Luke 4:21-30
Gospel Reading for Fourth Sunday after Epiphany (Year C)
Jesus couldn't just leave well enough alone. Everyone was in awe of him after he read from Isaiah. Luke tells us they spoke well of him and they were amazed. Some interpret the crowd's comment "Is this not Joseph's son?" as a dig, but I think you could also read it as, "Man, the carpenter's boy has done good for himself." Yep, Jesus' return to the hometown synagogue was a huge success.
And then he kept talking.
"I bet you're wondering why I'm not doing miracles like the ones you heard about in Capernaum. Well, let me tell you, a prophet is not welcome in his hometown." That probably got the crowd murmuring. In the beat, you can almost hear one of Jesus' friends hiss at him, "Jesus! Stop talking!"
Again had he stopped talking there, things probably would have ended somewhat amicably. Awkwardly no doubt, but the crowd wouldn't have tried to kill the guy. Instead they would have simply thought Jesus was weird and weirdness is important for keeping up one's prophetic street cred.
But he kept talking.
Jesus spoke about Elijah and Elisha doing great things for outsiders. The two prophets healed those who were beyond the margins of the chosen group while God's people got nothing. And that's when the scene turned ugly. That was what tipped this synagogue service from hometown pride to awkward confusion to angry mob.
What was it about that comment that unsettled the crowd so much? If I had to harbor a guess, it was the reminder that God was not just on their side. True, the one who was to fulfill Isaiah's writing grew up among them in Nazareth, but he was not theirs and theirs alone. The great things of God that Jesus read about were going to take place outside of their religious city limits. God is not just on our side. That's the part we don't want to hear.
I sat in church this morning and imagined what the scene would look like today. What kind of story would have riled the crowd sitting in the pews of a stained glass-lit sanctuary? Maybe Jesus would have mentioned the healing of an illegal immigrant, a Muslim, or an individual from the LGBTQ community. Or in another venue, before people in churches that actually would welcome those unfortunately cast to the outside get too comfortable, Jesus might have spoken of a religious fundamentalist or a Tea Party Republican getting healed. God is not just looking out for us, but cares also for those we label "them."
God is not just on our side. It's uncomfortable, isn't it? We don't get to decree where God's mercy graces a life. Even though we are the ones who bear Christ's name, we don't own Christ. The Proclamation of the Year of the Lord's favor is not limited to just those we think deserve to hear it. In Luke, you see Jesus making contact with those who were on the margins. He talks with women. He heals servants of the occupying Roman army. He tells stories in which a hated Samaritan was the hero above a priest and a Levite and a prodigal son is welcomed back with open arms. The table is set in this Nazareth synagogue so that it may be flipped over through Jesus' ministry.
It can be kind of frightening. God not just being on our side. Of course, why would God do that? God isn't beholden to us. It reasons then that we should try to get on God's side. We should try to be about what Jesus was about. If Jesus preached a sermon like that today, I imagine we might sputter like those in Nazareth and say, "You can't go to those people! You're one of us!" And Jesus, God incarnate in human form, might say, "I'm one of them too." If we weren't ready to throw him off a cliff, perhaps he would once again keep talking and say, "Follow me."