Jesus at the Margins

Listen, you leaders of Jacob,
you rulers of Israel.
Should you not embrace justice? - Micah 3:1

In the Gospels, dozens of times Jesus starts or ends his messages in the command to listen. He’s picking up a them from the Old Testament, which also commands us to listen over and over again.

One of the things that the scriptures call us to listen to is the voice of those who are on the margins (for example, “Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered” -Proverbs 21:13). As we’ve talked about in recent weeks, Jesus himself did not identify with the power centers of his world, but instead moved towards the margins where the people with power pushed those without. We’ve drawn it something like this:

In the scripture for today, the prophet Micah connects listening to justice, pushing for those with privilege and power to move towards the margins themselves, valuing those who are not at the center of power.

Have you sensed God’s call in your life to do justice - and if so, think back to how you heard God’s call and what you did with it? In these days, giventhe political and social culture of 2019, what might it look like for you to head towards the margins with Jesus, seeking justice for those who are there? And what affirmations might Jesus be seeking to give you should you already identify as being on the margins, having been pushed there by those with privilege and power?