You’ve heard me say before that I love The Chronicles of Narnia, written by C.S. Lewis. We read them over and over again to our children as they were growing up. Maybe a year ago one of them, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, came out in a very successful movie. That inspired me to read them all again just for myself and just for fun.
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a little girl named Lucy is playing hide and seek with her brothers and sister in a huge old country house, which was owned by an eccentric professor. She goes into a big closet, that’s the wardrobe, to hide among the coats hanging in it. But as she pushed through to the back, she comes out in a very strange land. It’s the land of Narnia. It’s under the control of a wicked witch, who makes it always winter and never Christmas. It’s populated by talking animals. And this is the beginning of some amazing adventures for Lucy and her family.
One of my favorite scenes comes when she is visiting with two talking beavers, who are telling her about Narnia. They tell her that the wicked queen has no right to rule in Narnia, the rightful king is the great and mysterious Aslan. Aslan hasn’t been seen for years, but he will come some day and throw the queen out. And the word is that Aslan has been seen in recent days and the beavers are going to take Lucy to meet him.
Lucy asks if Aslan is a man, and the beavers say, no, he’s a great lion.
That’s scary for Lucy, so she asks, “Is he quite safe?”
And the beavers answer, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”
You don’t have to read very far before you see that Aslan represents Jesus in the land of Narnia. And C.S. Lewis does a wonderful service to the church by reminding us that Jesus is not safe, but he sure is good.
Too often churches put an awful lot of energy into making their lives together safe. We keep our noses out of messy things out in the world. There are a whole lot of subjects that you just don’t talk about in church because it might make conflict. You stick to the routine of the same old same old, over and over again, because routine is safe. Change is risky.
In today’s scripture we see Jesus as not a tame lion at all. He upsets everything right in his own home synagogue. It’s a shocking story, but a very important warning for every Christian.
Three weeks ago we looked at the first half of the passage that describes his triumphant first visit home after he had started his public ministry. I imagine that his parents and neighbors were just beaming at their favorite son. He started out by announcing that God had called him to some very noble things, bringing good news to the poor, release to captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed. They really liked what he said. He was inviting them to be part of something wonderful, things like what we saw that UMCOR is doing all over the world, exciting things, things that would really make a difference on this earth.
But Jesus knew these people. He knew that they would be happy to talk about doing such things, but when it came to actually doing anything about them, they had a thousand excuses. And Jesus, who was never a safe lion, laid it out on the line for them, that there were some things that would need to change if they could be part of his movement. As Joe reads for us now, feel the shock of what Jesus did in his home church, with his family watching, ruining a very happy day. You can find it on page 61 in the New Testament section of your pew Bible. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.
14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues, and was praised by everyone.
16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 `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,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.'
20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him, 21 Then he began to say to them, `Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, `Is not this Joseph's son?'
23 He said to them, "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.'" 24 And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Jesus ‘home church’ had been so admiring of him one minute, but then he crossed a line, and they set out to kill him. Whoa
How could anybody be mad at Jesus? Wasn’t he that sweet guy that just went around kissing babies and telling people that God loves them no matter what? How could anybody be mad at Jesus? Maybe we need to take another look at what the Bible really tells us about him.
Can you feel the shock in our text? I can picture his mother, Mary, with mascara running down her cheeks as she sobs uncontrollably at what her son had done, in front of all her friends. Maybe his little brother ran out into the narthex with his cell phone to tell his girlfriend, “Guess what my goody-goody brother just did?” Maybe Joseph just sat there, steaming inside. Can you feel the shock? What did he do? Why did he do it?
I’m sure we only have a summary of Jesus’ sermon in front of us, the main points. And Jesus touched on two of the main things that keep churches self-centered, keep them from being useful for God. And Jesus loved them enough to put it right on the line and give them a chance to learn and move ahead. He gave them a chance to be part of the new thing that God was doing.
What were the two points?
The first was that he knew it wouldn’t be long before someone would be quoting an old saying to him: “Doctor, cure yourself.”
If you don’t like somebody’s message, but you know they are right and you don’t want to admit it, what’s the easiest way to avoid the truth? Attack the messenger. Jesus knew it was only a matter of time. And people who have lived by this habit can always find ways to deflect the real issues by criticizing. He knew these people were settled into their routines and ruts. He knew that change was hard for them. He knew that some people would much prefer to attack him personally than to consider looking inside themselves or really extending themselves to love and help someone else.
And churches can burn up all their energy resenting each other, fighting over the pettiest things, on and on, in order to avoid what God is really wanting them to do. And when the judgment day comes, what will they have to show that the accomplished with the time and resources that God had given them? Nothing.
Churches sometimes attract unhappy people who have refused, perhaps for years to deal with an issue inside themselves and they avoid being honest with themselves by criticizing everybody else. It’s the syndrome that Jesus later described as having a beam of a judgmental spirit in your own eye that blinds you from being any help at all for someone who has a speck in theirs.
