Overwhelming Grace

This morning we are going to continue to look at Jesus' public ministry. This morning's passage from Luke comes directly on the heels of last week's scripture which described Jesus in his hometown of Nazareth. If you will remember, Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah and then made a bold and mind-blowing pronouncement: “Today the scripture has been fulfilled.” Jesus asserted to the listeners in Nazareth's synagogue that he himself was the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophetic message: liberation, good news, and the day of the Lord's favor. Last week we investigated Jesus' understanding of himself and his public ministry guided by the notion of forgiveness. This week we will look at Jesus' public ministry in the light of a different notion: the idea of overwhelming grace.

Turn in your bible to Luke 4: 21- 30.

This passage completes Luke's depiction of Jesus' experience in his hometown of Nazareth. What we saw last week was that Jesus' reading of Isaiah was a characterization and self-description of his ministry, attitude toward ministry, but we also noticed that it connected him with past prophets. Jesus, in taking up the scripture of Isaiah and announcing its fulfillment in himself, embraces the prophetic nature of Isaiah; both the author and the text. What we might see this week is the very response of those attending the synagogue that morning—their response to Jesus' claim that scripture had been fulfilled in himsef—will, in a sense, foreshadow Jesus' death, and connect Jesus to the prophets of old.

The prophets of old were people who were often rejected. Sometimes the prophets were in very prominent positions. Often, kings would have a court prophet and would cater to and listen to the prophet. Unfortunately, prophetic messages sometimes ridiculed the very ruling authority that occupied the court. Why were prophets of old rejected by their people? Prophetic messages challenged those who were in control and those who were in power. Often times the social conditions, which were influenced by the powerful, required a prophetic message. These messages critiqued the social situations, and as a result, implicitly (if not explicitly) critiqued those in power; those in control. If you know anything about those in power, you might readily agree that they do not like to be critiqued (especially when the critique might threaten their very power and control). To be honest, if I possessed such power I would have a hard time listening to the critiques warnings of prophetic messages.

Another reason why the prophets of old were rejected by their people was because they demanded change. Not only did the prophetic message challenge the powerful and controlling, but it also demanded the powerful and controlling change their ways and change the social/religious conditions. Finally, the prophetic message also described the “or else.” Prophetic messages pronounced the consequences of a lack of change, often culminating in a message of doom and gloom: destruction and invasion. The messages called for the rulers and people to honor the God that protected them, lest God allow other Kingdoms to invade and conquer. The messages called for those in power, along with the every day folks of the kingdom, to change their ways toward each other, and toward the God that found favor with them.

As you can imagine, prophets were not the most celebrated and popular people. And this image of prophetic rejection is a paradigm which connects to Jesus' experience in ministry, and ultimately on the cross. Jesus offered a prophetic message which challenged the powerful forces of the Jewish religious system. Jesus was at odds with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the law. If you will remember, Jesus wanted to emphasize the reality of Yahweh's Mercy, while others, particularly the Pharisees, wanted to emphasize Yahweh's Holiness. To emphasize God's Holiness implied that God's followers had to be strictly committed to holiness; everyone had to be holy: everyone had to follow the law. Jesus argued that this emphasis of God's Holiness was inappropriate because it created unhelpful divisions. Instead, Jesus wanted to see it through that God's Mercy was emphasized. As a result, Jesus' message challenged the current way the Jewish religion was understood, and whats more, he challenged those who enforced the religious system. Jesus' challenge was a call to change; a call to re-interpret the religious system by using the principle of Mercy above the principle of Holiness. Jesus asked the religious leaders and religious people of his day to look at God and their religion in a different way, from the vantage point of Mercy, Grace, and ultimately Love. Jesus wanted not to remove the concept of God's Holiness, but instead to see God as first Merciful, and then Holy. This challenge still rings true today as we reflect on the meaning of God in light of Jesus' message, ministry, and the event of the cross.

Jesus also described the “or else” if nothing changed. His prophetic message included the consequences of remaining without change. Things must change, the religious and social landscape had to be altered to incorporate those who were excluded, oppressed, and in need of deliverance.

The prophetic nature of Jesus' message made him an easy figure for rejection. In fact we will see time and again that Jesus is rejected in his ministry. Ultimately we will see that Jesus is climatically rejected on the cross. Luke describes the process of rejection as it plays out to the very end. And in the very end, Jesus is crucified.

We see this morning that Jesus begins his public ministry with a prophetic message; we also see Jesus for the first time rejected. This one event captures both the direction of his message and the trajectory of his reception. He would be received with a prophet's welcome: rejection.
We do need to look carefully at those who reject him in Nazareth. Because in Nazareth we do not see Jesus at odds with the religiously powerful, but instead with those with whom he was intimately associated: the people of his hometown. It is very important that we look at the context of this scripture passage to understand why his very own people did not want to hear him or welcome his message.

