Principal's Message

Dear Parents

The “Antique Road Show” has been a popular television programme for quite a few years. Viewers seem to get a buzz when someone, who has paid a few dollars for an item at a garage sale, learns from one of the experts that their item is really worth a few hundred dollars and on occasion several thousand dollars.

When Luke wrote his Gospel, he was on assignment from a wealthy man named Theophilis who wanted to know if what he had heard about Jesus was true, because he seemed to be a very different teacher to other Jewish teachers. Luke tells us how he went about his assignment: “I have made a careful study of everything and then decided to write to you and tell you exactly what took place. Honourable Theophilis, I have done this to let you know if what you have heard is true.” Luke 1: 3, 4. 

So, what had Luke learned? That Jesus took special interest in the less respected members of society. Many Jewish religious leaders believed that poor people were religiously inferior, that God wasn’t blessing them because they weren’t living correctly. Jesus did not think that way at all: “The Lord’s Spirit has come to me because he has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor.” Luke 4:18. Jewish leaders of that time considered women to be inferior. Jesus treated women as individuals and recognised both their faith and their feelings. Women helped pay for the cost of Jesus’ ministry: “Joanna, Susanna and many others had also used what they owned to help Jesus and his disciples.” Luke 8:3. The first person on whom the Holy Spirit came was Elizabeth. Luke 1:41. The first person to be called “blessed” was Mary. Luke 1: 28, 42. The first people to learn of the Resurrection were three women: “Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James.” Luke 24:10.

Many people of that time believed that handicaps were evidence of sin. Jesus had special compassion for the disabled and took care of their needs: “Blind people are now able to see and the lame can walk. People who have leprosy are being healed and the deaf can now hear.” Luke 7:22. Jews considered non-Jews to be on a lower social and religious level. Jesus' attitude towards other ethnic groups was revealed in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jews despised Samaritans but Jesus dared to use one as a good example. Luke 10: 25–37. Jesus broke through social values and practised equality. Luke’s portrayal of Jesus to Theophilis has touches of the “Antique Road Show” about it. Jesus befriended people who were not seen as valuable by the world around them and placed a very high value on them. By doing this, he showed us the value God has for each of us, for Jesus, early in Luke's assignment had said, “Didn’t you know I had to be about my Father’s business.”Luke 2:49. As Christians in today’s world, we are confronted by marginalised people whose lives have been swallowed by poverty, by addiction, by abuse, by personal weakness, by the greed of others and by depression. The question for us is, “In what ways can we be like Jesus to these people?” “Jesus, we ask that we be bearers of compassionate love, that we be more discerning of justice and need, that we be thoughtful and generous in confronting the pain and humiliation of people pushed to the margins of our community. Amen.”

Leonie Burfield

Principal