Hard Words

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18      “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

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

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

 

22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

 

23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

 

24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

 

28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. (Luke 4:14-30, NIV)

 

 

REFLECTIONS:

I saw a church billboard not long ago that said: “Everyone wants to serve God, but only in an advisory capacity.” I'm normally totally turned off by church billboards, but this one caught my attention. There is a lot of truth to what it says. We all know what we want God to do. But we are not so good at bringing our hopes and intentions into line with what God has in mind.

 

This was never more graphically illustrated than when Jesus, having begun his work of launching God's kingdom elsewhere, came back to his hometown. Not only did everybody know him and his family (always a tricky situation), they knew what, if he really was announcing God's kingdom, he ought to be doing.

 

Imagine yourself at the Sabbath gatherig that morning, standing at the back of the synagogue with this young man, apparently some kind of a prophet, sitting down in the teacher's chair. (In those days, the teacher would sit down and the audience would stand up.) The main thing you know is that you and your people are in a big mess, and it's time God sorted it out. Anyone claiming to be a prophet—let alone quoting the Scriptures and saying they’re all coming true—ought to be telling us how God will rescue his own poor people, sort out the bad characters, and smash the heathen invaders to smithereens. That is how it's supposed to work. That is what God is meant to be doing!

 

But look at what happens next. This young would-be prophet is talking about grace—the “year of the Lord's favor.” Well, that's fine; we know about the Jubilee, the time when everyone is to be released from all their debts. Maybe it's time we did it once and for all, and more thoroughly. But… he's talking about God doing it for everybody! The wicked and the pagans are going to be let off as well! We can't have that! Who does he think he is? He deserves to be lynched!

 

Are you angry? You should be. He's just stood all your good, sound advice on its head. Unfortunately, God tends to do that. Jesus himself tended to do that. God is turning the whole world upside down. That means he's turning your world upside down as well.

 

 

POINT OF PONDER:

As we allow a scene like this to wash over us, we will sometimes hear the disturbing question: when we know, only too clearly, what God ought to be doing, are we prepared to take a second opinion? God's opinion?

 

 

PRAYER:

Sovereign Lord, teach me to listen to you even when you're saying things I badly don't want to hear. Sometimes, oftentimes, your words are so hard to hear. Your ways are so different from my ways and the ways of our culture, which are so deeply ingrained in me. But, deep inside, I long to walk in lock-step with you. So, strengthen me to embrace your word of truth. Have your way with me. Turn my world upside down.

 

 

WHO AM I?

I am Tres Sansom, and I'm so boring that I have completely run out of things to say about myself.