Scripture: Luke 4:14-30
So how many of you have ever asked, or been asked, the question, “So what’s your favorite scripture passage?” Most of us have some passage that always sticks out to us, something that we always remember – even if it’s one of those “oldies but goodies” like Psalm 23, or John 3:16… I’m a bit of an odd-duck, my favorite passage is from Exodus 33, when God gets irritated with the Israelites and tells Moses: “Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”
Seems like an odd verse to like, I know – especially to have it be one of your favorites… but I like it because it reminds me that when I get annoyed with people, it’s okay to sometimes be annoyed. Even God got annoyed with the people he loved.
Well, I suppose if you were to ask Jesus what his favorite passage, at least, his favorite passage from Isaiah, was, he’d probably say “Isaiah 61:1-2, with a part of chapter 58 verse 6 thrown in for good measure.”
See, we pastors usually follow what’s called the “lectionary” – the texts we preach on every week have been set for years, following the church year, picking one of the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark or Luke for each year. So, if we opt to follow the lectionary, the texts are given to us each week to try and do something with.
Not so in Jesus’ day. There was no lectionary. They just handed him the scroll of Isaiah and said, “Here, pick a chapter and verse, then explain what it means.” So, he picked his passage – read it, and undoubtedly the people in the synagogue sat there going, “yeah yeah… heard this before… free the captives, heal the blind, same old same old.”
But you have to realize, there was some expectation going on here – Jesus was their hometown boy who they’ve been hearing has been doing all these wondrous things, teaching, preaching, healing… now he’s come home! This is going to be awesome. You know how it is – your little “claim to fame” whenever someone goes off and kind of becomes famous. “Oh yeah, that Jesus? He came from my town. Went to school with him.”
So lots of expectation as Jesus sits down, chooses his scripture passage – and then what does he say? “This has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Wow. Probably weren’t expecting that! That the scripture he read, that they’d all heard countless times, he claimed had been fulfilled – in HIM? The pride had to just be swelling within the people from Nazareth. The anointed one who had come to bring good news to the poor! Release the captives! (Because in their mind, they were captives of the Roman government, so great!) Heal the blind. (Always a good thing to do.) Let the oppressed go free. (Again, awesome – they were oppressed by Rome.)
GREAT! The messiah has come, and he’s from our home town, so guess what – we’re going to get to benefit from him FIRST!
And really – Jesus should have just probably stopped there and all would have been good. That would have been the far easier thing to have done. Keep the sermon short and sweet Jesus before you go on and get yourself into trouble.
But… like most preachers, Jesus just doesn’t know when to shut up. Even though our lectionary text stops there for today, it’s kind of weird to try and break this story up because it all fits together, so I’m going to keep going and tell you what happens next.
The people all begin to murmur and speak well of him. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they ask. Isn’t this great? Joseph’s son, part of our community – the messiah is going to come out of that? That is so amazing! Think of all the great things he’s going to do for US!
Well… Jesus goes on and essentially says, “Now you all expect me to do all these wondrous things here in my home town, don’t you? Well. I’m not. Just like the prophet Elijah was sent to care for a gentile widow, a non-Israelite… I too am being sent to do all these things – for people other than you.”
Like a rock star coming to his hometown, everyone expecting him to give a concert while he’s home, and he says, “Nope. Not going to do it. I need to go play for the people over in Grand Island, not in Kearney.”
Well – the rest of the story is they get annoyed with him for saying he wasn’t there to entertain the home crowd and decide to try and toss him off a cliff .
Now, granted, Jesus is a bit antagonistic when he addresses his home congregation. But ultimately, Jesus is doing what God had been attempting to get the Israelites to do from day one. Reach out to others. Reach out to their gentile neighbors. Elijah did it when he went to the gentile widow. The entire Book of Ruth is about an outsider being brought into the faith of God. It’s in their own scriptures, this reaching out to those in other nations outside their own, about foreigners being brought into the family of God. But they have ignored that. They have stayed turned in on themselves and are concerned only with being freed from their Roman oppressors so that they can live lives that they feel are “free.” Freedom to them meant governmental freedom. The ability to rule themselves.
