Tuesday Television:
Today’s Scriptures through media, by Jamie Caruso
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For fans of the show Gilmore Girls, one of the most touching scenes in the entire series occurs in Season 4’s episode “Last Week Fights, This Week Tights,” in which Luke Danes (Stars Hollow’s sarcastic and grumpy, yet loveable, diner owner) and his nephew Jess Mariano share a rare heartfelt moment. In the seasons leading up to this episode, we watched as Luke opened his home to Jess, whose mother could not handle his trouble-making ways. Throughout the roughly two years Jess lived with Luke, Jess continually betrayed Luke’s trust by playing hurtful pranks on the townies, disrespecting his girlfriend Rory, and eventually flunking out of high school and running away without telling anyone.
In the clip below Jess has returned to Stars Hollow nearly one year after running away. Despite Jess causing Luke so much pain, guilt, and embarrassment, we see in this clip Luke offering Jess forgiveness for not only all of his past transgressions, but any future ones as well. Perhaps even more powerful is Luke’s underlying message that he is not just forgiving Jess in this one moment because Jess finally expresses his gratitude, but rather that Luke has forgiven him all along, just as Jesus calls us to continually forgive in this Gospel passage. And unlike the forgiven servant in the passage who does not show forgiveness to others, Jess is able to take Luke’s forgiveness and transform his own heart to forgive himself, as well as forgive his mother for all the ways she has hurt him in the past. Because of Luke’s continual forgiveness, Jess decides to attend his mother’s wedding, which the former Jess would never do. Both character’s actions are examples of the radical love and forgiveness we are all called to grow in during this Lenten season.
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Jamie is originally from Bethpage, New York. Currently she works as a school psychologist at an elementary school in Delaware.
