and perspectives that we might otherwise miss. Being open to that when we feel the vulnerability of marginalisation isn’t easy. It requires the openness to change that Ezekiel talks about when he says:
“I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove from your bodies the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh instead.”
This is one of my favourite texts, yet it’s also a hard one. To allow our hearts to be released from their protective covering of stone isn’t easy. It may only be possible if we are able go out to meet Jesus in those border places.
Where is Christ calling you to explore the border places in your life?