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REJECTION AT NAZARETH (part 2)
1 Kings 8:46-51
Luke 4:20-30
January 31, 2010
Today is the last day in January, and marks my two year anniversary as your Pastor. Because the Methodist system moves Pastors quite frequently, many of you continue to ask me, “How long will you be here?” I have often answered you, “I will be here for a very long time. The situation in Ponder should allow me many years of service here.” But, why would I want to stay here? You pay me about half of what my peers are being paid in churches of this size. I work for you seven days a week; it’s very rare that a take an entire day off for myself or my family. And yet, you insist on calling me, “Just a part time Pastor”, which I find horribly insulting. Most of you agree to serve on committees then fail to show up for the meetings. At the same time you get angry with me for making decisions without you. I work hard on the sermon each week; and a good one third of you sleep through the message. Why would I want to stay here when, quite frankly, you don’t deserve me? A small Baptist church in Sanger has approached me about being their Pastor, and I will be leaving just as soon as I can.
OK, how do you like me now? I want you to take a moment and focus on your anger. Don’t think with your head, just feel with your heart. Do you feel betrayed? Do you feel unfairly accused; that wild claims were made with absolutely no basis? Do you feel like your trust was completely violated; that someone who was supposed to look out for you, and help you, and support you instead abandoned you unfairly? Take a moment and focus on that anger. Multiply how you feel by a thousand times, and that’s how the people in the Nazareth synagogue felt about Jesus. (By the way, none of what I said is true. For those who were cheering my departure; you’ll have to wait a bit longer.)
Most Bibles label this pericope Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth. This is actually a story of double rejection. Can you see that to the people of the synagogue it felt like God rejecting them? Jesus presents the Jews one of the most horrifying and insulting concepts they could ever hear. He implies that God will reject them and embrace the Gentiles instead.
Let’s do a quick recap. Jesus has moved his ministry from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north. He has gone back to his childhood home of Nazareth, and he is preaching in the synagogue where he grew up as a boy. They have welcomed him with open arms, and hailed him as an exceptional Rabbi. Jesus intentionally chooses Isaiah 61:1-2 to teach about on that day, although he makes two significant changes to the text. His message to the people is that the end is here. The last days are upon us. Repent and be saved before judgment comes.
Luke tells us that initially they are very impressed with Jesus’ presentation, particularly his oratory skills. He is an exceptional speaker and teacher. On the other hand, they are not at all impressed with the content of his message. We can liken this to the closing argument by a slick defense attorney. Imagine a lawyer who is defending a mass murderer like Jeffrey Dahmer. As he proceeds through his closing argument he slowly discredits all of the evidence against his client; he tries to portray the victims as responsible for the crimes; he casts doubt on the police force and the quality of their investigation. And, he does all that really, really well. You could find yourself in a position where you hate the lawyer, you hate his client, you totally hate the way he is trying to make the victims the bad guys – but you completely respect how well he is doing his job. Luke says that’s what happened in the synagogue. They hated Jesus’ message, but they totally respected the way he presented his argument.
They begin to question each other, “This is Joseph’s son, isn’t it?” Now, there question isn’t about how did he get to be such a great speaker. There question is about denying that there’s any chance he could be the Messiah. This guy can’t really be the Messiah, because he’s Joseph’s kid, right? We would have known if Joseph’s kid was the Messiah. So, there’s absolutely no chance that what he’s saying can be correct – right? What Jesus is saying is unbelievably insulting. He links them to the very worst unbelievers and the most unrighteous people in the Old Testament.
Jesus reads them a passage about the coming of the Messiah; then tells them that prophecy has been fulfilled in their synagogue, on that day, by him. Then he tells them, “I already know what you’re going to say next. You’re going to quote the proverb physician, heal thyself.” By the way, that’s not a Biblical proverb (from the book of Proverbs). It’s a common sense proverb that everyone would have been familiar with. It’s kind of like ‘a penny saved is a penny earned’. That’s true even though it’s not from the Bible. The meaning of the proverb Jesus quotes is, if you really are the Messiah then show us some proof, do a miracle. His proverb could also be translated as you profess – now produce. Today we would say, ‘put up or shut up.
Jesus says, “You’ve heard about all these fabulous miracles I’ve done in other cities. Now, you want me to do one for you to prove I really am the Messiah.” Then, he tells them something outrageous and hurtful. He says, “I won’t give you a miracle, because you don’t deserve me.” Next, he tells them two stories from the Bible that they were intimately aware of. When the king and the people of Israel were evil and loved Baal more than they loved God, God shut off the rain for three and a half years. Instead of letting his prophet Elijah bring some small comfort to the widows of Israel, he sent him to a widow in Phoenicia (1 Kings 17:7-24). Phoenicia is where the disease of Baal worship was coming from! How insulting was that? The conclusion had to be that the people of Israel were really bad.