What the people of Nazareth did not understand was that when Christ says he came to free the captives, his freedom was not a freedom that meant we are free to just do as we please. True freedom does not consist in money and possessions or in the ability to do as one pleases. Americans are used to the idea of freedom as license to do as one wishes. So long as it doesn’t hurt someone else, I should be free to do as I please.
Jesus, however, understands freedom very differently. It is a release from captivity to death, release from captivity to the will of others, and freedom from… the will of the self. Jesus will preach the freedom that involves slavery to God's will and service to the neighbor. It’s a freedom that strangely – isn’t all about me and what I want.
But, that’s kind of the issue sometimes, isn’t it? It’s all about me, it’s all about us. We Christians a lot of times think we’ve got the cornerstone on Jesus. He’s our man. He’s come to save us, come to do great things… for ME!” As long as salvation has been promised to me… well, that’s the important thing. Because that’s what matters… it’s all about me and what is Jesus doing for… me.
And in many ways, this is true. We are all sinners. We are all in need of continuing to deepen our relationship with Christ, of personal disciplines in our faith life. We’re all poor in spirit, we’re all captive to sin – and we have all most definitely been blind. So yeah, Jesus has come for us as individuals.
But what we forget a lot of the time is that Jesus didn’t come JUST for us. He came for the world. He came for the people who still have yet to hear about him. He came for those who suffer injustices, for those with infirmities, for those who are hungry.
And yes, despite what Pat Robertson may say, he also came for the people in Haiti.
And when we think about Haiti, and the horrors that go on there, and we think about how impoverished a nation they were before this… we are tempted to ask God, “Why? Why is Haiti like this?”
And no, it’s not because they made a pact with the devil.
Well, this cartoon I saw recently I think answers that question best… sometimes I’d like to ask God why he allows poverty, famine and injustice when he could do something about it.
So, why don’t you?
Because I’m afraid God might ask me the same question.
I gave you a task, people – and you haven’t done it.
The earthquake of course has drawn our attention to the country of Haiti for the moment, but their oppression and poverty is nothing new. It’s been going on for some time. I’ve been sponsoring in fact a little girl from Haiti for the past 8 years through an organization called Compassion International. Her name is Rose. I still don’t know whether Rose is dead or alive. But Rose has been living in extreme poverty for her entire life.
Rose, her family, and the people in her country… are who Christ came for just like he came for us. If Jesus were to arrive today in our town, we’d probably all rush to him, wanting to talk to him, wanting a little “piece” of him, wanting him for ourselves, wanting him to perform miracles for us… and he’d probably say something to us that would annoy us just as much. He’d go, “you people already know me. You are already free… so what are you doing? I’m already among you—now, why aren’t you sharing me? I’m not just for you – I’m for your neighbors. I’m for the world.”
Humans can’t control earthquakes or forces of nature, but whether justice or injustice or poverty exists within the societies of our world – we do have a certain amount of control over that. Let’s face it, most of the world’s suffering is brought on not by acts of nature – but by acts of humanity. The acts of nature just tend to capture our attention and heighten our sensitivity for a short time to the plights of others in the world. But… it doesn’t take long before we go back to our everyday lives. And I know I am just as guilty.
Unfortunately, we’ll probably never eradicate poverty and injustice, because we continue to live in a sinful world where people are turned in on themselves, where people are greedy, and people will always concern themselves with what is best for themselves rather than their neighbors.
But that doesn’t mean those of us who know Christ are not STILL called to be Christ to others. To do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God as the prophet Micah would say. We are called, as the body of Christ, to be Christ to those around us.
As Christ has entered into our suffering, our lives, our tragedies – we, as his body and ambassadors are to enter into the suffering of others, from those living next to door, to those across the sea. Christ came not just for this community – but for the communities that lay outside these doors. To give them hope. To heal, to comfort – to set them free in Christ.
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