the holy gospel according to luke, the 4th
chapter, glory to you, o lord.
21Then Jesus began to say to them, “Today this
scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the
gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
23He 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.’”
24And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is
accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25But 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; 26yet
Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27There
were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of
them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
28When they heard this, all in the synagogue were
filled with rage.
29They 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.
30But he passed through the midst of them and
went on his way.
the gospel of the lord, praise
to you, o christ.
last week pastor jennifer read the passage just before this
where jesus outlines his vocation, saying, “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.”(luke 4:18-19) jesus then makes clear that this is what he is about. as in most of luke’s gospel, salvation
comes here and now. “today this scripture has been fulfilled
in your hearing.”
now.
this first glimpse in the gospel of luke of god’s glory
being revealed in jesus gets the hometown crowd pretty excited. their reaction is positive, if slightly patronizing: “this is joseph’s kid!” “we know him!” “he sure is getting his money’s worth at
school!” but then jesus drops the
figurative bombshell:
not here.
this is not “good ol’ boy” salvation that comes, as the
hometown crowd expects, to family and hometown first. just like jeremiah, jesus has good news of building and
planting: freedom from oppression—release to the captives, recovery of sight to
the blind, but for them both first comes reality: for jeremiah that reality is
destruction—plucking up and pulling down, destroying and overthrowing—babylonian
captivity—for jesus it’s that god doesn’t play by our rules—the way we’ve always done things.
jesus has come for all nations and all people;
there sure are a lot of those other nations. and, the hometown crowd are no more deserving than the
gentile widow at zarephath or the gentile leper, namaan.
nor, is the hometown crowd any less deserving, but until
they can realize that first part, that they are not more entitled to the first
and best from god, they won’t be able to appreciate the second, that because of
god’s love and grace, they are just as deserving as everyone else.
this realization—that they are not automatically entitled to
all the miracles they want as the hometown crowd—leads
to rage. in typical mob mentality, the crowd
switches from praise and hope to rage in a heartbeat.
…and they’re off.
filling with rage, driving jesus out of town, and preparing
to hurl jesus off the cliff. …
that’s the plan, anyway.
but in all their rush to hurl jesus off the cliff, somehow, he manages to
pass through the midst of them, begging the question: if he could just walk
away, why did he let it go so far in the first place?
as he is pushed and shoved to the hilltop, is
jesus holding onto a glimmer of hope that the crowd will ask to be a part of
what he is up to? to join jesus’
mission instead of getting riled up that he won’t join theirs?
i wonder what would happen if, instead of trying to throw
him off, the crowd had tried to fly with him. what if jesus let them shuttle him up to the hilltop to see
if anyone would have the courage to ask to fly? the
courage to leap with him into his ministry and vocation.
so, jesus keeps waiting and hoping that our questions and
requests of “what will you do for me?” and “please bless what i am doing.” will change to “what can i do for you?” and “how can i get
involved in what you’re up to in the world?”
if jesus is always waiting for us, pursuing us, what does it
mean that he tells the crowd—his hometown crowd, who expects his utmost
allegiance: it’s not happening here.
it’s not that what the hometown crowd does is awful, they
clearly care enough for jesus that they listen to him and praise what he
says—at first. the tough part, the
part where emotions turn on a dime, is when his hometown realizes that while
jesus is for everybody, their privileged position as the hometown crowd doesn’t
entitle them to anything.
jesus holds out hope as long as he can. perhaps out of love for this very
hometown crowd that is running him out of town. i can just imagine jesus, being pushed and shoved along the
way to the top of the hill, waiting and hoping for a voice to speak against the
mob.
and finally, as they make it to the top of the hill, jesus
looks around at everyone, and, with a deep sigh, lets his head hang down and
passes gently through the midst of them to go on his way, always waiting and
hoping, glancing back, to hear one voice, one person, break with the crowd and
ask to join jesus.
but it’s hard.
it takes courage and tough deliberation to leap.
at seminary, it was a big deal, for me, to lead a student
organization as we worked to become a reconciling in christ seminary, to make
our welcome official, and to engage in the tough conversations about welcome, but i
was not alone in it—it was jesus who was ready to jump, and i was just trying
to join in and that happened to be the role i was given.
at immanuel, we have plenty of chances to jump, to be brave
and courageous and ask jesus how we can join what he’s doing.
sometimes the chance to jump with jesus is clear, easy, or
straightforward:
saying
yes to serving at bessie’s house
bringing
extra food for mlm or the souper bowl on sundays
increasing
your giving
attending
a worshipping opportunity you don’t regularly attend
becoming
a faith mentor
sometimes it’s a harder question:
how
do we express god’s welcome, love, and acceptance to those who come here?
do we want to adopt a new welcoming
statement?
how do we want to spend money as a
church?
how much do we want our benevolence
to be?
how do we use this building?
how might we use this building?
what is jesus up to in
westport? in kansas city? in the country? the world?
sometimes, like jesus’ hometown
crowd, i do not want to join jesus in what he’s doing. i would much rather hurl him off the
cliff because this different way of being or this new idea is too much for me
and i’d rather stick to the way things have always been.
lucky for me, jesus always seems to
pass through and go on his way before i get the chance to actually hurl him off
the cliff, and i am left to ponder what i could have possibly been thinking.
other times, though, i am ready to
be that voice in the crowd that says, “wait! i want in. i
want to fly with you, jesus. take
me where you’re going!” it’s both
scary and exciting. i want it and
i fear it, and much of the time it is our vocation—it is where our desires and
joys meet the world’s needs—it is a dream that seems far off, but might actually be as close as jesus passing through the midst of us.
what is it for you?
what makes you scared?
what makes you want to hurl jesus off the cliff?
what makes you excited?
what is jesus up to that makes you want to jump?
how do you? —how will you—jump with jesus?
what makes you scared?
what makes you want to hurl jesus off the cliff?
what makes you excited?
what is jesus up to that makes you want to jump?
how do you? —how will you—jump with jesus?
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