Today

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

January 31, 2010

Text: Luke 4: 21-30

Jesus did not start out from nowhere: he was deeply rooted in the faith of his Hebrew mothers and father. He did not start his own religion and he did not hang up a shingle as Rabbi or Prophet.

For example, he attended Jewish synagogue regularly. It was not a place but a gathering. Ever since the Jewish people were scattered across the world, these Sabbath meetings, probably in homes, kept memory and hope alive: the memory of God’s intervening judgment and mercy: and blessed hope for the day when God would deliver them from oppression and renew them to be a “light to the nations.”

“The synagogue services were rather informal, consisting primarily of prayers, reading of Scripture [Torah and Prophets], comments, and alms for the poor.” (Fred Craddock, Interpretation: Luke, page 61) The meetings were lay-led; even the famous Pharisees were laity.

It was on one of these occasions that Jesus, very early in his ministry, returned to his home town and met with the men who would have known him from his childhood. (Where were the women? Listening in more than likely; but the synagogue gathering was for men alone at this time.) Jesus was asked to do the reading from their scripture scroll. As you will remember, he chose to read from Isaiah these words:

“The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me; he has sent me to announce good news to the poor, to proclaim release for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind; to let the broken victims go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Revised English Bible, Luke 4: 18-19)

It would have been a safe move if Jesus had refrained from comment after he read the passage from Isaiah. Perhaps he could have waited for someone else to witness on the reading. But he did not keep silent.

The Bible is a book which can simply be read for information. But not for the community of faith. It is always a living book. The Spirit of God broods over the Book as over creation at the beginning of time. The Spirit prompts people to speak in response to the Story found there. And through the speaking, God ministers to his people.

Jesus rolls up the scroll and gives it back to the attendant. He sat down (the posture of a rabbi). The eyes of all the men (20 or more eyes) were staring straight at him.

He said, “Today in your hearing this text has come true.”

Today and in the coming days of my work, God through me will be doing just these things Isaiah tells about. “The longing and hope of the poor, the oppressed and the imprisoned” would be answered through me, Jesus is saying.

In the other gospel accounts of this event the men immediately are offended. This is Joseph’s son; who is he to be making this claim?!

But in Luke’s account (a different incident?) of this meeting, they were astonished and pleased. If Jesus is Messiah (the anointed) they knew what this meant: the Messiah would “vanquish the Gentiles [non-Jews] and restore and bless Israel.” If Jesus was the One they had been hoping for, there would be “comfort for them and judgment for their enemies.” “Vengeance and retribution” were expected, along with deliverance for themselves. (Craig Evans, The Lectionary Commentary: The Gospels, pages 326-7)

Do not judge these men for the shape of their hope! After being herded like cattle here and there for centuries, after their leaders were blinded and led by rope to Babylon, after being exploited and forced to pay protection money, after being forced at times to worship at Babylonian and Roman shrines---is it any wonder that they would respond the way they did. They might not have been sure yet that Jesus was really the One, but they were ready to Amen his mission to free the oppressed and heal the broken-hearted!

In their comments about his family ties, they could only hope that he would certainly give them extra attention, and do some of the miracles in Nazareth that he had done in other parts of Galilee. T

But Jesus would not let well-enough alone. “No prophet is recognized in his own country [hometown],” he adds.

And then he reminds them of two stories out of the scripture, stories they would have known. Elijah, a prophet called by God, was ministered to by a destitute Gentile widow; and then she was blessed by God with bowls of grain and vessels of oil which would never be empty again----thus saving her and her son from starvation.

And then he reminds them of the prophet Elisha, who was blessed with the gift of healing people, who healed Naaman, an Army Commander from Syria---an ancient enemy of Israel---- who had the dreaded disease of leprosy. (See First Kings 17 and Second Kings 5: 1-19) These are two stories of God’s goodness to non-Israelites.

What’s this all about?!

Fred Craddock has this insight: “Learning what we already know is often painfully difficult.” (page 63)

Like a golden thread running throughout their ancient tapestry of God’s actions in the world was the belief that God, the Creator of all peoples on the earth, wanted nothing less than salvation for them all.

Jesus, from the get-go, wanted to make clear that the God who had called him was not a just a tribal deity of the Jewish people---- as precious to God as they were to him forever. No, the God who would live and act in Jesus----and through his disciples and later the church---- was “a dynamic and raucous God who jars us to wrath or to faithfulness.” We can reject Jesus and his mission to the wider world or we can be indifferent---or we can be angry. But some decision has to be made. (Gay L. Byron, Feasting on the Word, Year C, “Fourth Sunday after The Epiphany,” page 311)

Jesus was inviting his friends to rejoice that the God of Elijah and Elisha was now coming for the Naamans and gentile widows, too. Not instead of them, but also for them!

Jesus might have told him also of Jonah, called by God to go to Ninevah, that pagan city, and call upon them to repent of their ways. He resists in every way he knows how, and is literally thrown up on Ninevah’s shores and told to complete the job. And the people repent! And Jonah is furious; goes off to pout under a gourd tree. He says to God, “I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, long suffering, ever constant, always ready to relent and not inflict punishment.” (Jonah 4:2) Jonah would have preferred for God to destroy the Babylonians than save them! They were the Enemy.

It would be like us hearing that God’s mercy was extended to save the life of Stalin or Mao or Sadaam Hussein.

The rest of the story? Jesus’ friends do not want to be reminded of the wideness of God’s mercy, which is “like the wideness of the sea.” They do not want to hear that “the love of God is broader than the measure of our minds, and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.” (Hymn 121, UMH)

They are furious. The meeting disintegrates into a mob. They drove him to the edge of a cliff and were going to throw him over the side to his death. But, mysteriously, Jesus “gives them the slip.” (The Message translation)

Maybe they lost their nerve; maybe some of his friends helped him escape. It was not time yet for his death; there was so much left to say and do. He had been into the waters of baptism for us; he had faced down the Great Deceiver. He had set forth his mission in his home town. He would not be deterred. He had defined himself----and in so doing, he had defined all those who would follow him forever. (See Generation to Generation by Edwin Friedman)

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us, too. In the name and spirit of Jesus Christ, we are set apart and sent with the same purpose:

 “God's Spirit is on me;
      he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to       the poor,
   Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
      recovery of sight to the blind,
   To set the burdened and battered free,
      to announce, "This is God's year to act!" (The Message)

Can we listen to God’s merciful intervention for us in our need and still believe that God has other sheep that are not of this fold? Can we display the generous hospitality of Jesus to outsiders? Can you trust a God whose grace and mercy are outside your control? When Jesus teaches us to broaden our horizon, can we rejoice instead of pout? Can we believe in a God of such pure unbounded love? Can we be the voice and touch of this God, even to those who are outsiders or even enemies?