Jesus, Back in Nazareth

Jesus, Back in Nazareth

Luke 4:14-30

So, how do you tell people a story when everyone thinks they already know the ending?  Seriously…sit with this question.  Word had spread about Jesus of Nazareth.  He was a healer and a preacher and a miracle worker.  He worked his way from town to town until he finally arrived in Jerusalem, right in the midst of the buildup for the Passover festival.  Everyone knew someone who saw the parade coming toward the city gates, someone who saw Jesus kick the money changer’s table over in the temple, someone who was there when the crowd chose to free Barabbas, instead of Jesus.  Of course, not as many people dared to look when he was nailed to a cross and died.  Almost no one made it to the empty tomb.  Still, people thought they already knew what was worth knowing. 

 For the few who pushed further, there were big questions.  How could someone be the Messiah when the religious authorities were his enemies? How could the "Son of God” suffer like a common criminal?  If he was “The One,” then why did so few people recognize this?  If you’re the “Son of God,” then aren’t you supposed to win?  What about restoring Israel as a nation?  What sense were people to make of all this?

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all attempts to present us with a vision of the good news of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection.  This year, as we work our way through Lent toward Easter, we’re going to listen in particular to Luke’s version of this “good news,” (the literal meaning of the word, “gospel.”)  Luke is going to take what we think we already know, add in some things that we may not have known, and then weave those things together in such a way that we see the life and death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth in a new light.  In order to get there, Luke has to challenge us to think again, to look again, to open ourselves to meeting Jesus of Nazareth all over again.

Now, we’ve already spent quite a bit of time with Luke this year, working our way through the stories around Jesus’ birth, to his visit at 8 days old to the Temple, to the day that he spent with the authorities in Jerusalem while his parents searched high and low for him.  Here’s the recurring theme that Luke keeps weaving in:  nothing is the way we would expect it to be and yet everything was just as God intended.  Take that in… Proof for us would be if things went the way that we expect them to go which, of course, almost never happens, even in life’s simplest moments.  You know this, right?  Luke’s not offering that kind of proof.  Instead, what he’s saying to us is that if we examine individual moments of Jesus’ life, we will see that the hints were there that something more was at work in this child, in this boy, in this man.

So, we go to the temple at 8 days old with Joseph and Mary and Jesus and we meet Simeon, who not only declares out of nowhere that this child is “the one” but also looks Mary in the eye and tells her that this child will one day break her heart.  And we know, and Luke knows that we know, that this is true:  “Someone told me that she stood there at the foot of the cross and watched him die.  Can you imagine?”

So, we go to the temple with Jesus at twelve years old, when everyone thinks he’s lost but he’s really having quite a conversation with the authorities.  He dazzles them with his questions and his answers.  Besides that, he’s a boy—so cute and harmless.  He says the most haunting thing when his parents find him:  “Did you not know that I would be in my Father’s house?”  What twelve year old says such a thing?  But what we really can’t get out of our minds is the question, “Were any of those priests and Sadducees and Pharisees part of the crew twenty years later who arrested, and tried, and, ultimately, killed Jesus?”  How did they go from being charmed by the boy to killing the man? 

Then, we think about things a moment more and we realize that somehow, in a tale about a boy getting lost, there are bells going off, left and right.  It’s Passover in Jerusalem and Jesus and his family and friends arrive in a great parade, a preview of Palm Sunday.  Jesus is missing for three days, the time for which he would one day be dead before the discovery of the empty tomb.  When he’s discovered as a child, he asks, “Where else would I be?” a question that is awfully close to his response outside the empty tomb:  “Don’t you remember what I told you would happen?”

For Luke, though…these are hints.  They are clues.  They are foreshadowing.   Luke doesn’t hammer us with them.  He just plants them and they bloom inside us as if they are our own.  This is the art of Luke’s Gospel.  The truth is right there.   If you’re willing to listen and engage and open your heart, you will see it.  If you keep looking, you will see “the something more” of God’s presence in the stories of Jesus’ life.  As you practice seeing God’s presence in the Gospel, you will begin to catch glimpses of God’s presence in your life.  The more you see, the more you will be changed.  I promise…

So, in the last couple of weeks, Luke has moved from telling us about Jesus in his growing years to introducing us to the full grown man.  As we meet Jesus of Nazareth at the beginning of his ministry, Luke wants us to know three things from the start.  First, he wants us to know that Jesus is God’s beloved Son, the one with whom God is well-pleased.  When else will you hear this?  Do you remember the centurion who stood beneath the cross and watched Jesus die?  He spoke just after Jesus took his last breath and said, “Truly, this was the Son of God!”  Luke basically says, “Trust me, he was the Son of God from moment one.”

