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Hespeler, 30 January 2022 © Scott McAndless
Jeremiah 1:4-10, Psalm 71:1-6, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Luke 4:21-30

Do you remember the good old days? You know, those days that were almost two years ago? I’m talking about the very early days of the pandemic and the crisis. Ah, those were the days, weren’t they? I remember walking around back then. Everything was all shut down. No one was going anywhere. And, yes, I know that people were worried, and they were scared but there was still something uplifting about the moment. You would see the messages everywhere you went. “We’re all in this together,” they would proclaim. “Let’s all do everything that we can to help each other.”

And I know that sometimes you still do see messages like that. But I’m not so sure when I see them today that people still believe them. Back then they really seemed to. There was this strong sense that we would be there for each other and that everyone would pitch in. People were forgiving of errors and lapses among others. They even pulled together behind political leaders if you could imagine that!

A Change in Attitude

And the reason that feels so nostalgic is because I don’t often get that sense these days. Today, it often feels as if we have never been so divided. We are seeing sharper and sharper partisan political divides as right wingers identify left wingers as examples of pure evil and the rhetoric on the other side is pretty much the same. We see the enmity between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated and a general breakdown of civility. And I cannot help but wonder how we went so quickly from “We’re all in this together,” to “Hey, get them. It’s all their fault.”

Why this Change?

And, yes, I do understand that a big part of this is just pure exhaustion. We are so tired of this whole thing and so it is not really surprising that people have gotten cranky. But I am not sure that that is the whole story. So, I would like to explore the bigger question of how that kind of thing can happen. How, all of a sudden and seemingly out of nowhere, can you get people to turn on each other? And it seems to me that we have a terrific opportunity to study that phenomenon in our gospel reading this morning.

We actually started reading this story last week from the Gospel of Luke where Jesus returned to his hometown at the beginning of his ministry. There, in the meeting of the synagogue, he read some scripture from the prophet Isaiah and declared that it had been fulfilled. That’s where the reading ended last week, but we pick it up this week in order to focus on the reaction to what Jesus had done. And the reaction, I’ve got to say, is kind of bananas. It ends in a cliff-hanger.

Initial Positive Reaction turns Negative

Now, first of all, what Jesus has just said is the kind of statement that you might expect to inspire an extreme reaction. He has said that the ancient scripture had been fulfilled. He has strongly implied that it is his own presence at this moment that has brought about such fulfillment. And we have long been told that this is the very kind of thing that people got upset with Jesus about, for claiming too much about himself. So, you might well expect people to get upset at him for saying that this scripture is actually about him. But we are told quite the opposite. We are assured that “all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.”

And yet we are also told that, minutes later, they were ready to throw Jesus off of a cliff. So, if it wasn’t the fulfillment of scripture, what was it that got them to turn so very quickly. Well, let’s take a look at what Jesus says next. “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’” he says. “And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And then, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.”

And you can sort of understand why this might have riled them up. Here he is the famous boy from Nazareth and yet he is performing all of his wonders someplace else. That is a blow to hometown pride and might have even stirred up some jealousy in them. But it is hard to see why him saying this could have gotten them into a homicidal rage.

No, it seems pretty clear that what he said next was what pushed them over the edge – which is to say that it made them want to push him over the edge. But all he did was give them two examples from their own history. He told them about how the Prophet Elijah was sent to help a widow at Zarephath and about how the prophet Elisha healed Naaman the Syrian. It is only when they hear him say that that they are suddenly ready to kill him.

A Key Story for the Gospel

I think it is probably important for me to point out that this is not just an ordinary story in the Gospel of Luke. This is a very important story. The story of Jesus’ return to his hometown of Nazareth and the poor reception he received there is told in the other gospels. But Luke tells it very differently. He moves it, for one thing, to the very beginning of his story of Jesus’ ministry while the others tell it much later. And it is actually quite clear that the story is out of sequence inside Luke’s Gospel because Jesus refers to his having performed wonders in Capernaum already. But Luke has reported no such wonders yet. Luke is also the only one who adds this fuller story of what it was that Jesus did to make the people in Nazareth get upset with him.

So, it seems pretty clear here that Luke is doing more than just telling a straightforward story of what happened when Jesus went to Nazareth. This story is his big dramatic introduction of the entire work of Jesus. The reading that Jesus does in the synagogue is the perfect summary of what his ministry will look like. And this part of the story that we read this morning is a perfect explanation for why it is that there was so much opposition to everything that Jesus did and everything that he stood for.

