ministry even though he performed miracles in them. Jesus condemns the unrepentant cities of Israel. Korazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. They have rejected all Jesus, his disciples and what he stood for so they are condemned. He them to Hades, a place of the dead.
As Christians we must face the reality of rejection, the gospel, the good news of God will
not find a place in many hearts –so ours is not a ministry of chasing numbers!
We are not told how the mission of Jesus and the disciples has gone, but rejection was
the norm throughout Galilee. (Can you believe it!)
The people are weary with their situations. There is an acceptance of this, an acceptance of
the weary, which is why Jesus tells them to lean on him. Are we weary? We need to lean on
Jesus. There is an invitation to come to Jesus and lean on him, as though we were
yoked with him like the double harness of cattle. He says his burden is light. .
We have a body of wisdom in our sacred text the Old Testament. There are over two
thousand references to the treatment of the poor and 200 explicit texts. In the books of the
Law, the Torah, Yahweh/God is the protector and defender of the poor.
Exodus 22v21-22 reads “Do not mistreat a stranger or oppress him, for you were aliens in
Egypt. Do not take advantage of a widow or orphan”.
The landowners were commanded to leave part of their crops for the poor in
Deuteronomy 23v24-25. The Old Testament made sure poor people had means to earn a
living.
The prophets are even more explicit about the treatment of the poor. Amos condemns not only the
neighbouring countries but the Israelites themselves for
1. Selling people into slavery and debt
2. The oppression of the poor
3. The abuse of poor women
4. The exploitation of those in debt
Amos 8v4-6 reads
“Hear this you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
…buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandles and selling the sweepings of
the wheat.”
The people in Grenfell Tower were mostly people of colour apart from some disabled people in
the top floors. Some were refugees and artists.
Nobody in the 20th floor above survived. There were no sprinklers and only one stairwell down.and young children. Because of deregulation and subcontratcting no one knows who has died
and how many. But the tenants are working it out.
Given the cladding and insulation encouraged the fire and was a result of cost cutting, serious
questions of culpability will have to be answered by the council, government and
contractors.
More importantly the God we believe in and the man we follow has very serious things to say
about the treatment of the vulnerable and so should we. As people of God we are commanded to care for the poor, if you don’t believe me, read your bible.
Grenfell Tower is a blot on our landscape morally as well as physically. It is a blot on us and
as people of God we have to realize that there are expectations that God and other people
have of us . We need to get our house in order.
And we need to do it quickly.
