The God Who Leans In
Intersections for The Gospel According to the Servants - Week 2
The God Who Leans In
Matt. 13:24-30, Romans 12:14-21, 2 Kings 4:1-7, Ps. 86:1-13
Intersections | Friday, June 20, 2025
The Gospel According to the Servants - Week 2
A God who moves into our Mess
This week, we’ve journeyed through gardens of grace and wells of mercy, through fiery commands to love and whispered psalms of desperation.
And through it all, one image keeps appearing:
God leans in.
Not away from our mess,
Not above our struggle,
But into it.
This is the story Scripture keeps telling,
A God who bends low,
Listens deeply, and
Empowers us to live differently in the world.
Primary Thread: The Nearness of God in the Middle of Pain and Possibility
Each passage this week revealed a God who doesn’t shout from a distance but speaks up close. God doesn’t abandon people in fear, famine, conflict, or chaos. Instead, God responds with provision, presence, and peace.
Matthew 13:24–30: In the parable of the weeds and wheat, we’re reminded that God is patient with the mess, allowing room for transformation, not quick judgment.
Romans 12:14–21: Paul urges us to choose love over vengeance, mirroring the mercy of a God who responds to enemies with kindness.
2 Kings 4:1–7: God provides not just enough but abundance through a neighbor’s borrowed jars. A miracle begins with listening.
Psalm 86:1–13: A raw, pleading prayer reveals a God who hears, forgives, and rescues, not in spite of suffering but through it.
Additional Threads
1. God’s Patience is Redemptive
The parable of the wheat and weeds shows that God’s refusal to uproot too soon is not indifference, but mercy.
Psalm 86 echoes this: “You are slow to anger, filled with unfailing love.”
2. Love as Resistance
Romans 12 calls for an embodied, radical love: blessing those who curse, feeding enemies, overcoming evil with good.
Elisha’s quiet miracle in 2 Kings is also love in action, empowering a woman through dignity and divine provision.
3. Small Things Matter
The borrowed jars, the hidden wheat, the whispered prayer, each reminds us that God often moves through small, faithful acts.
The Spirit meets us not in spectacle, but in simplicity.
4. Prayer as Protest and Praise
Psalm 86 doesn’t polish its pain. It protests, pleads, and trusts, all at once.
This is how we hold tension in a broken world: not by suppressing grief, but by bringing it fully into God’s presence.
Sacred Practice: Intercessory Imagination
Revisit the week’s readings slowly.
Where did you hear God lean in?
Where do you need to hear God whisper, “I see you. I’m here”?
Invite God into those spaces with this prayer:
“You are not far. Help me see.”
Jesus-Centered Question
What would change if you believed that God’s first move is always toward you?
