Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, March 7, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
This feels like a reversal of Tuesday’s text. Then, whoever wasn’t against Jesus was for him. Now, whoever is against one of Jesus’ followers is against Jesus, and therefore against God. Which, you know, is okay if the follower is actually carrying Jesus’ message of love and service. But it gets tricky when different people try to find a definition of what it means to “reject Jesus.” Does that simply mean not believing that Jesus is divine? That Jesus’ is the only way to eternal life? I don’t hold with that theology, if even if that’s what the text seems to be saying. I’m pretty sure that Jesus’ death and resurrection resulted in the redemption of and salvation for all of creation, full stop. So, you know, you don’t have to actually even believe God exists to be saved.
How, then, to interpret this text for us today, in the here and now? I’m convinced that Jesus’ simple message of unconditional love and humble service is universally applicable, no matter what your particular spiritual beliefs. And I’m pretty sure (from experience, actually) that when you reject this basic premise and try to live your life from a position of self-absorbed wish-fulfillment (yep, experienced that, too) then yeah, you reject God, who is out there banging on the door, trying to get in and lavish unbelievable love and grace and flourishing and wholeness and all kinds of good things on you, and, um, you’re not opening the door because you’re mad you couldn’t make the other people in your life follow your script for how they should be in order to make you happy. (Yikes).
At some point, we (okay, I) need to open myself up to the people around me who might have some insight into who Jesus is and what he wants from and for me. And when I do this, and stop rejecting what is so obviously beautiful and for my own good, lo and behold, I get all kinds of goodies, not least of which is freedom from my own petty selfishness. I’m grateful this happened for me in recovery, and continues to happen for me as I practice the principles of said recovery. I listen to the people around me whose experience I trust, and I hear in their words the voice of God. What a gift.
Where in my life am I rejecting God? How do I open myself to receiving God’s communication?
