The Hot and Cold Treatment
(Luke 4:14-30)
Question: Why do we respect strangers more than we do someone who is tried and true?
I. Let’s Look At Jesus Rejection in Nazareth to Find Some Clues
1. In His own province, but outside of His hometown, Jesus was well received...
(1) after the Woman at the Well incident, He arrived in Galilee...back to Cana
(2) According to John 4:46-54, a royal official is burdened for his son--dying....same hour
(3) I love the expression in John 4:50, "The man took Jesus at His word..."
2. Then Jesus returns to His home town (Luke 4:16-30)
(1) It is Saturday, and Jesus is a devout Jew....synagogue as custom
(2) He had the privelege of Aliyat.....probably because of His reputation
---He had probably read the Scriptures in this synagogue on several occasions
(3) He reads a portion from Isaiah.....let’s read vs. 18--23
---When He said, "Today the Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing," He was claiming to be the Messiah
(4) Physician, heal yourself...
(5) He then gave examples of God being more gracious at times to foreigners than to Jews
because the gentiles were more open....24-27
3. The crowd was so furious that they drove Him to a hilltop and intended to throw Him down.
(1) They were hot, enraged, fuming, indignant, inflamed, raving, hostile, seething, and seeing red...
(2) It was humanly impossible for them to be more angry...
(3) But Christ MIRACULOUSLY walked through the crowd and went on His way...a low-key miracle
4. Why were they so hot? Because their attitide stank, and Christ exposed it for what it was....because they knew Him, He could not be the Messiah----He did not have the MYSTIQUE, the intrigue, the veiled mysticism that the Messiah should have...
(1) They knew His step-father, they knew His mother, His 4 brothers and His sisters (Matt. 13:55-56)
(2) Even His own family members did not believe in Him (John 7:5, "For even His own brothers did not believe in Him")
5. Jesus relocates His base of operation in a nearby town, Capernaum (Lk. 4:31)
Question: Why do we respect strangers more than we do someone who is tried and true?
Answer: When we know someone, the mystique is gone! It is easy to blind to what a person is really like because we think we know them deeply, but, in fact, often do NOT.
II. Let’s Look At A Few Everyday Examples...
1. New food service at place of employment
2. Celebrity speakers vs. local church pastors
3. Someone else’s spouse vs. your own
4. Someone else’s career field vs. your own
5. Visiting another church (both as pastor and member)
III. Can This "Familiarity Syndrome" Be Thwarted?
1. Yes, by an even DEEPER knowledge of those we THINK we know
(1) The Apostles KNEW CHRIST more intensely than the town’s people....
(2) His brothers knew Him in a deeper way after the Resurrection...
(3) Paradigm blindness: we think we know, Therefore cannot SEE
---X emphasized this concept constantly—
(4) Familiarity breeds contempt because we are ARROGANT and UNTEACHABLE
(5) This is especially true with our rltshp. to God... so much to learn, so many areas in which to grow
2. Most of us only get to know people in certain CONTEXTS....
Spouse, parent, neighbor, bowling buddy, board member, etc..
Secret of an interesting marriage--expand horizons, find new interests, learn more about spouse
People can surprise us in DIFFERENT arenas in which we do not see them...
---Your delicate mom may have been a trooper in childbirth; you emotionless Aunt might have deep feelings of hurt and disappointment buried under her cold exterior
---Coarse sounding people may have soft hearts underneath it all
---people with little education can be loaded with smarts and sense
---handicapped people may have unique perspectives and insights...
3. The people who did not know Jesus at all lent Him their ears; so did those committed to know Him intensely, the disciples; but his own family and hometown wrote Him off simply because they thought they knew Him. "I couldn’t grow up with a man who is the Messiah," they thought. "The Messiah has to come from the outside."
Don’t be fooled by the mystique, the lure of the unknown. The real blessings are most likely to come from real people who live among us; people who sweat, people who are not necessarily beautiful or rich or intriguing.
