In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Jesus knows how to make an entrance! In his first day of
work, he just about gets himself thrown off the cliff! Thankfully, Jesus plays
it cool, passes right through the angry crowd as they push him toward the
cliff, and goes on his way.
Today’s lesson is often called the inaugural speech of Jesus
and his ministry. It’s almost like a speech a new president of the United
States would give as he begins his presidency. And Jesus is a master in speech.
He’s got all of the great quotes of the day memorized and he uses them to his
advantage.
So let me set the stage for you a little bit. Jesus is
traveling around Nazareth, just after he’s been baptized by John in the Jordan
river, if you’ll remember the lesson from last week. It happens to be the
Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest and focus on God’s Word. The people are
gathered in a local church and Jesus gathers with them, because he’s a good
Jewish man who wouldn’t miss the Sabbath.
On this particular Friday evening, the good folks in the
church, hoping to hear the wonderful teaching of this new Rabbi, hand him the
scroll with the prophets. He unrolled the scroll and turned to an old prophet,
a guy named Isaiah.
In the words of this prophet, Jesus proclaims that God’s
Spirit is upon him and given him a task. Here is where Jesus begins his
inaugural speech. His task, he proclaims, is to preach good news to the poor,
proclaim release to the captives, recover the sight of the blind, and let the
oppressed go free. All of this stuff, good news, release, recovery and freedom,
are part of a unique and very underused cultural custom called the Year of the
Lord’s Favor. This was a real custom, even though it was rarely practiced.
The Year of the Lord’s Favor, or the Jubilee Year as it was
sometimes called, required all of the Israelite people to forgive any debt that
was owed to them, let all of their slaves go free, let their land lay fallow,
and release to anyone who’d been held in prison. Now, you can imagine, if you
were the one who owed all the debt, or if you were the slave, or if you were
the criminal behind bars, this Year of Jubilee is good news, or maybe even
GREAT news! But if you are the one who is waiting for the loans to be repaid or
relying on the slaves to work the fields, or if you were the judge who
sentenced the criminal to hard time, this would be very bad news.
Lots of times, whether the Word of God sounds like good news
or bad news depends on where you’re sitting. And the folks in the pews in that
little church in Nazareth, in Jesus’ hometown no less, are hearing this and
wondering, “Is he talking about me?”
In his opening speech, in his home town, reading from an old
prophet, Jesus proclaims that this year, this year, is a Year of Jubilee, a
year of forgiving debts, of freeing slaves, of letting fields lay fallow, of
releasing prisoners. This is a year of freedom.
Stunned, shocked, speechless. The congregation, with mouths
gaping, stare at Jesus as he rolls up the scroll and calmly sits down and says,
“Today this scripture is coming true. This scripture is being fulfilled. The
poor will have good news preached to them, the blind will see, the captives
will be freed and the oppressed will be freed from their burdens.”
The congregation begins to murmur. Is this Joseph’s son?
Isn’t this that little kid from down the street who used to play tee ball with
our boys? Isn’t this that son of the carpenter who made our kitchen table?
Isn’t this that little same little boy who we had over for supper, who played
in our backyard, who went to school with our kids? Is this not Joseph’s son?
And before they could get too far, Jesus had to tell them
exactly what side of the fence they were sitting on. In this quiet little town,
in his home church, Jesus continued his opening speech, the speech that would
define his ministry forever.
“No one is ever accepted in his hometown,” Jesus said. “And
not only that, I’m not even here to preach the good news to you, my neighbors
and my friends. Just like Elijah helped a widow not from his own people, but
from the neighboring religion; or just like Elisha who healed the skin disease,
not of the guy from his own people, but the guy from another region and
religion all together.”
“I’m not here to proclaim freedom to you, but to the very
people whom you hold in slavery. I’m here to proclaim release to those who owe
you debt. I’m here for them, not for you.”
And with that, Jesus let his little congregation, in his
hometown of Nazareth, know right there in his opening speech, exactly what he
had come for. His ministry was to those far off, his ministry was to the
Gentiles, not to the Jews. Jesus’ ministry was to those who weren’t in church,
sitting in the pews, but to those who spent their Sunday mornings sleeping in,
watching football, shopping at the mall.
It’d be like me, on my first Sunday here, coming in and tell
you, “I’m here to proclaim freedom,” but don’t get too comfortable, because I
won’t be here on Sunday’s. I’ll be out there, proclaiming freedom of all of
those people who sit on the outside of the church. I’m here for all of the
people who have been hurt, disillusioned, miffed, stunned, oppressed and
shunned by the church.”
And just like that, the congregation gets up and seething
with anger, begin shoving Jesus out the door and to the edge of the cliff so
that they can throw him over and finally put all of the nonsense to rest.
Yet there is more to this story than just what is told. What
the Jews and the Gentiles find out is that Jesus has actually come for both of
them. The beauty of Jesus’ sermon in church that day is that that good little
congregation gathered there for church got exactly what they needed. And so did
the Gentiles.
You see, freedom comes in many forms. The freedom that that
little congregation needed was the freedom from their self-righteousness. They
needed freedom from their sin of pride and arrogance and prejudice. That little
congregation, even though it made them want to hurl Jesus off the cliff, got
precisely the kind of Word from God that they needed to hear. It was a Word of
judgment from God, God telling them to forget their self-righteous piety and
remember that there is a whole world full of people out there that God has made
and God loves them just as much. Freedom, for that little congregation, meant
freedom from their sin.
And freedom for the Gentiles, those who’d been on the
outside of the church walls for so many years, was coming, too. God was
ushering them into the kingdom just as quickly as their Jewish brothers and
sisters. You see, the funny thing about freedom and God is that God has no
sense of who’s in and who’s out. God forgives and calls the whole world; God so
loved the whole world. So, hear this
dear friends, this is the year of the Lord’s favor. God is bringing good news
to you. He is releasing you from your sin and captivity. God is ushering you
into his kingdom. No matter where you’re sitting.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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