An Uncomfortable Day in the Hometown

I was reading Luke 4:14-30 and as I pictured the scene playing out in my imagination, there came to be some real challenges for me personally. I'd like to share them with you.

Jesus was a young man of about thirty when he returned to his hometown of Nazareth. His reputation as a preacher preceded him and the synagogue was filled with family, friends and the influential people of Nazareth that day. A hush fell over the crowd as his finger ran down the ancient, hand-copied scroll, finally resting in Isaiah 61. In a calm, clear and firm voice Jesus read the words of the prophet written many years before:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Here is where I encountered my first uncomfortable moment. As a product of upper-middle class suburbia the poor, the prisoners, the blind and the oppressed were things I read about in the textbooks and drove past if I had to go through the city to get to the suburbs on the other side. They were people to be avoided. People created the suburbs to insulate themselves from the problems of poverty and oppression. Yet here is my Lord saying that these were the very people that He had come for. I thought of the U.S. Representative I saw last night on CSpan as he talked about the community he represented in Chicago. It was a poor community totally unlike the one I grew up in. It was a community that struggled with poverty, but it was a community that he loved and was working to help. I had to admit that Jesus would have been at home there. Would I?

As I thought about this I realized that part of my fear, if you can call it that, is that I will be overwhelmed with the problems of other people. How do you help the single mom that barely graduated from high school that is struggling to raise a family? What about the unemployed worker with a bad back that has been self-medicating with alcohol? As I prayed the Lord showed me that I am not the answer. He is. I can build relationships, point people to Him and work for justice in our region. He will do the rest. Isn't that what the Holy Spirit said through Micah?

Every eye was focused on Jesus. Jesus was silent for a moment, allowing the suspense to build. Then he said simply, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." The crowd was "amazed at his gracious words" and "all spoke well of him." The hometown boy could speak well. They were proud of him. There was another undercurrent, though. There were those that actually listen to the implications of what Jesus was saying. This was a passage that talked of the Messiah, the Anointed One, the one who would lead all of Israel! "Isn't this Joseph's son? Where does he get off claiming that?" they asked themselves.

Jesus changed his tone. He told them that a prophet was only without honor in his hometown. He told them that there would be no show for them. He told them that the prophets of old didn't do tricks for the folks back home.

They were furious! In fact, they tried to kill him by throwing him off the cliff, but he got away and went on to Capernaum.

Note to self: Remember to keep the back door locked in the new building. It is way too close to the cliff for me to survive a "bad sermon".

Seriously, I wondered why the home-folks reacted this way. Why didn't they accept Jesus? Was it familiarity? I mean, could it be that they couldn't handle the fact that Jesus wasn't who they thought he was...he was really the Messiah? If so, is it possible for me to think that I know Jesus so well that I dismiss what he really wants to do? In fact, if Jesus wanted to do something new could I find it upsetting?

I knew the answer to that question was yes. It took me some time to work through the implications again of saying, "Jesus, you are the Messiah. You are God. You are the one who I want to lead my life and this church. Help me to keep remember who you truly are and never think I can do things on my own without you. Be my Guide and my Rock." When I finally worked things through, the sense of freedom was incredible. Jesus is the Messiah who has come and is setting the captives free.