Luke 4:16-30
February 1, 2004
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
As a newcomer to the Bay Area, one of the first things I noticed living here is how the three biggest of the cities compete with one another. Take the airports, Oakland got Southwest to move their operations from SFO and now has become one of the busiest airports. Now SFO wants Virgin Airways to come from the East Coast to add to their other economy carriers like America West. Not sure where San Jose is on this. But San Francisco Mayor Garvin Newsom says that it doesn’t really matter because ultimately people are mainly coming to see his city regardless which airport they come in to.
How about sports? SF has the Forty-Niners and the Giants. Oakland has the Raiders and the A’s but the A’s want to go to San Jose but SF doesn’t want that to happen. San Jose has the Sharks and nobody really wants the Warriors. Cities fiercely compete with each other for having the busiest airport or a championship team to put their city on the map to give them a positive image.
Every now and then, there is a town or city that has become ashamed of its name, embarrassed before the eyes of the world. It will be a long time before the names of Chernobyl or Auschwitz regain their good reputation. It will take a long time before Littleton, Colorado doesn’t conjure up memories of Columbine High School. When I was growing up in Boston, we never thought too much about our fair little city. We were always overshadowed by the Big Apple. To my surprise, people really do want to visit Boston now.
Nazareth
We are not sure how the little town of Nazareth became ashamed of its name. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” they say. Nazareth was the Oakland to San Francisco in the ancient world. My apologies to Jerry Brown and to all of you who live in Oakland. Nazareth was dismissed because nothing much ever happened there. Nazareth produced no kings, no generals, no scholars, no prophets…no nothing.
Nazareth was like a finishing school. “You go there, you are finished.” “Well, you’re from Nazareth, huh, I guess you’re finished!” Can anything good ever come out of Nazareth?
Then came Jesus. Here was a local hometown boy who has earned a name for himself teaching and healing across the countryside. When he was in the fishing village in Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, about 20 miles northeast of Nazareth, he was praised by everyone. The word of his success had spread back to his hometown.
Jesus had all the markings of something good finally to come out of Nazareth. He looked like a new prophet, or at least his preaching had wowed his congregation after congregation in the synagogues.
Before Jesus came back home to Nazareth, he had already caused a great stir. People probably said, “Our local boy has caused people in the bigger city of Capernaum to take notice. High and mighty Capernaum may have looked down on us in the past, but no preacher from Capernaum ever turned heads like our Jesus!”
So when Jesus finally came home to Nazareth, the local synagogue was packed. They handed him the Isaiah scroll, and the congregation beamed. He read the words, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…,” and the congregation glowed with pride. He sat down and began to preach. “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” and the flock was abuzz. As Luke puts it, “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came out of his mouth.”
Already they were imagining a new city limits sign, “Welcome to Nazareth, Hometown of Jesus.”
Welcomed and Rejected
But the passage for today is a difficult one to understand. Within the space of a few verses, we move from praise to fury, from positive, perhaps even an enthusiastic reaction to Jesus’ sermon in his hometown of Nazareth, to a congregation so enraged at Jesus that they were at the brink of murder and ready to throw him over the cliff. What caused this swift reversal of opinion? How could things have soured so quickly and so badly?
The dramatic change of heart from praising Jesus to wanting to throw him off the local cliff is rooted in how proud the local congregation was in having a local hometown boy making good. They wanted to keep Jesus for themselves because finally they have bragging rights. It would be like the Raiders beating the Forty-Niners in the Super Bowl and Oakland is showing off its trophy!
Listen to what Jesus said to the people when they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”—they were saying, “Hey, we’re special because we know our neighbor, Joseph and because of that connection, we can say we know this aspiring celebrity.”
Then Jesus responds, “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’”
In other words, Jesus knew what was in the minds of his Nazareth homefolks, “Jesus, you’re an amazing healer in those other towns, but how about bringing it home to Nazareth where it belongs, where you belong. You’ve healed others; now heal your own people. Do here in your hometown the things we have heard you did at Capernaum.”
My guess is that the people of Nazareth have lived with an inferiority complex and second-class citizen status for so long that when they have finally come across a local hero, they wanted him just for themselves. Jesus realized that beneath that local pride was a misunderstanding of his calling. They desired to see in Jesus only an expression of Nazareth’s vision. They desired him to be theirs alone, to be all Nazareth and no Capernaum, to be for “us” but not for “them.” So Jesus challenged them.