The Basis of Opposition to Jesus

So, with that in mind, the issue cannot be that Jesus just said the wrong thing at the wrong time and that that was what set them off. Luke is trying to demonstrate to us in this passage what it was in general that caused so much opposition to what Jesus was doing. He’s giving us examples of the kind of thing that created that opposition.

And that is why these two Old Testament stories that Jesus mentions are so important. Basically, Jesus brings up for these people two stories, that come from their own history and from their own scriptures, of times when God sent prophets to help people who weren’t Jews. The only thing that the widow at Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian have in common is that they aren’t Jews. So, Jesus told these people about how God had sent his prophets out of their way to help Gentiles and that is what enraged them.

Think about that. The thing that made them turn on a dime from admiring Jesus and what he was saying to wanting to throw him off of a cliff was simply that he reminded them that God had wanted to help and save people who were not like them. The very idea that God would make good things happen to the wrong sorts of people, that was enough to turn them into a murderous mob.

The Problem with Grace

Jesus, you see, is the perfect demonstration and the personification of the grace of God. And what we often fail to realize is how offensive the very notion of grace really is. Oh yes, it is all very wonderful to consider how we might receive grace. But when we think of the idea of the “wrong kinds of people” being the recipients of grace and love, we often experience that very negatively.

I mean, think of how we talk and think during this present pandemic crisis. What are the things we really argue about? We argue about who is worthy to have good things happen to them. The vast majority of the people who have tried to do everything right by social distancing and wearing masks and getting their vaccinations are getting outraged at the people who are not doing the right things. They are enraged when they see them getting away with this. And they kind of want to see bad things happen to them. I’m not saying that anyone wants to see anyone getting horribly sick or dying, surely no one would wish that on anyone else, but there is a bit of an attitude that maybe it is fitting when it does happen.

At the same time, those who have refused to follow pandemic restrictions have gotten extremely upset as they see the privileges given to those who have. In many cases, this is just a matter of not wanting to see the people who aren’t like us getting good things. Nothing can enrage people as quickly as that. That’s what we see happening in this story of Jesus in Nazareth.

Facing up to who we are

And the reason why this story is given such prominence in the Gospel of Luke is because Luke is telling us that this is the very thing that created such opposition to Jesus. It was not just that he was the demonstration of the grace of God, it was also that he showed people who they really were and how unwilling they were to see God’s grace being made available to those who were considered unacceptable. It is kind of disturbing to us when we learn these things about ourselves.

I was kind of struck this morning by one of the verses in our reading from First Corinthians. The thirteenth chapter of that letter is a justly famous passage about love – an encouragement for us to have the same kind of love for one another that God has for us. But there’s one verse that seems to underline how hard this is for us. “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.” Paul writes. “Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

That image of a person staring at themselves in a mirror and yet only being able to see their reflection dimly stands out for me. The Greek word that is used in that verse for dimly is actually the word enigma. So, you could also translate that, as I stare into the mirror, all I really see is a puzzle or an enigma instead of myself. It is this sense that we don’t truly know who we are. And the idea is that God is the only one who truly knows our proper nature.

Jesus Removed the Enigma

And, you see, that was precisely the reason why Jesus caused such a strong reaction. Jesus removed the enigma. By so clearly showing and demonstrating the love and grace of God, he showed up that lack of love and grace in everyone else. He showed them that they were unwilling to see good things happen to people who were not like them. And they didn’t like what they saw. And they tried to throw him off a cliff, though he just passed through the crowd and went on his way.

So, what is it that, more than anything else, makes us inclined to turn against one another, to be consumed with rage? What is it that prevents us from being all in this together? It is what happens when we get a glimpse of who we really are, when we look in the mirror for a moment and we don’t just see dimly; the problem is that we don’t like what we see. We don’t like it when our failure to be loving and gracious towards those who are not like us is shown up.

And I suspect that that is what has happened to us as we’ve gone through this difficult time for the last couple of years. We have become strained and fatigued by an ongoing crisis and our defenses are broken down. We’ve been shown who we really are, and we don’t necessarily like what we see. So, yes, we have become much more likely to turn to rage against each other.

Grace is the Beginning of Hope

But it is my hope and prayer that this is not the end of the story. Yes, it is true that this time of crisis has revealed to us a little bit more about who we are. And, yes, our initial reaction to that revelation has not necessarily been good. But here is the truth: it is only once we begin to come to terms with who we are that we can start to be different. Jesus came to reveal to us who we are, but he did not just do it in order that we should feel bad about ourselves. He did it in order that we might have the opportunity to experience redemption, new hope and new beginnings.