There was a time when the Arameans were cruel and punishing to the nation of Israel. And yet, when one of their generals got leprosy Elisha healed him instead of any of the thousands of Jewish lepers (2 Kings 5:1-14). For God to give that gift to a foreigner instead of a Jew must mean that the people of Israel were really bad. Jesus tells the synagogue, “That’s how I want you to interpret my teaching today. Forget what you think you know about the Messiah. I’m taking my blessings away from you and I’m giving them to the Gentiles. That’s what Isaiah’s Scripture means for you!” Jesus tells them that right now God loves them less than Syrian lepers and Phoenician widows.
Luke is the only Gospel to record this insult to the Jews, and this embracing of the Gentiles so early in Jesus’ ministry. Everyone will agree that by the end of his three years Jesus had made it clear that salvation was for the entire world. But Luke is the only one to say that Jesus felt that way from the beginning. Not surprisingly, Luke is the only Gospel written by a Gentile.
Do you have any idea how angry that message made the crowd? To hear someone claim to be the Messiah, the Deliverer; then to tell them I’m here to help the bad guys who have been hurting and punishing you for so many centuries. To imply to them that God doesn’t really love them anymore. The crowd became furious. They surged forward and grabbed him and took him to the cliff near the synagogue; with every intention of throwing him to his death. The Jews did not have the authority to invoke a death sentence, or enforce capital punishment. This is mob rule. This is a lynching. This is vigilante justice. This is what happens when people feel so completely betrayed by the system that was supposed to take care of them.
God was supposed to take care of them. Of course, through the advantage of 20/20 hindsight we know God was taking care of them. Jesus had come with the gift of eternal life. Anyone who would see and believe could claim the gift that day. Salvation was right there in their hands; and they wanted to throw it over a cliff. This is not the only time people would feel that way about Jesus. The Bible gives us two other times when the crowds wanted to grab Jesus and kill him (John 8:37; 10:31). Don’t ever tell me Jesus was an effeminate, soft spoken, mamby pamby. He played hardball.
Somehow, when they arrive at the cliff Jesus has escaped their grasp and is gone. We don’t know if this was a miracle that allowed him to walk among them without being seen. Or, if he was such an ordinary looking man that in the midst of a riot he could get lost in the crowd and not really attract attention. This same thing happens on the other two occasions when the angry mobs want to kill him (John 8:59; 10:39). We are never told if those are Jesus performing a miracle, or simply using a life skill that a young Jewish boy learned growing up in a Roman community.
It’s easy for us to assume that we are favored by God, isn’t it? I mean, he saved us. Jesus died on the cross for me; he gave up his life for me. Paul tells me that I have faith because God gave me faith, and my faith saves me (Romans 9:30-31; 12:3). If that doesn’t say that God favors me, then what does? And, why shouldn’t God love me? I try hard to live according to his rules and regulations. I try to be righteous. I do my best to love God and be nice to people. So, it just makes sense that God should bless me, and curse my enemies. Right?
Jesus came preaching a two part message; repent and embrace the Kingdom of God (Matthew 4:17). We like that Kingdom of God part; getting saved and spending eternity in heaven. We suck that part of the message right up! But, that repentance thing – that we kind of sidestep. We forget that Jesus performed miracles in cities so that they would believe and put their faith in him; yet when those same cities failed to repent Jesus condemned them and pronounced that a harsh judgment was coming their way (Matthew 11:20).
Repentance is so much more than just being sorry for our sin. When I worked in the prison I met a lot of guys who were really sorry they had been caught doing something wrong. They weren’t so sorry that they would live a reformed life when they were set free. They had every intention of going right back to crime. They were just really sorry they had been caught. Repentance is when we are so sorry, down to the core of our being, that we make the determination to turn away from sin (Luke 13:1-9). When we choose, consciously every day to do right and avoid wrong. When it finally gets through to us that we cannot continue to live according to our own will.
Repentance requires submitting our desires to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Choosing to be spirit filled and spirit led. Author Vaughn T. Walker writes, “The only difference between a believer and a non believer is the active presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.” Repentance is when it hurts us to know that we have hurt God; and we make the decision to never do that again. Are we going to fail in that decision? Absolutely – we cannot get through this life without sinning. But, we do not accept that as an inevitability, or ‘just the way it is’. We strive, day in and day out, to do better (Romans 7:7-25).
As you read through the rest of Luke’s Gospel it becomes obvious that God never stopped loving Israel. I want to assure you that God never stops loving us. But, God does place expectations on us. He expects us to mature in our faith. The first, and most critical, step of maturation is repentance.
David Hill, “Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30)”, Novum Testamentum 13:3 (July 1971), 161-180.
Gail R. O’Day, “Today This Word is Fulfilled in Your Hearing: A Scriptural Hermeneutic of Biblical Authority”, Word & World 26:4 (Autumn 2006), 357-364.