Title: What Happens When Jesus Comes to Town?
Text: Luke 4:21-30
Thesis: God’s love is large enough to embrace and include everyone.
Introduction
A syndrome is a group of symptoms that collectively indicate or characterize a disease, psychological disorder or other abnormal condition. If you or someone you know has a syndrome, you know having a syndrome is not funny. We are familiar with Asperger, Chronic Pain, Downs, Tourette and Withdrawal Symptoms. You may be familiar with Progeria Syndrome or premature aging or Werewolf Syndrome, which is characterized by accelerated hair growth on one’s body… if you are old enough to remember the old traveling carnivals that moved from town to town you probably were fascinated by the “Bearded Lady” who undoubtedly suffered from Werewolf Syndrome.
This evening when you watch the Super Bowl you will likely see the new VW commercial in which a native Minnesotan (as you know Minnesotans have their very own accent) speaks in a Jamaican accent, suggesting that you will “feeeeeel gooood and be hoppy maaan” if you experience the power of German engineering. When someone begins speaking in their native language with a foreign accent that person is said to have Foreign Accent Syndrome. It is a neurological disorder that results from severe migraines or head injuries.
Some syndromes are particularly fascinating because they fall in the area of the transient psychosomatic and have to do with people who are otherwise totally normal but are affected by certain things and places.
Stendhal Syndrome or Florence Syndrome is a disorder that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even fainting when exposed to beautiful works of art (Florence) or the immense beauty of the natural world.
Paris Syndrome is a transient psychological disorder experienced by individuals (Japanese tourists in particular) visiting or vacationing in Paris, France. Suffers of Paris Syndrome are delusional, have hallucinations, are anxious, suffer dizziness, rapid heartbeat and sweating...
Jerusalem Syndrome is the most fascinating to me. It is triggered in some tourists (Americans in particular) who visit the Holy Land. The primary delusion is that these sufferers believe they are an important religious figure… they think they are Jesus or some other religious figure.
Fortunately, when the syndrome sufferer is removed from those trigger settings they eventually return to their normal state.
Had we been in Nazareth on the day our text unfolds we might have wondered if Jesus suffered from Jerusalem Syndrome or a Messiah Complex, in that he literally identified himself or made himself known as or to be the long awaited Jewish Messiah.
Having read from Isaiah 61:1-2, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free and the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” Then had what some would say, the audacity to announce, “The Scripture you have just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” In other words, “I am the long awaited Messiah!”
Our text today is a story about what happened when Jesus came to town… his own hometown of Nazareth.
Interestingly, rather than leaping to the conclusion that Jesus must be suffering from Jerusalem Syndrome or a Messiah Complex, the first thing we notice is that the crowd was favorably impressed. They liked what they heard.
I. What happens when we like what we hear?
Then Jesus began to speak to them. “The Scriptures you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Luke 4:21-22
They were impressed. Jesus had done well, i.e., a hometown boy did well.
Not every hometown boy does well… you never see a sign along the interstate near Cincinnati, Ohio announcing, “Cincinnati – Birthplace of Charles Manson.” You never see a sign proudly announcing “Chicago – Birthplace of John Wayne Gacy.”
I lived in Winterset, Iowa during my childhood years. My grandmother’s house was just a few doors down from John Wayne’s boyhood home. Today if you drive through Winterset on Highway 169 you will see a larger than life bronze statue of John Wayne just a block west and north of his boyhood home. In Winterset John Wayne is a hometown boy who did well.
Last season on The Voice one of the contestants was Nicholas David Mronzinski… when he sang “Stand by Me” all funky and bluesy, I was a fan. I enjoyed following Nicholas David from week to week. Eventually I learned he was from Eagen, Minnesota, a south suburb of St. Paul, MN. Bonnie and I often stay in the Hampton Inn there in Eagen.
On one segment of The Voice I saw the Mayor of Eagen giving Nicholas David the key to the city. On another they showed the home Nicholas and his family had just purchased there in Eagen. Nicholas David was a hometown boy who did well.
The hometown crowd was very impressed with Jesus as well. Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
And if what Jesus said actually registered in their minds they must have been filled with pride in knowing that the promised Messiah who was to restore the former glory of Israel was a hometown boy.
But then their expectations were shattered.
II. What happens when God doesn’t meet our expectations?
Jesus said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ Meaning, ‘do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.” Luke 4:23-24
There is a passage in I Timothy that speaks of people who do not care to listen to sound and wholesome teaching, i.e., the truth. They are described as people who look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.” I Timothy 4:3-4
These folks are not interested in the whole counsel of God, so to speak. They want to hear what they want to hear. They are people who wish to have their ears tickled with words that reassure and appeal to them.
