Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable... [Luke 15:1-3, NRSV]
Jesus had special attraction for all those excluded from respectable society. They listened to what he had to say. This annoyed the strict set. Their complain was: "He spends his time with disreputable types of people and even has meals with them!" Jesus explained what he was doing like this... [Good As New]
Today I begin a series on the familiar parable of the Prodigal Son. It starts with "grumbling" from the church-going folks. Grumbling is defined as "complaining or protesting about something in a bad-tempered but typically muted way." Later in Luke's gospel they would also "grumble" about Jesus' invitation to dine at Zacchaeus' house [Luke 19:7]. However, grumbling was only the tip of the iceberg. In Luke's gospel they also "questioned" [5:21], "complained" [5:30], "watched...accused" [6:7] "ridiculed" [16:30], were "hostile" [11:53] and eventually plotted Jesus' death [22:2].
This introduction to the parable challenges us more than we may think. Often, we in the church fail to see ourselves in the faces of the Pharisees. However, we are more like them than we may care to admit. We grumble for lots of reasons. We grumble at people who do things differently than us. We grumble because they are too conservative/liberal for us. We grumble because we don't want "those kinds of people" attending our churches. [You fill in the blank.]
Grumbling may seem like a harmless activity, however, if it goes on long enough, it can become a very destructive force in our churches and in our world. It eventually led to the death of Jesus. It can lead to all kind of hatreds, prejudices and acts of violence if it is left unchecked.
Who have we been grumbling about lately? Let's all keep a close eye on our hearts this week and see who pushes our grumbling button the most. What is is about this person/group of people that annoys us so much? It may very well be that they are more like us than we care to admit.
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