When it All Started – January 21, 2024
Psalm 25:1-7, Luke 4:14-30
January 21, 2024
So this week, I’ve been thinking back to my earliest days of ministry. And I was remembering when I first was asked to preach in my home congregation, Carmel Presbyterian.
It was right after my first year of Seminary. It was the Summer of ‘79. And since it was Summer, and the main sanctuary didn’t have air conditioning, I didn’t get to use the big pulpit, the one built with masonry that you climbed up into. No, I got the little lectern pulpit in the chapel that you just stood behind. (I felt like I was sitting at the card table in the kitchen at thanksgiving!)
As I think back on that day, I cringe at what I may have said. I was pretty raw! And I have to think about those people listening. They were people who had seen me grow up, people who knew my parents, people who taught me in Sunday School, and people who had seen how I behaved around the Church. And they were some of the friends who had grown up in that church with me. I was too scared to think about it then, but now, looking back I wonder what they were thinking.
I thought about all that because of our story for today. I thought about “when it all started” for me, because this is the story of “when it all started” for Jesus. And I tell you my story, because, as you know, I always ask you to put yourself into these stories. And I ask you to try and think of what was going on in the lives these people without knowing what we already know. That’s the hard part!
Well, here we have Jesus, being asked to speak in his hometown Synagogue in Nazareth. And we can only imagine what those people were thinking. And like me, back in ’79, these were people who had seen him grow up. They knew his parents. And they had heard that he was beginning to speak in other synagogues around the region. And they were hearing good things about him. We know that from the first few verses here.
But, as this begins, he is not given a specific passage to read, like you might have been given if you were ever a lay reader. No, he was just handed a scroll, the scroll of Isaiah. And he opened it, and found the passage he wanted, and he read this.
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me,
to bring preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”
That was an interesting choice! But not nearly so interesting as what he said next! Because he closed the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. But everybody was watching him, waiting for him to say something, expecting him to say something, hoping he would preach like he did in the other synagogues. And so, he stood and said, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Can we even begin to imagine what those people thought? He was saying he was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah! Imagine if you were there. Imagine if you were there at my first sermon, and I said something like that? You’d think, “Hey, don’t we know this guy? Don’t we know his parents?” “Didn’t we see him growing up?” “Didn’t we see him throw snowballs at cars on Mt. Carmel Ave?” That’s what they said about Jesus. Well, not the snowballs one. But think about it.
Interestingly, the way this plays out, it was good – at first. Verse 22 says, “And all spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. And they knew who he was! They said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” There were proud! They were joyful! But not for long!
Again, they didn’t know what we know. They didn’t know who Jesus really was and what he would become. They knew he was becoming popular, but didn’t know how great his popularity would become. And I wonder if those who were there that day were part the crowds who would later throng him wherever he spoke! I wonder if any of them would be there on Palm Sunday, when he was hailed as king!
Still, at first, they still spoke well of him. But then he went on. He said, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’” “In other words,” he said, “What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here also in your own country.’” We’re going to talk about Capernaum next week. But for now, we can know that he made a few waves there already, and they had heard about it in Nazareth. They wanted to see and hear some of that. And Jesus sensed that. He saw that some of the pride they were showing was about what they had heard about him. And he knew what they wanted to see and hear. And they wanted proof about that crazy statement he had just made about Isaiah.
Wouldn’t we want proof? The Jewish people did. Later, Paul would write to the Corinthians, saying, “The Jews seek signs, and the Greeks seek wisdom.” And Jesus would run into this during his ministry. They would say to him, “Show us a sign.” “Give us a miracle.” “Prove who you say you are.” And that was especially true of the religious leadership. And those were often the times he would refuse. And if you think about it, even when he did show them a sign, they refused to believe it or accept it.
Then he went on to say, “No prophet is acceptable in his own country.” And then he gave them these examples that were tough for them to hear. He said, “There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, during the famine. But he was only sent to only one of them, Zarephath.” You can read about that in I Kings 17. He said, “And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, but none of them were cured, only Naaman the Syrian.” You can read about that in II Kings 5.
“No prophet is acceptable in his own country.” In saying that, he was hinting about the fact that the people of Israel were not kind to their prophets throughout their history. Later in his ministry he would lament over Jerusalem, saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” And even as he approached Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, that same anxiety overcame him. He wept over the city, saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes.” Maybe you remember the time in Acts when Stephen was defending himself before the council. He said to them, “Which of the prophets did your father’s not persecute?”
Israel had a bad track record of how they treated their prophets. And remember, a prophet was not simply someone who told the future. A prophet was one who came among the people and told they what they were doing wrong – in the present. A prophet’s message was, “If you don’t clean up your act, this will happen to you in the future.” That’s not a message people like to hear. But that’s what the prophets said. And the prophets were persecuted. And in Stephen’s story, the people on the council were enraged when the reminded them of that track record, and he was stoned for it.
Well, here in Nazareth, Jesus got a similar result. Luke tells us, “When they heard this they were filled with wrath.” Yes, all those people, the people who spoke well of him, the people who wondered at his gracious words, were now filled with wrath! “And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill, that they might throw him headlong down!” They loved him. But now they were ready to throw him off of the cliff. And they would have, “But that he passed through their midst and went away.” And I think we have to assume that was a miraculous escape.
So, when we read this story, what does it say to us? We love Jesus, don’t we? We’re glad to be his followers. We recommitted our lives to him last week. But are his words sometimes hard for us to hear? Like the prophets of old, we are sometimes asked to look at our lives and see where we’ve fallen short. That’s the traditional task in season of Lent, which starts soon. But that’s not easy, is it?
I was talking to a colleague this week. And we were talking about the Church – that is, the Church in general. And we were saying that people in churches these days are having a hard time with the things Jesus calls us to do in this life, as his followers. People are just fine with the salvation part of Jesus’ message. They’re just fine with the “not going to hell” part. But that whole “obedience thing,” they’re very selective about that. That “love your enemies” thing. That “take up your cross” thing. That whole “last shall be first” thing. Those things are hard for some people. And many people in churches today are “selective” in what they are willing to hear, and what they are willing to do.
If you think about it, if we take Jesus’ words seriously enough, if we are not being “selective” in what we hear, some of the things he said should be hard for us. I heard years ago, and I think it’s true, that if we don’t feel a certain tension between our world and our faith, maybe we need to re-examine our faith.
As we move through this new year, may we think about “when it all started.” Yes, Christmas is when it all started for Jesus. Well, actually not. John tells us that he was in the beginning with God! But where the preaching and teaching of Jesus all started was here in this story. “He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.” But then he came to his hometown, and some of the things he said started to hit home. And they weren’t easy.
I encourage you think about “when it all started” – for you. Again, that’s a good thing to do at the beginning of a new year. When did faith start to take hold? When did the things Jesus taught and said start to hit home for you? And as we move through a new year, as we look forward to Lent, ask yourself, are you willing to hear what Jesus has said – even the hard things. And are you willing to follow?
Prayer
Eternal God, we thank you for your infinite love for us and your amazing Grace. Help us to have the strength we need to hear our Savior’s words and to follow in obedience to him. Help us to know that we are not just saved by him, but we are led by him, too. For we pray in his name, Amen.