Luke 4:21-30
January 28, 2001
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Joy and I met at a small church-related college just outside of Boston. Every year there was an event called Christian Life Week. The college would invite a speaker on campus, who would preach several times and have discussions with students—all aimed at deepening faith and creating a mood of religious revival.
It was at one of these small church-related colleges that this college got more than they bargained for. They invited a speaker whom none of them had heard before, but he had the reputation for being dynamic and exciting. On the first night of the special week, the campus chapel was filled with the faithful. Of course, the “Animal House” types and other rowdy students stayed away; this was, after all, an occasion for religious insiders, for those who are truly Christian.
The speaker began by opening the Bible and reading a passage of Scripture. When he had finished, he closed the Bible and then suddenly flung it across the stage and out an open window. The students sat in stunned silence. Were their eyes playing tricks on them? Did the preacher really throw the Bible out the window? The preacher looked at them and said, “There goes your God,” and proceeded to preach a sermon on the difference between worshipping the Bible and worshipping God who comes to us through the Scriptures.
Jesus’ Sermon
In a way, Jesus performance in his hometown synagogue at Nazareth was similarly shocking. He comes home and preaches from a text in Isaiah about good news being preached to the poor and release being given to the captives. Jesus’ main point was, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” People were getting excited because this means the reign of God will end Roman oppression, economic deprivation, social disruption, and illnesses.
Like any hometown crowd everywhere, the people were proud of their local success hero. The congregation responded warmly, enthusiastically. “Good sermon!” “Beautiful words!” They said, “Look at what one of us can do.”
But then, a question began to stir among them. If Isaiah’s prophecy has really been fulfilled today, how come nothing happened? How come Jesus didn’t perform any of those mighty deeds we have heard he did in Capernaum?
It was then that Jesus threw the Bible out the window—or at least their understanding of the Scriptures. They thought that Isaiah’s words were only for them, for Israel, for Nazareth, for the hometown folks. But Jesus proceeded to throw that understanding of the
Bible out the window by saying that God’s care for the poor, the oppressed, the outsiders has always been there as much as he has for the insiders. In fact, when insiders try to restrict God’s grace to themselves, they cut themselves off from that very grace they want.
At first, the people found Jesus’ sermon meaningful. They chirped about what a good preacher Jesus is and that they were amazed at the eloquent words that came out of his mouth. After all, he is Joseph’s son—a family that they knew very well. But then it turned ugly. They sat in stunned silence.
The people liked the message about how God brings good news, release, freedom, and healing to the people. This message is familiar and one that Israel has come to love.
What turns out to be offensive is the discovery, as lived out in Jesus’ ministry, that this embrace of the people of God includes those Israel has left out—the poor, women, sinners, Gentiles. What turns the congregation ugly in Nazareth is Jesus’ reminder that God’s work on behalf of outsiders is biblical too.
Jesus gives two examples of God’s saving work outside of Israel’s borders. First, he tells of Elijah and the widow in Zarephath in Sidon found in 1 Kings17. There was a severe famine over the land. The Lord commanded Elijah to go to Zarephath where he would find a widow who will feed him. At first the widow was only gathering some sticks to bake a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug so that she and her son might eat what little they still had before they die. But Elijah told the widow that the Lord will make the jar of meal not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth. When the widow did this, she and her household ate for many days. Then on top of this, when the widow’s son became ill and died, Elijah pleaded with God and revived the widow’s son.
Jesus was reminding the people that God’s work on behalf of outsiders is biblical. The woman was a widow and a Gentile—the kind of people whom the hometown crowd thought to belong outside.
Next Jesus mentioned how Naaman, a leper, a Gentile, and a general in the Syrian army, was cleansed during the prophet of Elisha found in 2 Kings 5. After hearing from a Hebrew slave maiden that Elisha can cure his leprosy, Naaman set out to go to Israel. The King of Israel first thought that Naaman was coming to pick a fight with him. But then Elisha intervened and told Naaman to wash in the Jordan River seven times. Naaman first didn’t believe why the Jordan was any better than the rivers back home. He resisted. But with some encouragement from his servants, he did it and his flesh was restored.
In both of these examples, Jesus was reminding the people that God’s work on behalf of outsiders is biblical. In the rest of his ministry, Jesus will act out this commitment to outsiders time and time again.
Chapel Preacher
What finally did happen at that little college’s Christian Life Week? The students that night steamed in outrage and left the service crying blasphemy. Word spread around the campus about what had happened, and the next night the religious regulars stayed away, but the “tax collectors and sinners” drew near. The place was packed with fraternity types, those who would never think of themselves as religious and the curious.
The preacher chose to preach that night on forgiveness, and when it was done, he engaged the students in dialogue. One in the audience, intrigued but skeptical, said, “I heard what you said tonight, but how can a person know—really know—they are forgiven?”
The speaker looked directly at the questioner and said firmly, “I tell you, in the name of Jesus, you are forgiven.”
“Right, right,” responded the student. “I heard you say that. But my question is “How can you really know that for a fact?”
“I tell you,” repeated the speaker, in an even more forceful voice, “in the name of Jesus, you are forgiven.”
“I don’t think you catch my question,” protested the student. “I want to know how you can really know, I mean know for sure, that you’re forgiven.”
