Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (Year C)
21He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.”
22Everyone was raving about Jesus, so impressed were they by the gracious words flowing from his lips. They said, “This is Joseph’s son, isn’t it?”
23Then Jesus said to them, “Undoubtedly, you’ll quote this saying to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we’ve heard you did in Capernaum.’” 24He said, “I assure you that no prophet is welcome in the prophet’s hometown. 25And I can assure you that there were many widows in Israel during Elijah’s time, when it didn’t rain for three and a half years and there was a great food shortage in the land. 26Yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to a widow in the city of Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27There were also many persons with skin diseases in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them were cleansed. Instead, Naaman the Syrian was cleansed.”
28When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with anger. 29They rose up and ran him out of town. They led him to the crest of the hill on which their town had been built so that they could throw him off the cliff. 30But he passed through the crowd and went on his way.
Collect:
All-Loving and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the humble prayers of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus the Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
“And now … the rest of the story” (in my best Paul Harvey voice).
As I explained last week, today’s lesson is part two of a context that began in verse 14. While it seems from Luke’s telling of the story that Jesus immediately went to Galilee after he came out victorious from his temptations against the devil (vv. 1-13), we saw that Jesus actually spent about a year before he “returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee” (verse 14).
Once in Galilee, Jesus goes to his hometown of Nazareth. On the Sabbath, he goes to synagogue “as he normally did” (verse 16). He’s called upon to give the Lesson (apparently) and is given the scroll for Isaiah. He unrolls it to Isaiah 61.1-2[2] and reads the Lesson (vv. 17-19). After reading the Lesson, everyone waited to hear what the town celebrity would say in his homily. They weren’t expecting his message: “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it” (v. 21).
Isaiah 61 tells of God’s Anointed One, the Messiah. It speaks of how God’s own Spirit would be poured out on this person and how God would work through this person to bring God’s Realm of Justice “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6.9-10). When Jesus said this passage was fulfilled in him, he’s telling them that he’s God’s anointed — the Messiah — and that the time of rescue had finally come at last (Mark 1.15). At first, everyone is so impressed “by the gracious words flowing from his lips” (verse 22) they can hardly believe it. “Finally,” they’re thinking, “God’s going to rescue us from these stinking Roman dogs!”
But then something happens.
As Jesus continues on, the people get angry. I mean, really angry. So angry, in fact, that they take him in a rush and lead him to a cliff on the edge of town to throw him to his death (vv. 28-30)! It’s ironic how similar this scene is to what the devil did to Jesus in the wilderness (vv. 9-12).
So what was wrong with what Jesus said? Why would it cause such a response from the crowd?
Jesus instinctively knows where the conversation is going. Someone can’t just claim to be the Messiah and not be challenged. Before the crowd can even comment further, though, Jesus says, “Undoubtedly, you’ll quote this saying to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we’ve heard you did in Capernaum’” (verse 23). In other words, “We know who you are; you’re Joseph’s son. But if you’re the Messiah — prove it! Do some fancy miracle that will dispel all our unbelief!”
But it’s right here that Jesus changes the game. Or, rather, he fleshes out what Messiah actually means.
Jesus tells the crowd that while there were many widows in Israel during the drought of Elijah’s time, Elijah didn’t go to any of them. Instead, he went to a non-Jewish woman and rescued her and her child. Furthermore, while there were many people in Israel with skin diseases during Elisha’s time, none of them were cleansed. Rather, Naaman the Syrian was the only one healed.
In other words, Jesus is saying God’s rescue operation isn’t only for Israel — it’s for the whole world! The typical understanding of Messiah during Jesus’ time was that the Messiah would rescue Israel and destroy the pagans (everyone else, basically). But Jesus is saying that’s not the way it’s going to play out — everyone will get rescued! And, more likely than not, everyone else will be rescued before their generation (see Matthew 23.13-36).
Tom Wright states:
[Jesus’] hearers were, after all, waiting for God to liberate Israel from pagan enemies. In several Jewish texts of the time, we find a longing that God would condemn the wicked nations, would pour out wrath and destruction on them. Instead, Jesus is pointing out that when the great prophets were active, it wasn’t Israel who benefited, but only the pagans. That’s like someone in Britain or France during the Second World War speaking of God’s healing and restoration for Adolf Hitler. It’s not what people wanted to hear.[3]
But Jesus, steeped in prayer and scripture and empowered by the Spirit, goes back to the prophetic tradition and sees that God’s rescue plan was to always include the rest of humanity and, indeed, all of creation. That’s what upset the crowd.
But do we think we’re so different? How many of us believe that God will only rescue Christians? Or only our Christian denomination? Or only straight Christians? Or only people who look like us? Or only people who come from our country? How would we react if Jesus told us these same stories but, instead of God rescuing Christians, God rescued Muslims? Or Atheists? Or LGBTQ people? Or black people? What would happen if Jesus came to us and said that God would rescue everyone — even people we hate — and the entire cosmos and quite possibly before we’re rescued? Would we react any differently?
Probably not, if we’re being honest.
But that’s the Gospel, my friends. It’s always going to be bigger than our religious traditions. It’s always going to be bigger than our prejudices. It’s always going to be more; more than we can ever think or dream. God and the Gospel will always push us out of our comfort zones and challenge us at every turn. If that doesn’t happen, if we aren’t being challenged by the Gospel and God’s plan to rescue everyone and all creation, then perhaps we need to re-examine what we’ve been taught is the Gospel.
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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[1] Scripture quotations marked (CEB) are taken from The Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible.
[3] Wright, N.T., (2004). Luke for Everyone [Kindle version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com.
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