What makes the people of Nazareth particularly unwilling to accept Jesus? Let's begin to examine this scripture, beginning in verse 22. We see that what Jesus said regarding Isaiah immediately awed the people of the synagogue: “they spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words which were coming from his mouth.” Initially they found his words attractive. They marveled at his message of liberation and good news. But then they remembered the Jesus they saw growing up in Nazareth. They did not see Jesus in light of the first part of Jesus' words from Isaiah: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Luke 4: 18). Those words indicated that Jesus had a special relationship with Yahweh; the God of the Israelites; the God of the Jewish people. Unfortunately those at the synagogue did not see Jesus in terms of Yahweh but in terms of Joseph. At the end of verse 22 we read: “and they said, is not this Joseph's son?” What they seem to be asking is whether or not Jesus, born to the family of a carpenter could have anything all that great to actually say or do. Those in the synagogue only understood Jesus in terms of his earthly family and not in terms of his heavenly family and relationship with God.

We see Jesus' response in verse 23. The proverb which Jesus speaks of refers to his previous ministry in Galilee where he did a few miracles, signs, and wonders. Jesus already realizes that the people of his hometown will demand that he, the “physician,” should “heal himself” by performing in his hometown when he did outside of it. But Jesus refuses to perform a sign for those in Nazareth. Why?

Well it may be that the people of his hometown already see him as only in relationship to Joseph, only as Joseph's son. They might be unwilling to see him in any other way, and, as a result, cannot—or better will not—fathom Jesus as a wonder-worker in special relationship to God. In a sense they may have already closed their eyes and yet demand to see a sign. Jesus may see any such attempt to offer a sign as being futile and pointless. But we truly don't know why Jesus does not perform a sign for them. Luke's account does not specifically address why it is that Jesus will not give his own people a sign, just that Jesus does not. So we can speculate as to the reason, but according to Luke we have nothing definitive reason.

But Jesus goes on to say that there were prophets of old who did not provide miracles for their own people, but only for outsiders. He gives two examples: First, the prophet Elijah offers his council to a widow of Sidon, an outsider, and not to the countless widows who doubtlessly existed within his own Israelite community; second, the prophet Elisha went to a Syrian leper, an outsider, instead of to the lepers of his own people. After offering these examples as precedent, what was the response of those at the synagogue to Jesus? What did they say to Jesus when they realized the implications of his message: that he would minister to the outsiders, that he had come to reconcile those who were separated, those who had been excluded? Their response in verse 28 is one of wrath. They are infuriated and unable to comprehend how this could be. The inclusion of outsiders was not acceptable. They may have been thinking: “they are outsiders for a reason, we are holy people, separate people.”

An inclusion of outsiders muddled the boundary that the religious system of the day labored to create. And if we remember anything about Jesus it should be this: Jesus was a boundary-breaker, a division healer. Those in the synagogue could not fathom the overwhelming Grace that Jesus sought to employ on behalf of God. In fact, their inability to understand was a direct result of the religious system which was guided by the principle of Holiness; a principle which trumped all else, including Mercy. But Jesus came to emphasize Yahweh's divine Mercy, God's overwhelming Grace and Love. And thus, Jesus ministry took him directly to those who were outsiders, those who were not included because of the notion of Holiness and the divisions it created. Just like Elisha and Elijah, Jesus would minister to the outsiders.

The ministry to outsiders was spurred by a Grace so powerful, that it overwhelmed those in the synagogue. Now the Jewish people experienced Grace, the favor of God as God's chosen people. But they could not understand how it was that Grace could penetrate the entirety of the world and encapsulate everyone. But Jesus, as God's prophet, came with a message of change designed to include those who had been excluded. Moreover, Jesus' message of inclusion was supposedly stifled by his death. But in truth it was amplified, magnified, and intensified. Jesus' death and resurrection actually made the message of inclusion complete for all time. Remember back to Jesus on the cross and the image we see in our minds of the temple curtain torn in two. This symbolic tearing opens up the world to the presence of God. Everyone can be with God.

And it is the inclusion of outsiders that brings us to God's House this morning in worship and praise. We are or were once “outsiders.” We have the fallible traits of humanity that separates us from the most Holy God. But when we come to fathom and experience God's Mercy, God's unquenchable and overwhelming Grace, we realize that we can be included in the Kingdom of God. In fact, it is in the spirit of inclusion and community that we can prepare to witness a baptism: The sacral baptism of Jacob Simoneau. As we prepare to witness that public act of baptism, let us remember the overwhelming Grace that makes this possible, the overwhelming Love of God which beckons us to this place in praise.

Turn in your hymnal to the song of Iinvitation. If you need to move to better see the baptism, please do so now.

Benediction:

Most Merciful God, meet us in this place, your house of worship. May we welcome Jacob into our family as Your Child. Grant us the strength to encourage Jacob as he embarks on a journey of faith as part of this community. May we journey next to him in faithfulness, up-building your Kingdom in Hope, Love, Peace, and Joy. Grant us the wisdom to discern your Will for our lives, your plan for your Kingdom. May we be steadfast servants, filled with humility and the beauty of your overwhelming grace. Amen.