The text this morning is from the Gospel of Luke, the fourth chapter:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Have you ever been offended? Truly offended? I mean, like someone has made a racist joke at your expense offended? Like someone makes a sexist joke offended? Like someone does or says something so vile and nasty to you that you actually begin to think of ways that you can “get rid of them” so that no one would know but you offended? Good. Then you’re beginning to think like the Nazarenes.
Jesus offended them. Jesus, you know, isn’t in the meek and mild business. He’s not interested in keeping the status quo. He’s not interested in making people feel good about themselves. He knows who we are. He knows what the Law says about us. He knows that we’re dirty, rotten sinners. And He knows that we, even the Nazarenes in today’s text, don’t deserve kind words or happy sayings or good things. He knows all that.
Now, of course, you also know that doesn’t stop Jesus from giving those kind words or happy sayings or good things to you. You don’t deserve them, but Jesus often gives them anyway. We don’t deserve forgiveness; but He gives it. We don’t deserve good health; but He gives it. We don’t deserve happy days; but He gives them. We don’t deserve anything good but it doesn’t stop Him from giving it.
Except, in today’s text, when we stand in the way of God’s good things, He can’t, He won’t give them. Think on the Nazarenes. Good Jews, I’m sure. They lived according to the Law, at least as much as they were able. They did good things for people. After all, you have to remember, people from Nazareth had a reputation, and it was one I’m sure they wanted to get over. Remember Nathaniel’s words when he was being called to be an Apostle? “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nazareth had a reputation. Now, we don’t know all that they did to earn such a reputation. Perhaps they were the hillbillies of Galilee. Perhaps they were the rednecks. Perhaps they were more like the Al Capones, the Bonnie and Clydes, or even like the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department, now made infamous by Netflix.
Regardless of what they did, or even what they were said to have done, Nazarenes didn’t really have a good reputation, and doubtless, when one of her sons came back, doing great miracles and saying wonderful and gracious words, they got a little bit of a self-inflated ego. “See, we’re not all bad. If Jesus comes from us, well, then we must be doing something right, right?” But, that’s the problem.
When Jesus comes into their midst, what does He do? He goes to the synagogue, as was His custom, to hear the Word of the Lord. He’s even invited to read from the scroll of Isaiah that day, an honor to be sure. And He preaches to them. When the text says, “He began to say to them…” it means that He began a sermon. The gist of the sermon is what He says next: “Today, in your hearing, this prophecy has been fulfilled. I have fulfilled it.” Incredible.
Imagine you were sitting there, hearing Jesus say these things. Imagine being able to hear this sermon, the full text of which is not recorded for our hearing. Imagine you get to sit in front of Jesus and hear wonderful and gracious words from God so that you were learning from the best of the best. It would be like the most famous theologian in America coming into this place to teach us, but better, because it’s Jesus. Can you feel what they felt? Can you think what they thought?
Of course you can. You get a little prideful. You get a little full of yourself. We’re special. He chose us. He chose this place. He chose this time to declare that the prophecies of God are coming true among us. He chose us.
And you get off track. Now, aren’t we all this way? We think that we deserve something from God based on how we live, or how faithful we are, or how good we’ve been, or how welcoming we try to be. That’s what we think. But, God, who knows the hearts of men, doesn’t see that. He sees us for who we are, He saw the Nazarenes for who they were: selfish, ambitious, prideful, deserving sinners.
Does that get you mad? I hope not. I hope you know that about yourself. We all have this tendency to be selfish, ambitious, prideful, and deserving. That’s what our sinful nature brings to us. It gets us off track from seeing what God has declared over us, that we are forgiven sinners, declared righteous by the blood of Christ, and convinces us that we can do it on our own. That’s the Nazarenes’ problem. Their hometown hero, who has been going throughout Galilee, healing the sick, making the lame walk, maybe even raising the dead, has come here to me, so that He can give me what I most need.
And Jesus, who knows even the hearts of man for He is truly God, knows that the Nazarenes feel this way. It’s why He makes their argument for them. Now, remember, He’s not in the business of spouting platitudes to make people feel better. He’s in the business of bringing heaven to earth. And sinners who want to make themselves righteous in God’s sight aren’t going to be inheriting this heaven. They can’t. They climb over Jesus’ dead body on the cross to get to heaven itself and find only the mouth of hell in front of them.
So it was for the Nazarenes. They didn’t want the Messiah who would proclaim the Gospel to the poor in spirit; they wanted the Messiah who would tell them they were doing just fine. They didn’t want liberty from the captivity of sin; they wanted their compatriots freed from the jails. They didn’t want the recovery of sight to the eyes of faith; they wanted to see things through rose-colored glasses. They didn’t want liberty from the oppression of sin, death, and the devil; they wanted liberty from the oppressive Romans. They didn’t want the year of the Lord’s favor towards those whom He loves through His Son’s death and resurrection; they wanted favors from God.