Bigger than Nazareth
Jesus reminded them that it’s always hard for prophets to be heard by people who have known them from childhood. To challenge their preconceived notions, he shared two stories that they knew very well. Jesus’ first example was the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath found in 1 Kings 17. After God has brought a severe drought upon the whole land of Israel because of its unfaithfulness, Elijah is sent outside Israel to the small town of Zarephath, which is on the coast of the Mediterranean just south of Sidon, and area that is also suffering from drought. There Elijah comes to the aid of a poor widow who shares her last bit of food with him. In return, Elijah promises that her flour jar and oil jug will miraculously stay filled until the drought ends and later he resurrects her only son after he dies of an illness.
The second example in 2 Kings 5 comes from an episode in the life of Elijah’s successor, Elisha. While Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, develops leprosy, he decides to seek out the prophet Elisha, about whom he learned from a young Israelite slave girl. Naaman eventually finds Elisha, and after overcoming his stubbornness, follows Elisha’s advice and is healed from his affliction by washing in the muddy waters of Jordan.
Upon hearing this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. A few moments ago, the townspeople wanted Jesus to be their own local hero and now they wanted to kill him. Why the rage and anger toward Jesus’ examples?
Jesus pointed out to them that with Elijah, God’s grace and mercy went beyond just Israel to a widow in a small town of Zarephath. With Elisha, God’s healing and mighty power went beyond just Israel to a Syrian commander who had leprosy. While the people in Nazareth wanted to keep Jesus for themselves, Jesus told them that he was not sent to just save Nazareth but to save all of the little towns, the middle-size cities, the metropolis, the whole wide world. And for that, they were about to hurl him off the local cliff.
It was a hard word for Nazareth to hear. What Jesus was saying, in essence, was that in order to be “for Nazareth” he was going to have to appear to be against Nazareth, against its desire to confine and contain the work of God. In order to be for Nazareth, Jesus would have to leave Nazareth. In order to be for Nazareth, Jesus would have to hit the road out of town, a road that would carry him eventually to the hill outside of Jerusalem.
Bigger than FCBC
This is a hard lesson for us to hear too. Jesus is for us, yes, but not just for us but for all others too.
In order to be a savior for all, Jesus will need to turn for a moment against some of us, to leave our little hometown images of him and our desire to shape him into our local understanding of him behind. In order to be “good news for the poor,” he will need to speak against those of us who are rich. In order to be a savior to the sick and the blind, he will need to leave the safe streets of the healthy. In order to be a friend of sinners, he will need to speak harshly to the righteous. Only by going to Jerusalem where the cross is waiting can Jesus save the poor and the rich, the sick and the well, the righteous and the sinner. Inasmuch that we can’t keep Jesus in Nazareth, we can’t keep Jesus just for FCBC!
Later this afternoon, we will gather for our church annual meeting—our once a year meeting to celebrate the ministries that took place last year. We’ll congratulate ourselves for our faithfulness and dedication. We’ll rightfully give praise to God for his blessings and guidance. But we might also get the impression that God has blessed only us and we want to keep it that way.
Jesus reminded the people in the synagogue that God’s way has always been bigger than we can understand. God is creator of heaven and earth, not a local deity enshrined in some local church. God’s saving power is bigger than one church can hold. God’s mercy is wider than any church or city can imagine. In fact, in order to show his love for Israel, God worked wonders in Sidon and Syria.
I can imagine that Jesus is telling us that, in order to show love for the church, God is working wonders outside the church, outside FCBC, outside the city limits of every Nazareth we can imagine.
Let me close with a story. G.K. Chesterton tells about a boy who left his home on the English countryside. The boy was searching for a remarkable thing he had heard about since childhood. It seems that somewhere, outlined on the distant hills, was the shape of a giant man. It was a kind of miracle, people said, how the giant had taken shape in the hills. The boy decided he must see the shape. He must discover that giant if it took all of his life. Across the valley he trudged, hoping to see the miracle on the next row of hills. It was not there. But as he turned to get his bearings, he looked back. And there, where he had come from, the white limestone rocks formed the outline of a giant. Just about where the giant’s heart would be was the house he had left behind. He had been too close to the giant to see it. The greatest act of God’s providence happens close to home. But we would only be able to see it when we leave to go out into the world as Jesus did.
It’s understandable for us to see why the townspeople wanted to throw Jesus off the local cliff. They wanted Jesus for themselves. Just like us. It’s not God’s harshness or aloofness that makes us angry; it’s God’s mercy. It’s too wide and too big. God’s love is bigger than FCBC to keep just for ourselves. God’s love is bigger than all of San Francisco and the whole Bay Area. God, who created the heavens and the earth, loves the whole world.
Let us pray.
O God Almighty, teach us as Jesus taught his townspeople in Nazareth that your forgiving love is for everyone. You are indeed bigger than our limited ability to understand. Forgive us when we have not loved those whom you love and enable us today to share your love because it bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. Amen.