Hometown Boy Makes Good

By

Reverend Litton Logan

January 21, 2007

Scriptures:

Luke 4:14--30 (NRSV)
¹⁴Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth

¹⁶When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

      because he has anointed me

        to bring good news to the poor.

    He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

      and recovery of sight to the blind,

        to let the oppressed go free,

¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” ²²All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” ²³He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” ²⁴And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. ²⁵But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; ²⁶yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. ²⁷There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. ²⁹They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. ³⁰But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Sermon:

          When I was president of the Chamber of Commerce in Stroud, OK, I helped put together an economic development team for our community and secured training for that group.  The training person, who met with us, asked many questions about our town.  The one question he asked that stuck in my mind was this:  “Do you have anyone famous or infamous from your town?”  He went on to tell us that celebrities, especially dead ones, like presidents, outlaws, rock stars, who died from drug overdoses, etc., were good drawing cards to pull tourists off the turn pike and into our town and, subsequently, into our retail businesses.

          Our town couldn’t boast anyone famous or infamous.  Therefore, we had to do the hard work of economic development without any gimmicks or riding the coat tails of famous or infamous people.  I might add over the years that group became very successful and the community as well as the Stroud church grew because of our efforts.

          However, the idea of a town profiting and prospering from someone else’s fame or infamy stuck with me.  It bothered me that hoodlums, criminals, and other miscreants could become a source of prosperity for a community instead of a source of shame.  This is especially troubling if we give credence to the notion that it takes a village to raise a kid.  What kind of statement about community child rearing do the infamous and anti-social personalities make about a community?  Moreover, what does a football player, basketball player, hockey player, tennis star, actor, or a politician; given how America feels about politicians, really have to say about a community?  Nevertheless, we humans have a curious and morbid fascination with instances of abnormal power, good or bad, in the lives of others.

          Well, nevertheless, let’s look at our scriptures for today.  Jesus’ hometown has heard that one of their local boys, Jesus, the son of Joseph the Carpenter, has “made good”.  This term “made good” comes from my Mississippi background.  It means that someone from a lower socio-economic class has overcome the expectations of their socio-economic situation to move up a level or two in prosperity or social status. 

After Jesus returned from his wilderness temptation, he was full of the Spirit and began to teach and heal people in areas of Galilee.  Word spread about Jesus’ teachings and his power to heal.  His hometown folks were most likely a little miffed that he had started his ministry elsewhere; but he was home now.  They were looking forward to basking in his reflected glory and the prestige of having a prophet from their town, especially since a common saying was that nothing good ever came out of Galilee.  I also imagine many folks were hoping to be healed, after all Jesus owed it to them, right, he was from their town?

          Jesus was welcomed in the synagogue one Sabbath morning as a celebrity and asked to read from the prophets during Sabbath worship.  The congregation eagerly waited his expounding upon what he had read.  Some were impressed with him and were most likely proud of him.  However, others I imagine were a bit put off by him.  Who does he think he is, isn’t this Joseph’s son?  By what pretensions does this local boy speak with such authority and insight, especially to us?  By what authority does he make such claims for himself?  Who does Jesus think he is?

          This business of not being recognized reminds me of the story of Mariah Carey.  Mariah Carey was one of the first celebrities to comment on the death of the King of Jordan.  Mariah told CNN "I'm inconsolable at the present time, I was a very good friend of Jordan, he was probably the greatest basketball player this country has ever seen, we will never see his like again".

When told by reporters that it was King Hussein of Jordan who had died and not Michael Jordan, Mariah was then led away by her security in a state of "confusion".

          I am sure Jesus understood that in a small, rural community such as Nazareth people’s world-views were fixed and rigid.  His people wouldn’t be open to new things or changes.  In a small community, consistency, order, and regularity are sacred things—each person has his or her place, doing only what is expected of them.

Ostensibly, it seems as if Jesus is actually picking a fight with the congregation, or Luke is eager to make a point about the pervasiveness of Jewish resistance to Jesus’ teachings.  Therefore, we can interpret Jesus’ words to his hometown folks in a couple of ways. 

One interpretation could be that Jesus knew the community’s narrow mindedness and resistance to change; therefore, what he says to the congregation that morning is not out of context or without provocation.  Not to mention that for Luke Nazareth may be symbolic of all Judaism at the time.  Jesus looks at the congregation and says, “I know you people well enough to know what you are thinking and mumbling about among yourselves.  You are most likely thinking, who does this guy think he is?  How dare he make such grandiose claims for himself?  Let him fix his own inadequacies and remember his own dubious background before he preaches to us.

The Second possible interpretation derives from the proverb Jesus cites about prophets not being honored in their own hometown.  Jesus would have understood that familiarity often breeds contempt and lowered expectations of people.  In order for a prophet to do mighty works, people had to suspend their prejudices and expectations so that they could make leaps of faith.  If you remember, a person’s expectations in faith are vital to people receiving healing in Luke’s Gospel. 

So, take your pick of interpretations.  I think the truth may be a mixture of both or somewhere in the middle.

