Luke
4:21-30
Last week I promised you a cliff
hanger and this week we find Jesus about to be literally thrown off a
cliff. What could he have done to so
anger the people of his own hometown?
Let’s look at the text for this week and see if we can find any answers.
Those in worship last Sunday will
remember the setting in the gospel of Luke.
Jesus has just begun his ministry as an itinerant preacher and
teacher. He has returned to his hometown
of Nazareth and is teaching in the synagogue.
He reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah about the Messiah that
was to come, and then sits down and declares that he is this Messiah.
Jesus clearly lays out his belief in
the mission that he has been sent on.
The Holy Spirit has come upon him and he has been anointed by God to
“bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of
sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of
the Lord’s favor.” Jesus has also made
it clear that he will not be using vengeance, or the wrath of God, as part of
his mission.
As he declares his Messiah status, the
folks of Nazareth become naturally excited.
The Messiah is in their midst and he is one of them, “Isn’t that
Joseph’s boy?” They remember him from
his childhood in the village, and they are happy to embrace him now as one of
their own.
Their joy is short lived though, as
things begin to take a negative turn. It
is interesting to note that it is Jesus himself who starts to take things in a
negative direction. Whether he is
responding to the thoughts of their hearts, or he is simply eager to mix it up
in the hometown, Jesus comes out swinging.
He assumes they will ask for a
miracle, a sign, a chance to bask in his powers and glory. “Doubtless, you will say to me, ‘Doctor, cure
yourself!’ and ‘Do here what you did at Capernaum.’” But Jesus has no intention of showing off for
the hometown crowd as he says, “no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s
hometown.”
That alone is enough to get the people
disappointed. They haven’t even had the
chance to find out more about him, they haven’t even had the chance to ask for
a miracle. They have hardly had the
chance to even think about Jesus being the Messiah, and he makes it clear he
has no intention of bringing fame and fortune to Nazareth. Jesus says he is the Messiah, but he has no
intention of being the Messiah in Nazareth.
They will get no miracles or signs, they will get nothing. I am sure the people wondered just what Jesus
was playing at.
Jesus then goes on to cite Biblical
examples of Jewish prophets bringing miracles to non-Jews. Everyone remembers the stories of Elijah and
Elisha who brought healing not to the people of Israel but to those outside the
bounds of the chosen people. Jesus seems
to imply that though he is the Messiah, the people of Israel, or at least the
people of Nazareth, will see none of the rewards. They will receive none of the benefits of
having the Messiah within their ranks.
They will receive none of their just desserts for having raised this kid
who now claims to be the Messiah.
It is no wonder that the people get really
upset at this point. In fact, the author
of Luke tells us that they are filled with rage and rightfully so. The things Jesus are saying are really
offensive and Jesus is acting like a crazy person. He is clearly not the Messiah, or he would
know that the Messiah was supposed to bring miracles of healing and justice to
the nation of Israel and not to outsiders.
He is clearly not the Messiah, because the Messiah would be proud of his
hometown Nazareth, and would want to share his power and privilege with
them. In fact, it appears that Jesus is
nothing more than an ungrateful jerk who doesn’t think very much of them and
the fact that this community had raised him since he was a boy, and put up with
all of his silly and questionable behavior up to this point because they hoped
he would amount to something. But this
is just it, it’s the last straw. We
can’t have that crazy guy out there telling the world that he is the Messiah,
because it will make all of us look bad because he’s one of us, so let’s get
him. Yeah, let’s get him. Let’s throw him off a cliff. (At least that’s how I imagine it went.)
Jesus of course, manages to get
away. Either he used his magic Messiah
powers, or people in the community helped him hide, or he put on his invisibility
cloak, and he just sneaks away. Some
people think it was a miracle, and that the people of Nazareth got the miracle
that they didn’t even get a chance to ask for.
I think that they were just so upset, and had tears in their eyes, and
couldn’t see in the crowd and the mob, and he just slipped away. Just like he seems to slip away from us
sometimes when we become distracted by the world.
I know we like to read this and think
“man, those people are idiots”, but the more I look at this story the more I
see us, I see myself, in their actions.
Listen here, I’m not saying I’m going to push somebody off a cliff, but
I am saying I can certainly resonate with their deep disappoint. And I really think their anger is
justified. They raised that kid, they
know Jesus, “isn’t he Joseph’s son?” He
comes into the temple and before they can even respond to his outlandish claims
he starts messing with them. Like some
punk kid. And the things he says are
offensive in the church. We want to hear
about our status as God’s chosen people.
The people in the synagogue have been taught all their lives that they
are God’s chosen people. And that if
they do the right things, if they tow the party line, then God will bless
them. They are owed a Messiah, a Messiah
for Nazareth, and Jesus refuses to be that.
No wonder they are so angry.
I see this playing out all over in our
world today. It would be a lie not to
say that in some way, we all think of ourselves as God’s “chosen people”. God chose me to be a pastor and to serve
God’s people. God chose this church to
carry out God’s mission and ministry.
God chose this country to be a place that was blessed by God. God chose us.
And if we do the right thing, then we will be rewarded with
blessings. Wasn’t that the deal? Wasn’t that what we agreed to?
Jesus seems to imply that that wasn’t
the deal, or simply that the deal is off.
Jesus is not here to be the Messiah for us. Jesus is here to be the Messiah for
others. For those who weren’t chosen,
for those who don’t go to church, for those who are outside of the fold. Like the good brother in the story of the
prodigal son, we feel rightly cheated.
Isn’t God supposed to be on our side?
Like the people of Nazareth, we see
that anger and rage on the news every night.
Tell me that desire to get what is rightfully coming to us, to get what
we are owed, isn’t fueling the presidential campaign on both sides. Tell me that anger and loathing against those
who aren’t the chosen ones, the fear of them getting our blessings, isn’t on
the news every night. I am confident
that the people of today would also try to throw the Jesus of the gospel of
Luke off a cliff.
An old pastor friend of mine is very
fond of the saying, “Where ever you draw a line . . . Jesus is on the other
side.” That is the hard lesson that the
people of Nazareth got that day. They
had drawn a line around Nazareth and a line around the Jewish people, and Jesus
was all about crossing that line. We
also draw lines around our church, our nation, our identity as God’s people and
the first thing Jesus will do is cross that line. Jesus has come to bring good news . . . good
news to people on the other side of the line.
It’s such a hard lesson because
drawing lines is our natural inclination.
We are always finding differences between ourselves and other
people. We are always finding reasons to
draw lines. Lines make sense for safety,
and for order, and for organization, and for functioning, I mean, we just need lines to make the world work. And Jesus hates lines. It feels like we can’t win, which is what I
imagine it felt like for the people of Nazareth that day.
As we study the gospel of Luke this
year, we will find that the Jesus in Luke can be really hard to like. The Jesus of John is great because he’s God,
and the Jesus of Mark is just grumpy, and the Jesus of Matthew is busy being
Moses, but the Jesus of Luke just seems determined to make us look bad. The Jesus of Luke makes us look rich, and
wrong, and like outsiders to the kingdom.
When the good news is for someone else, it is a very hard pill to
swallow.
So, this morning’s text tells us that
Jesus is the Messiah. He is coming with
good news for the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the
blind, and to let the oppressed go free.
If we don’t find ourselves in any of those categories, then we might
find ourselves disappointed. The people
of Nazareth certainly were. Amen.
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