Luke 4:21-30 (Sermon for the week of January 28th)

Luke 4:21-30

21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”
23 He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum,^[a] do also here in Your country.’” 24 Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; 26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath,^[b]in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. 30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

SERMON:

Luke starts the story of Jesus' ministry with the events of Jesus' sermon in the synagogue in order to emphasize the paradigm and irony of His ministry and to emphasize the fact that salvation is available to everyone...not just Jews. Luke does not follow a chronological order, and chooses to arrange the events of Jesus' life in an order that supports one of many themes in Jesus' ministry. First, there are the ironies that take place. For example, Jesus will resurrect in order to conquer death and to prove Himself as the Messiah, and in this weeks reading Jesus escapes death on a smaller scale by miraculously "passing through" the midst of an enraged crowd bent on tossing Him off a cliff. Luke also emphasizes the importance of salvation to Gentiles. On that note let's look at the reading.

"21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth."

Notice that once again, Jesus says: "TODAY". Today is not yesterday and today is not 2,000 years later. Today is NOW. NOW the scripture is fulfilled! Jesus is the One who fulfills the Scripture! It would seem ludicrous that you or I would stand before a crowd and exclaim that we have come to fulfill scripture! What would the crowd think if we did this? They would probably think that we had a screw loose! Jesus states this boldly and with authority and how does the congregation react? They marvel at His words! The scripture has and was fulfilled, and the fulfillment of this "scripture" was completed by Jesus. The waiting is over. The time has come. The Jews have waited and still wait for the Messiah. They have seen God work miracles throughout their history from the parting of the Red Sea to the destruction of the false prophets of Baal. We would expect the Jews to be ready and be able to recognize and accept the Messiah...but we are wrong, they are not ready TODAY. The Jews at the time of Jesus' birth have not seen or heard from any prophet in 400 years...they have grown weary of waiting like a guard who falls asleep at their post. Jesus says, "Today the scripture has been fulfilled" but today the Jews are not ready! The Jews start off by speaking well of Jesus, but soon turn against Him because Jesus does not do or fulfill what they want...they want freedom from THEIR captivity...forget everyone else...they are the chosen ones, not the Gentiles. The reading this week also asks us for a decision...no fence sitting. Did Jesus fulfill the scriptures or not? You have to make a choice, and hopefully this choice is based on actual investigation on your part.

"And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”"

Mankind looks for power and wealth as attributes of royalty and high social status. The Jews expect their king to be born into terms that they have determined as worthy. They expect a king to be born into wealth and power as kings ususally are born into. Jesus as Creator knows this and purposefully "predestines" or creates the circumstances so that He is to be born into poverty and humility. Jesus does not come to fulfill the expectations of men, but to grant all people of this world with Salvation if they choose to accept Him. This verse is sarcastic. Joseph was a humble man from an insignificant town. Joseph was not born into wealth, but Joseph is a descendant of King David! We know that Jesus is the Son of God and not the son of Joseph...Jesus comes to fulfill the will of the Heavenly Father, GOD, not the will of men!

"23 He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum,^[a] do also here in Your country.’”"

Luke has not reported yet on what Jesus has done in Capernaum, and Mark has Jesus teaching in Capernaum at the beginning of His ministry. It is obvious that Jesus is living in Capernaum at the time of this event in Nazareth. Jesus' hometown crowd expects Him to do wonderful things in His hometown of Nazareth. Their attitude stems from the belief that Jesus healed the undeserving people of Capernaum...He should heal the deserving people of Nazareth. It is a call for loyalty to the people of Nazareth, the people of Jesus' hometown.

"24 Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country."

A prophet is not going to please the people of his hometown, for a prophet is not bound by loyalty. A prophet has to move away from his hometown in order to be heard. The Jews have a long history of rejecting prophets because true prophets speak the truth that ears do not want to hear. Prophets tell of judgement and a call for change among the people and people seldom want to make these changes. What is acceptable to the Lord is oftentimes unacceptable to men. The rejection of Jesus in Nazareth is a foreshadowing of the rejection of Jesus in Jerusalem. Jewish rejection does not discredit who Jesus was in any way. One question: They were not ready for the Messiah then, and are they ready for the Messiah today? Are Christians ready for the Messiah today?

"25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; 26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath,^[b]in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

This story is from 1 Kings 17 and would be familiar to this crowd. In the midst of a destructive drought, God sent Elijah to Zarephath to ask a poor widow for some water. The widow objected, but Elijah told her that God would replenish any food or water Elijah used. The widow was rewarded exactly as Elijah said she would, but later her son died. Elijah prayed that the son's life would be restored. There is one theme in this story from 1 Kings that would strike this crowd in an almost insulting way...the widow was a Gentile!

The same theme applies for Jesus' reference to Naaman the Syrian. Naaman was a Gentile. The point of these two themes is that the Jewish people cannot consider their relationship with God as an exclusive relationship. Jesus reinforces this point by beginning His ministry in Capernaum...a place heavily populated by Gentiles. The Nazareth crowd soon rejects Jesus because Jesus shoots down their expectations on what a Messiah, {if Jesus is the Messiah and Jews question this}, will do for them. Jesus shoots these expectations down with works and speeches like in this weeks reading because the Jews cannot expect exclusive "rights" to the Messiah just because they are Jewish.

"28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. 30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way."

The scripture the Jews think of pertaining to Jesus' speech is Isaiah 61:1...the Messiah will bring good news to the oppressed Jews. Isaiah 61:2 speaks of "the day of vengeance of our God" which Jesus purposefully omits from the reading. The Jews expect the Messiah to deliver them from oppression and to punish their oppressors. Instead, Jesus reminds them of a time when God cursed the Jews and instead God showed mercy to a Gentile, Naaman the Syrian. Jesus' message is not want the Jews want to hear and become angry. Isn't this true today? If a person where to speak the Truth, would we like it? Or would we get angry? These people got so angry that they wanted to kill Jesus by throwing Him off a cliff! Why? Because they expect the Messiah to fulfill THEIR expectations and THEIR will...thinking like selfish, sinful, prideful humans. Leviticus 24:14 required the stoning of a FALSE prophet...usually they would take a person and throw them off a cliff into a lower place and then people would stand above them and stone them to death. This is what they wanted to do to Jesus.

Question: What was Jesus' charge? Speaking the Truth! Speaking words that they didn't want to hear because the Jews believed that they were Chosen and were deserving of redemption...they alone. Jesus came to grant salvation, He came to deliver the oppressed, and HE DOES! He grants this to the whole world and not a select group. What the Scriptures speak of are God's Words...not open to our selfish interpretation and the expectations of men. Our job is to find the Truth in God's words...not place our will on God. The Jews disobeyed God's orders many, many, times and were fully aware of their actions and the consequences. This time the rest of the world has a chance at salvation. Notice that Jesus slips through the crowd and is not thrown off the cliff. How did He do that? A miracle! Could you escape a riot by "slipping through the crowd" when that crowd is rioting because of you? How about a crowd that is bent on stoning you or throwing you off a cliff? How could you "slip" through them unseen and unnoticed? I know I couldn't except by the Power of the Lord! The wait is over and Salvation is here for us TODAY! Our salvation was granted when the Messiah was here in a tent of flesh with the name Jesus, 2000 some years ago and that is something we can feel rojoice in NOW.

God Bless you and your families this week!

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