4th Sunday after Epiphany, January 28, 2007 “Series C”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: O God, who brings good news to the poor, release to the captive, and sight to the blind, let your word this day be fulfilled in our hearing. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds, that we might come to a deeper appreciation that Jesus is your beloved Son, through whom your Word and saving grace has been revealed to our world. And give us courage to respond to your word with devotion and service. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
Our Gospel lesson for this morning picks up where we left off last Sunday. According to Luke, following his baptism and temptation, Jesus returned to Galilee, and began to teach and preach in the synagogues of the towns and villages around Capernaum. And the people praised him for his wisdom and insight, and his reputation began to spread throughout the region.
Then he returned to his hometown of Nazareth, where he had been raised as a child. As was his custom, Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, where he read these words from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
He then sat down, the customary position of the preacher at that time, and said simply, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And Luke tells us that “all the people spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.”
Now there is a preacher’s dream! You preach one sentence, and the whole congregation is amazed! They were in awe. They even began to show a little hometown pride, saying, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son? Wow! Can it be that this child whom we had grow up in our midst, be the Messiah? It’s too good to be true. He’s going to be a blessing to our town.”
But in reaction to the enthusiasm and amazement of his hometown folk, Jesus added, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself’! And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’”
In other words, I believe that Jesus understood the enthusiastic response of his hometown to his message, to be motivated by the hope that they would be able to benefit from his ministry. After all, this was where Jesus grew up. Surely he feels an allegiance to his hometown. Surely he would think of Nazareth first, and shower us with his blessings. It’s as if they were saying, “Do a few miracles for us, Jesus. Show us your power.”
Then comes the clincher. Jesus tells the people in Nazareth, “No prophet is accepted in his hometown.” And then he goes on to cite the examples of Elijah being called by God to feed the Gentile widow in Sidon, while the rest of Israel suffered from famine, and how Elisha was called by God to cleanse the Gentile Naaman, a Syrian of leprosy, while many others in Israel suffered from the same disease.
Jesus’ point was made. Not only would Jesus not fashion his ministry in such a way that would specifically benefit the people of his hometown, his mission of extending God’s redeeming grace would go even beyond the people of Israel. Jesus would not be persuaded by hometown or other personal loyalties. His loyalty was to God, to follow God’s lead, that God’s Word and grace might be extended to all people, without bias.
Think about what this means, especially in this season of Epiphany, in which we focus on how Jesus is manifest to be the Messiah, the Son of God. In his commentary on our Gospel lesson, John S. McClure states: “More than anything else, these verses accentuate the fact that Jesus is God’s free and sovereign agent who will operate on his own terms. Although he has proclaimed himself to be the fulfillment of God’s promise of [redemption], Jesus will set about the work of establishing [it] in ways that will be controversial at best.
Jesus knows that his hearers are expecting some immediate evidence that God’s redemption is beginning in and through him. Jesus, however, lets them know that most likely his work will only touch their lives in a roundabout way… This, of course, appears to them, [the people of his hometown] to be presumptuous, if not blasphemous. In their rage, they chase him to the top of a hill with the intention of hurling him off a cliff.
Jesus, however, passed through the midst of them and went on his way. Luke presents us here with a picture of Jesus as absolutely sovereign, on his way to Capernaum under sealed orders to be about God’s business, letting the chips fall where they may. End quote. [New Proclamation, Year C, 2003-2004, Fortress Press]
I think you have to admire a person who is willing to follow his or her ideal, even when the people don’t agree. Now, this may be a very bad example, because I am not in agreement with a lot of President Bush’s policies, as are most of Americans. But I do admire him for one thing. Right or wrong, which only history will affirm, I give him credit for being a person who stands by his convictions, rather than flowing with the tide of popular opinion.
Jesus was like that, and more. He not only held to his convictions, his convictions were guided by and expressed the will of God for all people. His convictions were not politically motivated. He did not allow himself to be persuaded by his hometown people to use his influence to grant them special treatment. Nor did he limit, according to Luke, his mission to the religious faith of Israel.
Following his baptism, in which the Spirit of God descended upon him and remained, and following his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus was so resolute in his conviction to fulfill God’s promise of redemption for the world, that he could not allow anything to dissuade him or coax him to veer from his mission.
So he walked through the crowd that day, who were in such a frenzy to hurl him off the cliff, that they didn’t even notice him pass by them. He walked on from Nazareth, to Capernaum, where he preached most of his sermons, taught the people the truth of God’s Word, and performed many miracles – all signs that in Jesus, God’s redemption had come among us.
More than this, right from the beginning of his ministry, there is a foreshadowing of the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish religious leaders that will unfold as Jesus continues to follow his mission. As McClure puts it, “The stage is set for Jesus’ crucifixion, as Luke begins to demonstrate how easily the ministry of Jesus can be misunderstood, experienced as threatening to the status quo, and seen to be arrogant or blasphemous when placed within the context of the ordinary religious expectations of the Jewish people.
It is important to remember that stoning someone would not have been an unusual response if that person identified himself with prophets such as Elijah or Elisha. Jesus has begun to make claims for himself that will ultimately land him in the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem with his credibility on the line… Nonetheless, he sets his face resolutely toward Capernaum, on a road that would ultimately lead him to Jerusalem.” End quote.
Thus, Jesus not only manifests himself to be the Messiah, the fulfillment of God’s promise to redeem the world, he does so knowing that to follow the mission that God has set before him, will cost him everything, even his life. Right from the beginning of his ministry, Jesus realizes that his allegiance to God, would demand his all. And yet, Jesus stayed true to God!
This leaves me with but two thoughts. First, would anything less than our Lord’s resolute conviction to follow God’s will, suffice? I doubt that any of us would want to place our trust in a Messiah that wasn’t completely committed to expressing the will of God, regardless of what it might cost.
And secondly, knowing that Jesus did follow God’s will for his life, even to the cross for our redemption, can our response be anything less that than to follow him in faith and trust? Let us all pray that God’s Spirit gives us the courage to lives our lives as witnesses to the redeeming grace that Jesus reveals to us. Let us live as his disciples, in the power of God’s Spirit.
Amen.