Now the third time the speaker looked him in the eye and said, “I tell you, in the name of Jesus, you are forgiven.” It was then that something electric happened in the room. The word took hold in a way beyond understanding, and this student, this outsider, this one who would hang out outside the window, who would never have darkened the door of a church, sat down knowing in his heart that “in the name of Jesus” he was indeed forgiven.
This preacher knew that if he wanted it, he already had a captivated audience of religiously inclined students who would give him their utmost attention. They would be amazed and touched by the preacher’s words. But if it wasn’t for his understanding that the work of God goes beyond the hometown folks to those who are outside the windows and doors of our churches, the speaker would not have be able to share God’s forgiveness to those who needed it. We are reminded that God’s work on behalf of outsiders is biblical too.
Barriers with God
Now you can see why the people who gathered to hear Jesus’ sermon in Nazareth were outraged. They didn’t like what Jesus was saying about God loving the outsiders too. They were so mad at Jesus that they drove him out of town, led him to the edge of the hill and wanted to hurl him off the cliff. One minute, they loved him. Another minute, they wanted to kill him.
What is happening here is that when we resent the wide-ness and inclusiveness of God’s love, we create barriers between God and God’s own people. God’s prophets not only work with outsiders over there but they also work with us over here. When we resist the idea that God cares for other people over there, it blocks us from hearing the prophetic word of God over here. That’s why Jesus said, “No prophet is accepted in his home town.” The jealousy or possessiveness that we have that God can only work over here with us poisons the possibility of God working among us. Jesus becomes unacceptable in his hometown.
Outside My Window
When I first arrived in San Francisco, my office was upstairs on the fourth floor. Looking outside my windows, I saw the Transamerica building and was thrilled to be able to see the city’s most distinguishable landmark. As a newcomer, I was fascinated about the scenery.
But now that my office is on the third floor, facing Waverly Place, I see different things now. I see our neighbors hanging out their laundry on clotheslines. I can smell the aromas of rice being cooked and food being served. At times, I see the little child who for some reason taps loudly on the window of his apartment trying to catch our attention. I see shopkeepers and restaurant workers. I see people who subscribe to other faiths living and working on the same street that we have called our hometown.
Jesus is telling us that God brings good news, release, freedom, and healing to all people. We think that those who are not like us are outsiders and therefore offensive to our understanding of who God’s people are. Jesus is saying that God’s people include those whom Israel has left out—the poor, women, sinners, Gentiles. Jesus reminds us that God’s work with outsiders is biblical too.
We like to believe that as Christians and as this church, we have Jesus in our hometown. Look, Jesus is a member of our household. We even have a picture of him here.
Will we have Jesus say to us, “Truly, I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown?” Will we become so possessive of our Jesus that we keep him contained inside our church with all of the windows and doors shut so tightly that we as his disciples are afraid to meet the people whom God also loves? When we withhold God’s love for others, Jesus is saying that the blessings and mercy that we so desperately want for ourselves, we can’t realize them because we are too busy trying to keep Jesus in our own house. We stop listening to Jesus.
We end up rejecting Jesus as a prophet whom we really need to hear. Instead we want to drive him out of town and hurl him off the cliff.
Menorahs in Windows
Let me tell you a real story that we heard about when we lived in Pennsylvania. On an early morning in December several years ago, someone threw a rock through the window of a home in Newtown, Pennsylvania. It was the third day of Hanukkah, and the home belonged to the Markovitz family, who are Jews. The vandal reached into the broken window, grabbed the electric menorah inside, and smashed it to the ground.
The people in the neighborhood took this seriously, and they took it hard. They were pained that a hate crime could happen in their neighborhood, fearful that it would lead to greater violence. One of the neighbors, a Christian woman by the name of Margie Alexander, decided to do something about it. She went from home to home visiting her Christian friends and explaining what they could do to help, to show support for the Markovitz family.
Within a few days, on the next-to-last day of Hanukkah, twenty-five Christian homes displayed brightly burning menorahs in their windows.
The vandals never returned, and, as the lights burned on, barriers between people were broken down and love overcame hate, at least for a while. One Christian neighbor announced that the whole experience had changed her feeling toward those different from herself. She plans to put up a menorah next year.
Out the Window
It may be dramatic or a bit blasphemous to throw the Bible out the window as the preacher did at the church-related college. But when we confess to the truth that Jesus is bringing good news to the poor, release to the captives, recover sight to the blind, give freedom to the oppressed, then we can’t just keep God’s grace only for the hometown folks. Jesus reminds us that God’s work on behalf of outsiders is biblical too.
When we try to restrict God’s grace to ourselves, we cut ourselves off from that very grace that we so badly want. But when we go outside our windows and doors, we discover that God has been working on behalf of outsiders as well.
Maybe we should throw our Bible outside the window so that we would go outside to find it. And while we are out there, we may discover that our neighbors are more like us than we think. We may learn that they are the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed who need to hear about the love of Jesus Christ too.
And in the name of Jesus, you and I are all forgiven too.
Let us pray.
Gracious Lord, save us from the arrogance of thinking that you act only here, that you speak only to people like us, and that your saving power is bound by the narrow range of our spiritual vision. Lead us to go toward the windows of our lives and look outside to see how you have loved your creation. Propel us to go outside and see that your work on behalf of outsiders is according to your will. To your glory and the saving grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer, we pray. Amen.