“Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them except a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. And in the prophet Elisha’s time, there were many in Israel who had leprosy, and yet not one of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
When closely examining the passage above we find that the widow mentioned was a woman from a Gentile city. Naaman was a Gentile man from a Gentile territory. Elijah was a vessel for the grace of God given to an outcast Gentile woman and Elisha was sent to a leprous pagan Gentile commander. None of these are of the nation of Israel, God’s Chosen people. They are outsiders. Pagans. Those whom the Jews avoided. Gentiles.
As the church of Christ, we are not here to be a fortress striving to keep out the ‘riff-raff’. We are called to go out to them and invite them in.
The broken-hearted.
The downtrodden.
The oddballs and the mess ups.
Such as we all were before the touch of Lord Jesus.
Those with humble hearts and disadvantaged lives are to be touched and healed in the saving name of Jesus Christ. It is our privilege to be able to join our Lord in this mission.
We must never allow our prosperity and our own selfishness to distract us from this call. We must never forget who we were before Jesus intervened.
Luke 4:18-19
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me
to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Jesus, Light to the Gentiles – Luke 4:26,27
Ventanas 