Sunday, January 13, 2013

Epiphany 2 :: Jan 13, 2013 :: Luke 4:14-30


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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