Luke 4:21-30
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld got himself into hot water a few years back when he said to soldiers during a Q-and-A session: "As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want."
What he said was seen by some as an insult to our nation’s soldiers, although I think he was really referring to how the military was supplied at the beginning of the war in Iraq. Be that as it may, the phrase stuck, “You have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want." I kept thinking of it this past week as I was preparing for this message.
For centuries, God’s people had waited for the Messiah, the anointed King Who would vindicate His people’s trust in Him. But when He showed up after years of waiting, would the Messiah they had turn out to be the Messiah that they wanted?
It’s too bad that we got snowed out last Sunday. That means that most of you didn’t hear it as we read and considered last weekend’s Bible lesson, which recounted the first part of the incident completed in today’s lesson. Jesus, already being celebrated for His teaching and miracles in other parts of the region of Galilee where He grew up, returns to his hometown, Nazareth. As He and His townspeople go to worship in the synagogue that sabbath, the people of Nazareth are excited to hear what this hometown hero has to say. They’re bursting with pride and certain that Jesus is going to rouse them with affirmations of their favored status with God, of their goodness, and of the evil of the non-Jews, the Gentiles, people they were sure God hated.
At first, all goes well. Just like us here at Friendship, first century Judean synagogues had their typical worship liturgy, an arrangement of the worship order. It was probably optional for them to read a lesson from one of the Old Testament prophets. It was also customary to ask a visitor, which Jesus now was, to read a lesson and to expound on it.
And so, during the worship, Jesus stands and takes the scroll with the prophecies of Isaiah printed on it and picks two passages to read, one from chapter 61, the other from chapter 58. After reading, He hands the scroll back to the attendant and sits down. All eyes are on Jesus, everyone excitedly anticipating what He will say. “Today” He finally tells them, “this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
The synagogue must have been filled with electricity!
And self-congratulation.
The people probably thought: “Our homeboy, our Nazareth native, is the Messiah. This is good for us!”
This was the moment at which Jesus decided to show them that the Messiah that they had might not be the Messiah they wanted.
Luke tells us, “He 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.”’”
Jesus knew what the people of Nazareth were looking for: a show of miraculous signs like they’d heard of Him doing elsewhere. But there was a reason Jesus couldn’t and wouldn’t comply with their desires, two reasons in fact:
- There was a sin of which they refused to let go.
- There was a way of life they refused to take up.
“There were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah," Jesus reminds them, "when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.” Elijah was sent by God to bless not a widow in Israel, but one in the hated city of Sidon, Jesus remembers.
Then, Jesus says: “There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” A commander of a foreign army had complied with the word of God to receive healing.
Jesus really knew how to end a celebration! His words came at the worshipers in Nazareth like a roadside bomb. By recalling how God, centuries before, had ignored the people who claimed to be His own, the Israelites, the Jews, and had instead gone to foreigners to bless them, Jesus was confronting His townspeople’s sin and condemning them for the way of life they refused to embrace. I find that Jesus’ words confront and condemn me too.
The sin of the people of Nazareth was pride, what we might call arrogance.
They thought that they had a monopoly on God and a corner on the righteousness market simply because they had inherited the physical DNA of the very first Hebrews, Abraham and Sarah.
Yet Jesus was telling them that He had been sent to be the One Who could save all people who trusted in Him from sin and death.
My great-grandmother learned that the love and lordship of God is an expansive thing, able to include all people, in a very vivid way. She was an active member of Glenwood Methodist Church in Columbus, starting with her move to the west side of town in the 1920s. One day, a group from her white church accepted the invitation of an African-American congregation in Columbus for a program. Forty years later, my great-grandmother told me how people greeted her group at the door: "Welcome, white brother. Welcome, white sister." She was struck tto, when a young girl who couldn't read recited Scriptures to her. My great-grandmother saw the kingdom of God can live in the hearts and lives of all who believe in Jesus, no matter their race or station.
The sin of which the people of Nazareth refused to let go was the arrogance that said they alone were worthy of God.
And that leads us to the way of life that Nazareth refused to embrace, the way of faith, of trust in the God we meet in Jesus Christ.
They didn’t trust in God, but trusted in other things: their heritage as Jews, their obedience to religious rules, their performance of certain rituals in worship.
This was the very fake faith that John the Baptist was lashing out at in His ministry on the Jordan River near Jerusalem (as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in The Message), “Don't think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as 'father.' Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there—children of Abraham are a dime a dozen. God can make children from stones if he wants. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it's deadwood, it goes on the fire."
Jesus’ message at Nazareth is the same as John’s message was on the Jordan: It makes no difference if Abraham’s blood is flowing through your vains, if God’s grace isn’t coursing through your life. And it makes no difference if you were baptized, confirmed, and occupy a place on the worship roster of a Lutheran church, if you don't trust in God!
Believe me, I know how hard it can be to trust God. This past week, I went to Bethesda North Hospital for a stress test. My heart checked out okay. But now, I’m going to get some ultrasounds done of my stomach and digestive tract. Lately, my body has been sending me some unwanted signals. My wife and I are convinced that it’s finally reacting to some of the stresses we experienced in 2006. I’ve been depending too much on myself and on my own capacity to cope. I need to learn again the words of Proverbs that I mentioned a few weeks ago, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.”
The good news is that through Jesus Christ, we can depend on God. We don’t have to depend on ourselves. Forgiveness and life with God that lasts forever are free gifts to all who trust in Him!
Are you willing to trust in God completely?
Are you willing to rely on Him?
I ask you only if you are willing because I’ve learned that we can’t talk ourselves into trusting God.
We can only be willing to let Him build faith in us. We can only ask Christ to come into our lives and rebuild us every day. We walk where He seems to lead us.
“Trudi Hellstrom was orphaned at the age of four and adopted by her aunt and uncle in St. Augustine (FL). She knew firsthand, from an early age, what it is to struggle in life...In 1989, when Hurricane Hugo ripped the city of Charleston apart, Trudi and her husband Lars knew immediately that they had to do something to assist their neighbors to the north. Trudi decided to organize her own rescue mission of water, food items, and clothing to truck to Charleston. She rented a Hertz truck to carry suppplies to those in need.”
One woman with faith not in herself, but in God. One woman who thought that people she’d never seen before mattered to God. One woman grateful for the free gifts of new life that Jesus came to bring all willing to trust in Him, willing to rely on Him.
Late last June, when the Servanthood Team decided to set what they considered a modest goal--500 outside-the-congregation service hours by Friendship folks before the end of the year, I went along with them. But I wondered if we could make the goal. The fact is, you smashed that goal.
Now, we face another daunting task: Joining other Lutheran churches and others in the community with the construction of a new Habitat for Humanity home in New Richmond. I want you all to know right now: We can’t do it. But through us, the God we meet in Jesus Christ, can! Are you willing to believe in Him? Willing to rely on Him? Then, be at the Welcome the Higginses potluck tonight as we begin this new venture. While we build the house, Jesus Christ will build in us a sturdy, loving faith that reaches out to others. Jesus is the Savior Who turns our missions impossible into missions accomplished!
The people of Nazareth were dismayed. Jesus wasn’t the Messiah they wanted. But thank God, He’s the Messiah we have, the one we need.
No comments:
Post a Comment