Job is not an easy book to follow. Much of what Job’s
friends say to him about God and about human life seems to be correct. But
Elihu is the least attractive of the friends (Job 35). He stands in judgment
over Job, assumes Job’s suffering is punishment for sin (which we know is not
true) and show no sympathy. He claims there is a direct connection between
doing right and prospering and between sin and suffering. We know from the book
that things are not so simple in the real world. The God he claims to speak for
is a distant one who stands aloof from the world.
Luke’s portrait of Jesus shows us quite the opposite. Jesus
engages with a variety of people in Luke 20, many of them hostile. He tells a
story (the Parable of the Tenants) in which the vineyard owner is persistent in
visiting his vineyard, to the point of sending his son to his death. And yet
this son is the hope of Israel
For thought:
Are
there parts of my daily life in which Jesus wants to be more engaged?
(Christ Church lay preacher)