Tuesday 18 July 2023
Exodus 2:1-15. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live – Psalm 68(69):3, 14, 30-31, 33-34. Matthew 11:20-24.
Recognising Jesus in the outsider, and in the familiar
Moses is an outsider to his own people. He sees their suffering from the perspective of one who is comfortable, who has known plenty. The blurred lines of his identity help him see clearly the needs of those who are kin. He can empathise. But he is caught between worlds, he assumes authority that is not properly his. He is scorned by his fellow Hebrews and falls foul of his adoptive grandfather. He is cast out.
Jesus comes to the peripheries. Incarnate in the backwaters of Galilee. In those outlying places, today’s Gospel suggests, he becomes an outsider. He is rejected and scorned by those to whom he is closest. Maybe those around him miss his message, miss who he is, because of his very familiarity. Sometimes it helps to see the outsider, as a way to recognising Jesus. Sometimes we shouldn’t be afraid to see him in the familiar.
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