That is what the grace is for, not to make us feel bad because we don’t have it, but to renew us with its possibilities. And this is a message we have as the Christian church, one that we can share in ways that no one else can. That is why I believe that the church can have a unique role in healing some of the division that has been created in our society over the last couple of years. We have a message that gives people the strength to see themselves for who they truly are, even with all their faults, and still have hope for change. There are few messages that our society needs more than that at this particular moment in time.

For children & families this week!

Watch sermon video here:

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Hespeler, 23 January 2022 © Scott McAndless
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10, Psalm 19, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a, Luke 4:14-21

The passage we read this morning from the Gospel of Luke is an important story that I often return to. But every time I come back to it, there is one part of it that really strikes me because I’m not entirely sure what it means.

We are told that, when Jesus went to a synagogue meeting in his hometown of Nazareth, he read out a short portion of scripture. The passage he read is taken from the Book of Isaiah chapter 61. What strikes me, however, is how Jesus ends his reading. “And 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. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”

What I want to know is what on earth does that mean? Jesus seems to be saying that this particular piece of scripture that had been written maybe five hundred years previously, had just been accomplished right there while these people were listening. How do we make sense of that? In particular, I would like to know what the people who were listening to Jesus say such things were thinking because they appear to understand him. “All spoke well of him,” Luke tells us, “and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” So it all seemed to make sense to them and they had no problem with it. But what did they think that Jesus was saying?

The Jubilee Law

It is hugely significant that Jesus should have said this about this particular passage of scripture because there is a whole lot of meaning packed into those three verses. You cannot understand that passage without understanding some of the older passages of scripture that stood behind it. In the Book of Leviticus, there is an ancient law which is called the Law of Jubilee. It was a law that was designed to basically reset the ancient Israelite society and economy every fifty years.

Apparently, it was God’s intention that ancient Israel should be a society where everybody had the same chance to prosper. God didn’t want there to be huge differences between the rich and the poor. But, of course, what happened in that society was the same thing that naturally happens in most societies. Over time, some people fell into debt and hardship and lost the land that had been in their families down through the generations. Some even ended up in such dire straits that they were sold into slavery in order to pay their debts.

Meanwhile, there were others who profited from the misfortune that happened to their neighbours. They collected their debts, took their lands when they defaulted and even ended up owning their neighbours as slaves. This is just the kind of thing that has always happened in this world. There have always been and always will be those who enrich themselves because of the misfortune that befalls others.

A Reset Every Fifty Years

But in ancient Israel, the idea was that this sort of situation would not be tolerated forever and so, every fifty years, the year of Jubilee was proclaimed. During this year, all debts were to be forgiven, all slaves were to be released and all property had to be returned to its original owners. Basically, society was to be reset so that everyone could start again on a level playing field.

Now, I know what you’re all thinking. It might sound like a nice idea to redistribute all the wealth and set things back as they were so that everyone could be even in theory, but your minds are reeling with the thought of all of the chaos and disaster such a law would cause in our modern society. Can you imagine if we tried to do something like that? Why, it would likely lead to the collapse of our entire economy. This might sound nice but it does not seem like a very practical law.

It May Not be Practical Today

And I certainly agree with that. It is possible that these kinds of measures might have worked in an ancient Israelite agricultural society, but they would almost certainly bring ruin to our modern capitalistic society. But even if it is not practical today, I don’t think that means that we should just dismiss the intentions behind it.

I believe that this ancient law does say a lot about God’s intentions for society. As far as God is concerned, a situation where you have wild differences in terms of wealth and poverty is not something that should simply be maintained. It is something that you need to do something about. And if that is what is on God’s heart, then that should be a very serious consideration in our modern practice of the Christian faith.

Wealth Disparity

Because, guess what, we are living at a moment in North American history where disparity in terms of wealth is hitting a new extreme every year. The number of people who are extremely wealthy and who own a huge majority of the wealth of this nation get smaller every year. And everybody else ends up trying to get by with less. This disparity has been very much on display in the last couple of years as we have billionaires who have so much money that they have literally entered into a space race with each other because, I guess, they can’t figure out what else to do with all their wealth.

A Prophet Calls for a Jubilee

Okay, but I do hear you asking, what does this ancient Israelite law have to do with what Jesus said to the synagogue in Nazareth? Well, it has to do with that passage of scripture that he read out because he would have understood, and everyone present would have understood, what that passage was about. It was an announcement made by a prophet about the need for a Jubilee. That is what is meant by bringing good news to the poor, release to the captives or slaves and letting the oppressed go free. The year of the Lord’s favour is the year of Jubilee.

