This week, our scripture reading is a two-parter. Last week, we heard the first part – Early in the days of Jesus’ ministry, he returned to his hometown of Nazareth. On the Sabbath, Jesus went to the synagogue for worship. He came forward to read the scripture. The scroll of the book of Isaiah was handed to Jesus. Jesus then read the words:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This morning, our focus is on the statements Jesus made after he stopped reading the scripture. Hear Jesus’ words are they are recorded in Luke, chapter 4, verses 21 through 30:
Jesus began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.
Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.
And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.
They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.
But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.What did Jesus say that made the people of Nazareth so angry? What made the crowd turn against Jesus?
It helps to know a little of the history of Israel. Elijah and Elisha were preeminent prophets, preeminent Jewish prophets. Yet, Jesus pointed out, Elijah and Elisha ended up doing miracles on behalf of non-Jewish people.
At the time of a drought in the Middle East, Elijah approached the widow of Zarepheth and asked her for food. The widow was not Jewish – She was a Phoenician. She told Elijah that she was about to use her last little bit of flour and her last few drops of oil to make a cake to eat with her son. After they ate, they were going to lay down and wait for death.
Elijah told her to use the flour and oil to make him a cake. And, then he performed a miracle and the oil and flour lasted for 2 and a half years until the drought ended. Later, the woman’s son tragically died, and when the widow went to Elijah to tell him about her boy’s death, Elijah miraculously restored him to life.
When Jesus mentioned the Elijah incident as he spoke to the people of Nazareth, he said that Elijah, a Jewish prophet, had the power to save a widow of his own people, but he instead performed miracles to save a non-Jewish Phonecian family.
And then, Elijah’s successor Elisha cured a non-Jewish Syrian man of leprosy instead of curing one of his fellow Jewish people stricken with leprosy.
Jesus was telling the people of Nazareth he was there to save people, but the people he was there to save were not necessarily the people of Nazareth. He was the Jewish Messiah, but he had come to save Jewish people and Gentile people.
This angered Jesus’ townsfolk. I suspect they were so hungry for the Messiah to rescue them,...they were so ready for the MEssiah to come pull the Jewish people out of the muck,...they were so ready to be released from the repressive regime of the Roman Empire, that it angered them to hear Jesus was claiming to be the messiah but he wasn’t necessarily there to rescue them. Or, that his messianic reign was going to save all kinds of people, not just them.
It is hard to accept that people we don’t like are also included. This would be like being a Flyers fan and then finding out you had to share the Stanley Cup with the Rangers. Or, like being an Eagles fan and finding out you had to share the superbowl title with the Cowboys. Or, the Hatfields and McCoys moving into the same house and living together in harmony.
The people of Nazareth did not hear good news in Jesus’ message. But, his message is good news for us. We are the beneficiaries of the Messiah who came for all of the people of the world….not just the Galilean people…not just the Jewish people…not just middle eastern people, but all people….red and yellow and black and white people…we are precious in God’s sight. Jesus loves the children of the world….all of us.
This story is a reminder for us to work to bring the message of JEsus and his love to all people. Sometimes, churches get a little clique-y. (Not Trinity, of course!) We start to see our church as our extended family and we get comfortable with it staying small and intimate. But, our mission as the church of Jesus Christ is to always be invitational. We are here to be a beacon of hope to our neighbors. We are here to extend the Good News to all people. And, we know there are people who don’t have a relationship with God who will benefit mightily from a relationship with God. So, our work is to always open the doors of the church to new people, to invite them to join us. And, our work as people of faith is to also go outside of the “doors” of our church. We can’t expect people to come to us, we have to go to them.
I am sweet on the people of Trinity Christian UCC. I feel guilty when I talk to other pastors because sometimes they have complaints about their churches. And, I don’t have complaints about our church. One of our gifts as a congregation is that the people of our church love God and love our little congregation so much that we want to reach out to new people and welcome then to become a part of us. When we have drive through dinners, you will set members of Trinity stopping people in cars and talking up our church. When we volunteer at the Skippack first fridays, we are flagging people down to talk to them about our church and invite them to join us. When we invite the neighbors to come to Trinity on election day for voting, we are approaching them with cookies and coffees and inviting them to worship and church activities. We are working all the time to brain-storm new ways to meet people, new ways to welcome our neighbors to join us, new ways to spread the word about Jesus and his love.
Over the next few months, as Covid restrictions decrease, we will have more and more opportunities to continue the work of reaching out to our neighbors. We have a story to tell them about Jesus…Jesus came to the world to share God’s love with all people. This maybe wasn’t what the long ago people of Nazareth wanted to hear, but this is what we all need today.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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