1.26.25 Luke 4:16–30 (EHV)
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As was his custom, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, 19 and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. 20 He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 They all spoke well of him and were impressed by the words of grace that came from his mouth. And they kept saying, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” 23 He told them, “Certainly you will quote this proverb to me, ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ Do here in your hometown everything we heard you did in Capernaum.” 24 And he said, “Amen I tell you: No prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 But truly I tell you: There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months, while a great famine came over all the land. 26 Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in Sidon. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 All those who were in the synagogue were filled with rage when they heard these things. 29 They got up and drove him out of the town. They led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the middle of them and went on his way.
Dear Friends in Christ,
How do you handle criticism? Does it make you angry or defensive? Or do you welcome it? I once was told, “I feel that the message at Trinity is focused on law, sin, and judgment. I feel it is lacking in God’s love and forgiveness. I understand the importance of recognizing the law; however, that message is overshadowing the truth of God’s love and salvation through the sacrifice of Christ.” Honestly, that surprised me and made me a bit defensive and a little miffed. I looked through my sermons to try and see if that was really true. The last thing an evangelical preacher wants is for people to somehow NOT clearly get the gospel message of Christ crucified. After all, that was Paul’s rallying cry, “We preach Christ crucified.”
Jesus wasn’t accused of being too law oriented in today’s text. In His very first sermon recorded in Luke, He focuses on how HE is the fulfillment of Isaiah 61. Jesus personified this throughout His ministry. Think of how He gently healed the blind man by putting mud on his eyes. Think of how he drew the line in the sand and kept the mob from stoning an adulterous woman. His whole ministry was the personification of grace and mercy. This was in contrast to what the prophets of the Old Testament seemed to preach when they were trying to get the Israelites to repent. It would have definitely conflicted with the teachings of the Pharisees who loved to make rules. Verse 22 sounds very complimentary. They all spoke well of him and were impressed by the words of grace that came from his mouth.
Isn’t that exactly what you would want too? Words of grace? But there’s also a part of us that likes the rules, at least when we can keep them. A part of us bristles at the idea of “free grace and mercy for all,” especially when we see it being offered to people who have gone off the deep end of sin. When we examine our own lives, we’d rather not need so much grace. It’s easier just to brush sin off with a quippy, “Nobody’s perfect.” If you’re not THAT BAD of a sinner, then grace isn’t so amazing to you. Maybe the Supper really doesn’t mean that much to you because after all, you get it every week. No big deal receiving the body and blood of God Almighty for the forgiveness of your sins. Maybe you prefer an ok grace or a mediocre grace, a “that’s nice” kind of grace. Anything but amazing. But these people didn’t seem to be like that. They were amazed initially. So what happened?
What Happens When Grace Isn’t Enough?
It was that next phrase. And they kept saying, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Matthew adds the question, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” It’s almost as if they were saying, “Yes, those are nice words, Jesus. But who are you to really speak them? You’re just a carpenter’s son.” Maybe they felt it was too good to be true. Maybe they felt Jesus was just trying to win over big crowds by telling them such gracious things. We don’t know for sure. But obviously grace was not enough for them. They wanted MORE from Jesus than grace.
And that, of course, is a dangerous place to be, when you want more than grace, as if grace isn’t enough. You can have great desires in life. You want to get married. You want to be a social influencer. You want to be able to afford your own home. You want grandchildren. You want one day to be pain free. You pray for it. You pray for good weather or more success, pray for anything but forgiveness and grace. I think of the young 8th grader who died from St. Paul’s this past week. I prayed for her, maybe you did too. But God said “no.” That’s got to feel like a sucker punch from God. She believed in Jesus. She entered into heaven. Is grace enough?
It’s even the smaller things in life that bother us though. You can have people in America with nice houses and cars, a wide variety of food, good health, but they’re still not happy for one reason or another. You want MORE, always MORE. Stop and think about it for a minute. You’re forgiven by GOD. You’re loved by GOD. You have a promise of heaven because of what Jesus did for you, free of charge. It cost Him a painful death on the cross, and He wants to give that to you so you don’t have to suffer! Don’t forget how much grace is worth. How precious it is!
Grace wasn’t enough for the people of Nazareth, so they kept on questioning Jesus because of Joseph, his father. They attacked Him by attacking His father. They didn’t know that Joseph wasn’t physically His Father, as He was born of the Virgin Mary. And Jesus couldn’t really say that either. They’d either accuse Him of blasphemy or Mary of adultery. Maybe He’d even come off as ungrateful, because Joseph was from all accounts a great stepfather. He protected Jesus when He needed to be protected. Stepfather or not, Jesus couldn’t disown Joseph from His life, and He shouldn’t have to.
So Jesus didn’t even go there. Answer that question and they’d only ask another. They’d just say, “Physician heal yourself.” Some commentators suggested that this was said maybe Joseph died by this point and Jesus didn’t heal him. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But Jesus knew that because grace wasn’t enough, they’d want a miracle of some sort like He had done in the surrounding villages. But would that have been enough? Ultimately, nothing would have been enough because Jesus was, well, He was Jesus. A leopard can’t change its spots.