The prophet who spoke this oracle was living in a time when his society was teetering on the brink of collapse because of extreme inequality. Basically, a few people were getting very rich and a whole bunch of people were being pushed into extreme poverty and slavery and the whole thing was a mess. So the prophet saw the need for a reset, a Jubilee. But here was the problem, there was nobody who had the kind of authority needed, no king or priest or other leader, who was willing to declare that reset. And so, basically, the prophet said, “Hey, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, so I am going to go ahead and proclaim a year of God’s favour myself.

How did Jesus Fulfill it?

So, my question is this. What did Jesus mean when he said that that ancient scripture, spoken by that prophet, was fulfilled right there in synagogue in Nazareth? He pulled out the words of an ancient prophet who was calling for a reset of his society based on an even more ancient law that laid out how you were supposed to reset the society when things got out of balance. And then he said that all of that had just come true because, I guess, Jesus was there.

I think there’s no question that that is what he means. He was announcing (and this is something that becomes a theme for the entire Gospel of Luke) that because Jesus was there, the Jubilee year had come.

Now, Luke obviously doesn’t mean that literally. He is not saying that, because of Jesus, all debts were forgiven, all slaves were released and all land returned to people who had lost it. Pretty clearly that didn’t happen. And yet, at the same time, everywhere that Jesus goes he is talking about “forgiving our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Jesus doesn’t free any slaves, but he certainly preaches to them a message of freedom and release. What’s more we are told again and again throughout this gospel that Jesus brought good news specifically to poor people. He may not have brought about a literal year of Jubilee, but he certainly did what he could to make Jubilee as real as possible in the lives of people that he met.

How Can we do that too?

And all of that leads me to a question today. I know that Jesus is not just an ordinary person. He is the Son of God. Jesus has done so much for us especially in and through his death and his resurrection. Yes, Jesus uniquely offers us forgiveness and hope and new life. But when I see Jesus in this passage declaring that the scripture from the Book of Isaiah has just been fulfilled, I don’t get the impression that he’s referring to any of that. No, he is referring mostly to the message that he was proclaiming throughout his life – especially his message of hope to those who were indebted, enslaved in some way and dispossessed. I think that Jesus is saying that this is a kind of fulfillment that needs to be in reach for any of us when it is called for.

And that makes the answer to the question of how Isaiah’s prophecy can be fulfilled a really urgent question for me right now. It seems to me that we are living at a particular moment in time when we are in need of a bit of a reset. No, I’m not suggesting that we need to cancel all debts or undo all sales of property or anything like that. I am not naïve about the kind of havoc that would cause. But, at the same time, I’m really not sure that we can just keep on going as we have been.

The Need for a Change

We have seen the wealth of this nation and many other nations become heavily concentrated into the hands of fewer and fewer extremely wealthy people. There are people alive today who have so much wealth that they could literally never spend it all. Meanwhile, more and more people have been falling further into poverty. And, yes, I know that there will always be rich and poor, there is no escaping that, but the balance between those two extremes has been thrown way off.

I was kind of hopeful, a year and a half ago, that we would actually see some movement on that front. Remember when we used to talk about how much we depended on low wage frontline workers? How they were the true heroes that would save us? I really thought that maybe we were going to start treating them that way, but apparently that hasn’t happened and it has actually been those who were already wealthy who have been the only ones to see their wealth increase during this crisis. It seems to me that we need some kind of reset when it comes to those matters.

I am also concerned to see that we’re getting into a situation where a younger generation that is coming up is simply being priced out of housing. If current trends on housing prices continue, the great majority of people just starting out right now will simply never be able to afford to buy a house. They may not even be able to make rent in any sustainable way? How can a society persist when that many people simply can’t afford a place to live? I think we need a reset.

We Need a Reset

I just don’t see how we can simply carry on with how things have been going in terms of wealth disparity, wages, debt and housing. Some kind of reset is needed. I also don’t think that we can just carry on with our relationship with the natural environment where we have been taking and taking without thinking about what the long-term cost might be. We need a reset.

And, in case I haven’t said it enough, I do understand that the reset envisioned by the ancient Jubilee law in Israel would not work for us. It may have worked once in a very different society, but the specific measures became deeply problematical over time.

But that did not mean that Jesus couldn’t get up centuries after the original law was written and declare for all to hear that this ancient law and a prophecy about it had been fulfilled right there. He did not mean that all of the specific Jubilee measures were being taken. But what he was declaring was that God, through his ministry, was bringing about the fulfillment of the intention of the original Law.

And I honestly believe that if Jesus could do that, then we could too. A reset is possible. And it can begin with even only a few people believing that things can be different. It can begin with us praying for that reset – a rethinking of the priorities of our society. It can begin with us demanding change from our leaders. This is the powerful fulfillment that we need and, as Jesus showed us, it can just begin with somebody saying that it is being fulfilled.

For our families this week.