The people of Jesus’ hometown heard Jesus say in his new role as a prophet that they were a part of a history-making event.  They were invited to hear in his words and see in his person that God was delivering on God’s promise to bless the entire world.  Let me re-read Luke’s quote directly from Isaiah, because either Luke leaves something out in his ascription or he uses a translation of Isaiah that was missing an item.

Isaiah 61:1 (NRSV)
¹ The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,

because the LORD has anointed me;

he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;

In this passage, Isaiah talks about his anointed call to proclaim the good news or the good words of God to the Jewish people, who were oppressed, brokenhearted, and imprisoned in Babylon.  Jesus claims this same anointing, authority, and mission for his life as he brings the good news or good words of God’s blessing to not only a new generation of Jews but to an oppressed and brokenhearted world held captive by sin and religious and spiritual oppression. 

Luke highlights this understanding by having Jesus, before he proceeds any further, remind and warn the people that there were times when God withdrew God’s blessings from Israel because of its idolatry and bestowed it on gentiles.  Under God’s direction, Elijah went to Sidon, a Phoenicia city-state, and while he was there, he stayed with a widow woman whose son died and Elijah restored his life.  This event happens during a time when a great famine was upon Israel and her sons and daughters were in need of healing and restoration.  Furthermore, Israel had many lepers in need of healing in Elisha’s time but Elisha healed only a general in the Syrian army, an enemy of Israel, of his leprosy.  What is common in both of these Old Testament miracles is the faith of outsiders, gentiles because Israel had rejected God’s word and messengers.

Initially, Jesus’ presence bode well for the people of Nazareth.  Now, however, Jesus implies that God’s blessing will not come upon them because of their closed minded and parochial views of God.  Luke makes it clear that the new thing that Jesus speaks of will not be contained by historical or ethnic boundaries nor limited to Jewish expectations.  In Jesus, God was revealing the universal character of God’s love and compassion for all people, who are morally or spiritually oppressed and victimized regardless of nationality, gender, or race.  When the people understood the implications of what Jesus was saying along with his divine claims, they turned against him as a heretic.  Their own expectations, understandings, and needs took precedence over the fact that God had sent a prophet from among them to them.  In the end, because of their low expectations and familiarity with one of their own, they were unable to receive the radical and inclusive nature of Jesus’ words and blessings.  His hometown folks become angry with him and drive him out of the Synagogue, out of the city, and would have killed him for his heretical audacity, but he gave them the slip.

Let us put Jesus’ community in to a modern, religious context.  We get an idea of what is going on in our scriptures today when we look at violent, radical Islam in the Middle East today.  We see people being killed or maimed for defying some Imam’s interpretation of the Qu’ran or because Mohammed said that infidels and blasphemers should be killed.  You have seen the faces of Jesus’ hometown folks on TV recently--another sermon; let me move on.

I was raised in a religious atmosphere that was highly restricted by people’s fears, low expectations, and social and economic limitations.  What I learned from this in later years was that Christians should never restrict and set limits on who may receive God’s grace or blessings.  Nor, are we to set limits on how God will do God’s redemptive, restorative, and healing work to our feeble, human expectations or understandings.

Jesus did not do many great works in his hometown because the people’s faith was limited by their expectations.  All they wanted from Jesus was to benefit from his fame and power or to be healed; they didn’t not want to embrace his “Way”.  How sad that there were people who needed healing, needed release from oppressive ideas and traditions, needed release from sin and shame, and could not receive it because of their low expectations of themselves and God.  How sad that so many were blinded by their prejudices, narrow-mindedness, and ethnic arrogance and could not see God’s glory and grace right before their eyes.  What they had longed for, had prayed for, for centuries was before their eyes and they couldn’t see it because of the limits of their expectations. 

How much more might God be able to do with us if we were ready to transcend the boundaries of family, community, and religious expectations as well as the limitations we have placed on God’s love and power in our lives?

The universal ministry of Christianity is to bring the Good News, the good words and good knowledge of God, to the morally and spiritually oppressed of the world.  We are to bind up, heal, restore hope and goodness to the broken hearted, and to proclaim liberty to those held captives by the moral and spiritual terrorisms of this life and death.

We must be about proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in ways that sets the human mind and spirit free from the phobic affects of sin, shame, guilt, and un-reflected upon religion and culture.  We must be about the business of healing those who are blinded by false understandings of God’s presence and work in Jesus the Christ.  As Jesus did, so must we go and touch people with our lives and God’s words of grace, forgiveness, and hope.

We must not limit ourselves to our expectations, but rather be open to be led by the Holy Spirit to do mighty and great things according to God’s expectations in our lives.

A truism: If we don’t expect great things to be done among us here at Sombra and within us spiritually, then we will not be disappointed.  However, expectations of faith without work is folly.  As the writer of James tells us:

¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. (James 2:17--2:18 (NRSV))

Jesus, the hometown boy made good, and as his disciples he expects us to make good on God’s promises to bless the world in his name. As some modern-day prophet has said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”  Therefore, as disciples of Christ let us venture forth, dare great things, defy expectations, and we too can do marvelous things in Christ.