Sermon manuscript;
I’d like to begin today by setting the scene for our Gospel
reading. It is from Luke chapter 4, so this is towards the beginning of the
story of Jesus. Not long before our reading Jesus was anointed with water and
the Holy Spirit when he was baptized. Then he went out into the wilderness to
be tempted by the devil. With our reading today he has come back to Galilee and
Nazareth, which is his hometown.
Thus our reading today is a report of what was happening
early on. People were just beginning to hear and know about Jesus. This was
because of what Jesus himself was saying and doing. However, Jesus is not
always believed in and accepted. At the end of our reading, the people of
Nazareth wanted to throw him off a cliff.
In the sermon today I’d like to look more closely at Jesus’s
sermon, which was based on a section of Isaiah. We will see how Jesus’s sermon
was applicable to the people at Jesus’s time as well as being applicable to
ourselves. Then I’d like to consider how and why Jesus was rejected. This,
also, I think you will see, is applicable to us.
So, let’s take up the main point of Jesus’s sermon. Here is a
portion of what he read from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.”
When Jesus was finished reading he said, “Today this
Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus was saying that
this prophecy was about him.
Let’s look more closely at this prophecy. It says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” We know that the
Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism. It says,
“Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to
the poor.” This is a good, general statement about what Jesus does. The
word “anointed” is the meaning of the word
“Christ.” Jesus is the anointed one. The reason why he has been anointed is “to proclaim good news to the poor.” “Good news” is the meaning of the word “Gospel.” Thus
we have a couple short statements that well describe Jesus: He is the anointed
one, the Christ. He proclaims the Gospel, good news, to the poor.
Good news is always welcome to the poor. Poverty is a major
hindrance to the enjoyment of life. It prevents people from doing what they
would otherwise like to do. People might not be able to buy what they want
because they are poor. People might be able to go to the doctor because they
are poor. If it gets really bad, people might not be able to buy food. Poverty
is the lack of power to do what you want.
Throughout the Gospels you can read about how Jesus helped
people who didn’t have the resources to help themselves. People came to him who
were in the grips of evil spirits. The evil spirits made them miserable, but
they lacked the power to get them out. People came to Jesus who were sick with
various diseases. If any of you have had diseases that don’t go away, you know
how tiring and frustrating that can be. Helplessness in the face of a disease
that is stronger than you can be very frightening. It might mean the death of
you. Jesus helped people like that.
Let me pause for a moment to point out that Jesus continues
to have good news for the poor. This has not stopped, nor has it been lessened from
the reports of Jesus’s miracles that we hear about in the Gospels. A lot of
people assume that since miracles like that aren’t very common, Jesus must no
longer be at work, or that his work is strictly spiritual and therefore
somewhat unreal. The truth is that Jesus’s work after the resurrection is
stronger and more profound than anything he did before. The works Jesus does
and will do are greater.
Let me give you a few examples. Jesus forgives sins. Maybe
you have grown cold to that idea, but maybe I can refresh it for you by a
simple question: What are you able to do to make up for the evil you have done?
There’s nothing. You are powerless. You are poor. The good news that is
proclaimed to the poor is that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
Or how about those diseases? How about that progressive
onset of death that we call getting old? How about death itself? What can you
do in the face of these things? Our options are severely limited, even with all
our medical advances. The good news is that by his death Jesus defeated the
power of death, and by his resurrection he opened the kingdom of heaven to all
believers.
Let me give you one more healing that I am especially
looking forward to. What can be done with our evil minds and souls? What can be
done with our anger? What can be done with our dirty minds, our coveting, meanness,
sadness, apathy, coldness towards life, and a host of other evils? We are
bombarded with commercials for various drugs, some of which might help
somewhat, but they can’t ever get to the core. The resurrection means healing
not only for our bodies, but also our minds and souls. Believing in Jesus is
trusting him to do things that otherwise seem impossible.
So, to get back to our text: After he finished reading from
Isaiah Jesus said, “I’m the fulfillment of what you heard. I preach good news
to the poor. I set people free from unbreakable chains.” And, as it turns out,
the people were quite receptive. “How interesting!” they said. “He speaks so
well! Maybe I’ll sign up for his newsletter. It’s especially surprising since one
of our own. He’s Joseph’s son, is he not?”
This is the point at which everything changed in the story.
The change is so abrupt that it’s easy to miss. Everything was going fine, the
people were enjoying Jesus, but then Jesus said some more stuff and they were
no longer pleased. They started to push and shove him towards the brow of a
cliff. What happened?
It's Jesus’s fault really. Jesus turned on them. After they started
talking about him as the mere son of Joseph, Jesus knew that they would
eventually be dissatisfied with him, and he told them so. Others—foreigners—would
believe in him, but they would be left out in the cold. He brought up a couple
Old Testament examples with the prophets Elijah and Elisha through whom God did
miracles to foreigners, but not to his own people. This was what upset his
hearers in his hometown. If he would have just left them be with their lukewarm
admiration, they wouldn’t have had such a violent reaction—at least not at that
point. Jesus got pushy, and they didn’t like that.
This is not uncommon. There are several examples in the
Bible where people responded to the Gospel by saying, “How interesting. I would
not be opposed to hearing more about that in the future.” However, the message
that Jesus preaches is not just a pleasant way to pass the time or to be part
of a community. Jesus’s message is “Repent, and believe
the Gospel.” Another way of saying the same thing is: “Change your ways,
change your mind, believe the good news that Jesus preaches to the powerless
poor.” That is an all or nothing proposition. Either you will change your mind
or you won’t. Either Jesus will have all of you, or you will reject him.
Jesus speaks this way in other places as well. It always
make us nervous, because we are afraid to commit completely and totally. So,
for example, Jesus says: “Whoever loves father or
mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more
than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me
is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his
life for my sake will find it.” That is being “all in” on Jesus. It is
difficult and scary, but it makes sense if you think about it.
Jesus is the difference between total bliss and freedom on
the one hand or total sadness and imprisonment on the other. Either Jesus sets
you from all your enemies—even those that you thought were impossible to
overcome. Or you are still stuck—powerless and impoverished—in the face of
things much mightier than you. It makes sense that this must be an all or
nothing kind of thing.
Jesus is not like an insurance policy that you stick in the
filing cabinet until you have to use it. Jesus is Christ the king who is at
work with the Gospel and sacraments. He is converting one soul at a time by the
power of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of his kingdom is to destroy all the evil
works of the devil. You don’t fight wars with insurance policies. Wars involve
total commitment.
The people at Nazareth refused to be completely serious
about Jesus. They thought he was interesting. They thought he was a good
speaker. They would have told you that they were on his side! But they quit
being on his side when he told them that their lukewarm approval wouldn’t cut
it. Eventually their lukewarm approval would turn to criticism, because then it
is only a matter of time before Jesus says or does something that doesn’t meet
their complete approval.
It is easy to apply this to ourselves. We are not unlike
those Nazarenes! None of us, including myself, are comfortable “losing our lives” as Jesus puts it. None of us are as
eager as we should be to take up our cross and follow him. It is much easier to
believe that merely being a fan of Jesus is good enough. And, if you think
about it, how convenient! We can feel good about being a fan without having to
live as a soldier of the cross, denying ourselves.
But this fakery only makes sense if there is no real war
going on. There is a war. Jesus is our king. He is fighting against the devil
and all evil, including the evil that is found in us, his Christians. The
nature of the situation requires us always to repent and believe the Gospel. Repent
and go “all in” with Jesus. You will not be disappointed!
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