What do you want? By faith, you want what Jesus comes to offer. He comes to give you the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And you have it. You have it. You are given these things by Jesus because you believe in Him and who He is and what He has done for you. By faith, you believe that the Son of God was sent from heaven to take on your flesh, to die in your place, to rise from your grave, that you might always be with Him and have life forever. You want these things, right? Of course you do. Why else would you be here?
But the Nazarenes, well, they didn’t. They want temporal things, not the eternal things. And what happens? They’re filled with wrath because Jesus tells them that they aren’t deserving of that. And we know that, too. We know that we don’t deserve it, but God gives to us graciously and lavishly. But, when we get off track, we get a little wrathful, too. We get angry at God, at others, for not giving us what we think we deserve, and we want to take it from them, or, if we can’t have it, then no one else can.
In fact, Jesus told the Nazarenes, by reminding them of the days of Elijah and Elisha, that they deserved less that the Gentile sinners in those stories. They were worse than the widow of Sidon who wanted to die. They were worse than the Syrian general who was filled with leprosy. And there could have been no more offensive thing that was said to them than that.
They got angry. They got raged up. They got wrathful. And they were so wicked that they were going to throw their own son off the cliff to stone Him. But it wasn’t time for Jesus to be a victim of wrath. That day would come at the end of His ministry, not the beginning. That day would come when His Father would pour out from heaven all the wrath that He had upon His Son so that you would never, ever have to face it.
You see, Jesus told the Nazarenes what they needed to hear. They needed to be brought down by the Law. They needed to be convicted of their sin, of looking at God as some kind of bread-king who just gives handouts to everyone. They needed to repent. And if they had, they would have found forgiveness at the feet of Jesus.
Jesus always forgives the repentant person. There is always forgiveness from Him. There was forgiveness for the Samaritan adulteress. There was forgiveness for the prostitute inflicted by demons. There was forgiveness for Peter and his infamous denial of and turning away from Jesus. And there is forgiveness for you, too.
In Christ, in faith you have been lead to this place, to repent of your sins and be forgiven. And so you are. By the very blood of Christ, shed for you under the Father’s watchful and wrathful gaze, you have the forgiveness of your sins. You are made whole again. You are restored to the right desires and the right attitudes. The Law, though it has accused you in your sin, makes no more accusations when you are in Christ. What can the Law do when Jesus has cut off its tongue and declared you to be righteous, free, innocent of all your sin? The Law has lost its teeth in Christ.
You are the poor in spirit. You are the captive to sin. You are the blind to faith. You are one oppressed by sin, death, and the devil. You are the one who deserves nothing. Yet, you are the one to whom Christ gives everything. You are the one who has the Gospel preached to them. You are the one who is set free from sin. You are the one enlightened by the Holy Spirit. You are the one who is given forgiveness, life, and salvation. You are the one who receives all favor from God’s hand.
This is what Christ has done. It’s what He did for the Nazarenes, too, though many would not acknowledge Him. He has restored you to God through His life, death, and resurrection so that you would indeed always be with Him for He desires nothing more than to always be with you. And when Jesus is with you, you know you are safe. There is no offense that can be given that Jesus hasn’t covered. There is no action done that Jesus has not redeemed.
Though Jesus does indeed seek to offend, as He is the stumbling block to Jews and the folly of the Gentiles, He does so out of love, for He desires to set you in your place in order to restore you to His graciousness. Jesus does not offend people because He loves offense; He does it for their good, that they may see God as the good and gracious King who has a new message for people to hear: that they are made righteous in Jesus Christ, and Him alone.
There is nothing we bring to our King that buys us His favor or welcomes us into heaven. We are merely the recipients of His mercy. We have been given a hand that receives whatever it is that God would give us. If He offends us, it is for His purposes. If He blesses us, it is for His purposes. If He gives us material wealth or monetary gain, it is for His purposes. If He makes us poor or wanting, it is for His purposes. And the eyes of faith see this, believe this, and trust this.
Jesus gives us what we need, even when His words seem harsh. But, even when He is harsh with us, it is to lead us to His love. And He does indeed love you. He does indeed bless you. And He does indeed forgive you. For that reason, He received, not the wrath of the Nazarenes, but the wrath of His beloved Father, that you might be saved, not walking away from the midst of you, but coming into our midst that He might live with us, be with us, forever. And so He is with us forever. And ever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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