And, like crabs in a basket, who will never get out because as soon as one crab starts up the sides, church members can be so busy pulling one another down that the church never gets anywhere.
And Jesus warned them about it. Is that a safe thing to do? Not at all. Is it the loving thing to do? Jesus is not a tame lion, but he is good. He wants the best for us, whether we’ll hear it or not.
The second thing that he knew he would have to confront from them was they would soon be saying, “Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” You know they would expect that since he was one of theirs, they owned him, whatever anybody else got; they should get the same and more. Our folks come first, everybody else, after.
For several generations now pollsters have been tracking attitudes in our country. One of the attitudes that they track is what’s called a narcissism index. Narcissism is a point of view that sees yourself as the center of the universe, everybody is out there to serve me, and something is good if it feels good for me. If it’s not good for me, why do it? That’s the exact opposite of the kingdom principle of dying to self and putting others first in humble service.
For several decades now this test has been given in the United States. What’s happening to the scores? Are they going up? Are they going down? They’re going up, dramatically. For several generations now we have been taught to feed the self-esteem of our kids, tell them they are great whether it is true or not, treat them like they are the center of the universe. And guess what? They’ve believed it!
And you can see it in churches that preach a gospel of prosperity, come to God and you’ll be rich, have good health. God is here to serve you!
And Jesus loves every one of us very much. He loves us so much that he warns us about a life of self-centered, self-indulgence. He loves us so much that he calls us to learn to live by love, putting others before self.
So Jesus reminded the people of Nazareth of two stories in the Old Testament, where God gave nothing to his chosen people, the Jews, and did favors for outsiders. To be useful in God’s kingdom you have to learn to be happy when God blesses people who are different from you.
In the first story, God was withholding his blessings for Israel because of the injustice and idolatry of their king, Ahab. And God shut up the heavens so that there was a three-year drought. Do you remember how a minor drought for a few months felt here a couple of summers ago? And we have trusty Lake Michigan next door. A three-year drought was devastating. And God determined to protect his prophet Elijah, who had had to deliver the bad news to King Ahab and then go into hiding, by guiding him to a pagan woman in the next country over, a widow lady. And God poured out blessings on a foreigner as she gave shelter to Elijah, and he gave nothing to the people of Israel.
Is it allowed for God to speak through his servants to his people and tell them when they are wrong? Is it allowed for God to speak through his servants to warn his people that if they don’t stop disobeying there will be consequences for them? Is it allowed for God to withdraw his blessings from people who disobey and then bless a foreigner instead?
That’s heresy for a prosperity gospel that says God is here just for us. It’s heresy for the narcissist. But a true disciple of Jesus Christ accepts God’s chastening for himself, looks to see what he can learn from it, and celebrates when God blesses someone else.
So, Jesus came to his home church, in Nazareth. He announced a wonderful mission he was beginning. They loved it when he spoke in generalities. But when he spoke of specifics, that it would cost them something to be part of it, that they would have to quit putting themselves first and start looking out at the needs of others, they would have nothing of it. In fact, when Jesus put the issues on the table, forcing them to confront them, there was such a gap between what was really important to him and what was really important to them, and he made it so clear and they were so determined not to hear it, that they set out to kill him.
And that Sabbath, which started so happy, ends up with Jesus’ home church in an uproar, and Jesus walking down the road, very much alone.
The Bible never tells us about Jesus ever returning to Nazareth again. I imagine that they went right to work collecting arguments of why Jesus had been so unreasonable in what he said. They reinforced their weekly routines, clinging to their sacred traditions, with church dinners and observance of holidays just the way they liked. They met every Sunday and did enough religious stuff to allow them to remain self satisfied. They stayed away from subjects that might ruffle people’s feathers. They bickered over silly things that were within the boundaries of would they wanted to talk about. And they just continued on with their resentments towards Capernaum and anybody else outside who was different from them.
And Jesus went down the Jezreel Valley to Capernaum. There he found somebody who would welcome him. It seems that he moved in with a fisherman named Simon Peter. They welcomed him to teach in their synagogue many times. He healed their sick. And there he found a core of disciples who would leave everything behind, honestly wrestle with his teachings, forget about themselves and pour themselves out in serving others and who experienced the most wonderful adventure of their lives. And everywhere they went they forced people to choose between living for themselves or living for others. And at each place some people joined them. And at each place the opposition grew. Until next week, as we move into Holy Week, we’ll see how horrible that opposition became. But they changed the world forever.
As we move into the second 50 years of the First United Methodist Church of Oak Lawn, let’s take another look at Jesus. Is he safe? No. If we are attached to something that holds us back, he loves us enough to let us know. He’s not safe. But he’s good. AMEN
