Social Reform

I have been reading a book off and on titled The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ. This morning I opened up to a section titled Jesus and the Social Questions. Surprisingly enough, Jesus did not concern Himself with social questions at all, yet, was the world’s greatest social reformer. Jesus’ preoccupation was of course the soul, and then the community. The book led me to the Gospel of Luke, which is full of parables and sayings of Jesus. What I found interesting was that the series of parables opens with a very personal story of the “sower.” Jesus puts ourselves in the hot seat and asks in a sense, “What kind of soil are you cultivating, and how well are you at planting seeds?” Now I find it no coincidence that Jesus begins the first of His parables with one completely directed at self. He goes on to tell more and more parables, but what I find interesting is that most of them deal with subjects from a community standpoint. In chapter 10 we have the Parable of the Good Samaritan, which I’m sure all of us could read and reread five or six times a day. Then comes the Parable of the Rich Fool, which tells a tale of a man who has too much goods and not the heart enough to share. We can go on and on through the parables and read story after story of Jesus teaching and preaching about community and fellowship. But it comes down to one word, action. Jesus just didn’t sit around preaching and teaching, Jesus travelled, Jesus met with communities, Jesus went in and out of temples and towns spreading love and the good news. I think too many times we get caught up in the latest thing or the newest gossip, or we find ourselves sitting around for numerous hours on Facebook dwelling into other peoples lives, when we could be out and about loving and sharing the good news with others.