What could you compare it to? If someone quits drinking or doing drugs, sometimes people will still never trust them. They’ll always think of them as druggies, liars, or alcoholics, even when they’re 20 years sober. No amount of changing will ever make a difference to them. It’s like they want to always see the worst in people. So it was with Jesus. He was the carpenter’s son, no matter how gracious His words were. Case closed. And that’s how some people are today with Christians. No matter how much you witness, how patient you are, or how kind you are, they will only say that you are full of garbage because of the Crusades or just because “that’s how all Christians are.”
You don’t see Jesus often get angry or frustrated much in the Bible. But it almost appears that way here, doesn’t it? He could have left without saying much of anything, but He decides to poke the bear. He brings up two historical references in the history of the Israelites where they rejected two of the greatest prophets, Elijah and Elisha. And as a result God sent Elijah to a widow in Zarephath, way to the northwest. He miraculously fed her and her son, along with Elijah for several years. Then He also chose to have Naaman, a Syrian cured of leprosy right in the heart of Israel, among all the other Israelites, while no record is made of any Israelites being healed. Why not? Because of the same kind of unbelief. Now the same thing was happening with Jesus, so they wouldn’t see many miracle healings either. Not because Jesus didn’t want to, but because they refused to believe in Him. Jesus wasn’t telling them these things only because He was angry over their unbelief or because He wanted a parting jab. He was telling them these things so they would repent and actually cling to His gracious words.
It was dangerous, what Jesus said, and He knew it would be. Jesus wasn’t exactly following the Dale Carnegie course of “How to win friends and influence people.” They became so angry that they went to throw Him off of a nearby cliff! Imagine people watching a church full of people pushing a rabbi through town, getting ready to throw him down. It sure was dangerous to be a preacher back then! Talk about a flash mob! Imagine the scene it would make if you all took me down to the river and wanted to throw me in. That’s what many of the prophets went through in the Old Testament, and these people were proving exactly who they were in their own temper tantrum against Jesus.
Anger is often a defense mechanism against guilt. People don’t like having the finger pointed at them, even when it is gently done. So they’ll vehemently point the finger back at you. Call you a hypocrite. Accuse you of making them that way. “It’s your fault I’m like this! You did this to me!” Maybe you’ve done the same, maybe even to God. “God, you made me this way! It’s your fault!” It’s not true. You control your own emotions and actions. You’re accountable for what you do, no matter how others have treated you or sinful you are. All of us probably have at one point or another gotten angry at someone for calling us out. Here’s the problem. You can’t shove God off a cliff.
A normal person would have to try and squirm and run away from a mob at best, running away from them as fast as they possibly could. But he passed through the middle of them and went on his way. So it’s interesting to think about how this worked, right? They wanted a miracle, and He showed one to them by walking right through the middle of them! Wouldn’t it have been cool if He did some WWE action on the people? Body slam a few guys. Twirl them over His head and toss them fifty feet. Maybe a throat punch. But He doesn’t do that. I imagine it was calm, cool, and collective. Intimidating to them in a cool kind of way. Without doing a thing, one man scared the whole crowd into submission. Sadly, they didn’t see it, because it was powerfully humble.
Ironically, it’s kind of what they wanted Jesus to do when He was hanging on the cross. “Come down, and then we’ll believe in you.” Escape the danger! But if this miracle didn’t convert anyone, that one wouldn’t either. What a contrast it was when He didn’t resist going to the cross. He decided to perform a greater miracle of staying ON the cross to pay for the sins of the world, and another one in His resurrection from the dead. That’s where grace is found for you and for me.
Is this kind of grace enough for you? What happens when grace isn’t enough? You will find God becoming angry with you, frustrated with you, and accusing you. You will find yourself getting defensive and angry with God, questioning who He is, maybe even wanting to throw God off a cliff. And what will you accomplish? Absolutely nothing. Jesus will walk right through you and move on to the next city. But mark this, He doesn’t want to do that. He wants to amaze you with His grace.
When you find yourself questioning who God is and what He is or isn’t doing, go back to this, God’s amazing words of grace. I think about that 8th grade girl that died. You could go through question after question after question. . . . what could have been. Why? Why? Why? We don’t have the answers. All we have is grace. There’s Jesus on the cross. He died for her. He rose for her. He took her to heaven. That’s all we can ever do, is go back to God’s grace, no matter what you’re going through, as miserable as it may be. Does God love you? Yes. Did Jesus die for you? Yes. Are your sins paid for? Yes. Is heaven for you, free of charge? Yes. Does God work all things out for your good? Yes. Is that enough or not? Free forgiveness. Free salvation. A living hope. Eternal life. Is that enough for you? I sure hope so. Amen.