The second thing Luke wants us to know from the outset is that he understands that people had all sorts of expectations about who the Messiah would be.  David, the great king, had a real appreciation for the finer things in life:  wine, women and song—you know.  If the Messiah was going to be like David, do you really think that he would end up eating whatever was available through the kindness of some stranger?  Who is that going to impress?  Besides that, what about the Messiah restoring Israel?  Wasn’t that the Messiah’s main job?  Jesus not only didn’t do that but he seemed to avoid any power or control over others like the plague.  What kind of leader does that?  Finally, if he was the Messiah, then Jesus sure didn’t have much of a marketing plan.  He did some amazing things but he kept telling people not to tell anyone.  He kept telling people that that their faith that had healed them.  What about some proof, Jesus?  Every rising star in this world deserves a little credit, right?

These are the temptations that Jesus faces.  However, in the “something more” sense, these are the temptations that face everyone who has heard a little bit of Jesus’ story.  Our temptation is to throw an arm around Jesus’ shoulder and say, “You know, Jesus…if I can just offer you a little advice about how things work, about how things get done in this world.”  Then, we’d go on to “mansplain” to the Son of God what we would do if we were God. “Really, Jesus, if you would only ramp up your lifestyle and hang with the right people, if you would only grab the power that’s yours to take, if you only would offer the world a little proof, things would go so much better.  Trust me, here!”  (At which point, in my mind’s eye, Jesus might cock an eyebrow and mutter, “Trust you?  I thought this was about getting you to trust me?)

So, we know two things now about Jesus, the grown man:  he is God’s beloved Son before his ministry even starts and he’s not going to be who we want him to be.  He overcame those temptations.  And if we are to follow him, we may have to overcome a few temptations of our own.  Still, though, there’s one more thing.

Luke, in our text for this morning, takes us beyond the River Jordan and past the wilderness straight back to Nazareth.  In Mark and Matthew, there are stops in between, mostly in Capernaum, where Jesus was unknown and where his ministry began with huge successes, drawing large crowds as he healed everyone in sight.  This is not Luke’s focus.  Instead, Luke catches our eye and whispers, “Come with me.  There’s something you have to see.”

What we see is Jesus in his home synagogue on the Sabbath.  He had been going there on the Sabbath for years.  This was familiar, for him and for everyone who saw him.  In all likelihood, word had already passed through the town about Jesus in Capernaum.  Maybe the buzz was building, too:  “If he did such things as an outsider in a place to which he had no ties, imagine what he might do for us!”  Suddenly, all those people who had scoffed at the news of one of this young man just up and leaving town were rethinking things: “This might just work out, after all.”

At first, everything’s fine.  Jesus opens the Torah scroll to one of the “oldies but goodies,” the prophet Isaiah’s vision of how the world would some day be restored.  The people love these words:  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” What a nice thought!    Besides that, he does a fine job reading these words, too!  It seems like a perfectly lovely moment to cherish until Jesus says adds one more thing:  “Today, these words have been fulfilled in your hearing.”  Hold it now!  It’s one thing to have a dreamy vision of what might happen some day.  It’s quite another thing to suggest that today is the day and I am the one.  As the guy in the back row puts it, (my words, not his),“Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t “Mr. Messiah,” here, also Joseph, the carpenter’s son?”

Things go rapidly downhill from there.  Jesus points out that prophets have never done well in their hometowns.  Then, he takes two of the most important prophets and points out that they were most famous for caring about people in need who were from other countries. At this point, the congregation turns into a mob. (This, of course, remains every preacher’s nightmare!).  The mob turns on Jesus.  Luke tells us, he barely gets out alive.  (And we know that luck won’t last…right?)

Why do the people get so angry?  The answer is simple.  Anyone who looked around in the synagogue would have seen that there were very few poor people, sick people, blind people or oppressed people in attendance.  (At which point, Jesus might say, “Exactly my point! Would you even let them in if they came?”) All the people could imagine was Jesus caring for everyone but them.  All they could see was how much they stood to lose.  What they couldn’t see yet was that the very things which they couldn’t imagine losing were what stood between them and the love of God.

Luke says to us, “Take a good look.  You’re going to see this again and again in Jesus’ life.  You can’t be changed and stay the same.  You can’t be like everyone else and be transformed.  You can’t focus on yourself and follow Jesus.” 

Take another look.  Learn to see things differently.  Open your heart to this man…