A Few Good Men is the story of two young Marines who are on trial for having followed orders to kill a fellow Marine… one of those in house justice things handed down by a superior officer. During the course of the trial Tom Cruise plays a Lt. Jr. Grade Judge Advocate General Corps attorney. He eventually questions Colonel Jessep, played by Jack Nicholson, who was the officer who ordered the murder. When Cruise tripped Nicholson up and caught him in a lie Nicholson declared, “You can’t handle the truth!” In other words there are things we do in the military you just wouldn’t understand so we just do what we have to do.
Jesus essentially told the crowd that day that they did not want to hear the truth… they wanted to see and hear what they wanted to see and hear.
As the crowd looked at Jesus expecting that he would lay out his plan to overthrow the Romans and display his power by performing a few miracles, Jesus said, “It isn’t going to happen here today.” In essence he said, “As soon as you see that I am not going to meet your expectations your good feelings and good will toward me will evaporate into thin air. A prophet has no honor in his own hometown.”
They wanted Jesus to show them his stuff… and Jesus disappointed them.
And to make matters worse, he offended them.
III. What happens when God’s plan is not our plan? What happens when God wants to work in ways and with and through people that do not quite jibe with what we think should be?
We know, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you all belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham…” Galatians 3:28
The Jews in Jesus’ day despised Gentiles. But Jesus challenged them with the thought that God’s heart is much larger than theirs. In fact, God cares about everyone… even the despised Gentiles, including the notorious sinners Jesus hung out with.
Jesus did not want them living in a state of delusion about the largeness of God’s heart.
If you’ve been following the news you are aware that Israel has been accused of conducting an air strike on a convoy deep in Syrian territory believed to be transporting sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah in Lebanon.. Of course no one knows anything or admits to anything. But this we know, there is no love lost between Israel and its neighbors. So the very idea that God would favor a Syrian or a Palestinian or an Iranian over an Israeli was and is still repugnant to the Jewish people.
First he recalled the story from the life of the Old Testament Prophet Elijah.
A. There were widows in Israel but God sent Elijah to help a widow in Sidon.
“Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time… yet he was sent to a foreigner, a widow in the land of Sidon.” Luke 4:25-26
And he added more coals to the fire by recalling a story from the life of the Old Testament Prophet Elisha.
B. There were many lepers in Israel but God sent Elijah to help a leper in Syria.
“There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.” Luke 4:27
In one of the churches we served I ate breakfast every day at a local tavern called the Rainbow Café… It was on the wrong side of the tracks, way down on the south end of town. It was a great place frequented by colorful people known as “The Rainbow Crowd.” In time the owner’s mother and his sisters began to come to church. Others followed. I began to be called upon for funerals and pastoral care. And then Tim started attending services.
One Sunday morning we were about to sing Amazing Grace when Tim stood up and said, “I think I can nail this. I’ll sing the first verse,” and he did… sort of. I learned later than he went to the Rainbow for lunch and told the owner, “I think I might have embarrassed myself at church this morning.”
But everyone in our church loved Tim and everyone in our church was delighted that Tim was coming to our church. Everyone in our church got it… we knew our existence there on the corner of 8th and Hammond and in the community was for the likes of Tim. We were a hospital for the sick, a haven for the suffering and a home fort he marginalized.
But the folks there in Nazareth did not want to believe Jesus had come to seek and to save the lost… they did not want to believe that God’s grace was an all-encompassing and inclusive grace.
And what followed can only be described as spontaneous combustion.
C. The people reacted with hostility toward Jesus when he challenged their preconceptions.
When they heard this they were furious… Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill… intending to push Jesus over the cliff… “ Luke 4:28-29
“The Jews were so sure they were God’s people, they utterly despised other all people. They believed ‘God had created Gentiles to be fuel for the fires of hell.’” (William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, Luke 4:21-30 The Daily Study Bible, Westminster Press, p. 44)
The people in the crowd that day could not and would not handle the truth, despite the fact that it was straight out of the Word of God and the mouth of Jesus Christ.
So when it became clear that they were not interested in the truth… Jesus left them.
D. Jesus left them in their ignorance and unbelief and went on to minister elsewhere.
“…but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.” Luke 4:30
Interestingly, this story is told a bit differently in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. There the rejection and hostility of the people was much more personal and directed at Jesus himself.
Like Luke, both Matthew and Mark tell us that the crowd was amazed at his teaching and said, “Where does Jesus get this wisdom and power to do miracles?”
However in the Matthew and Mark texts they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter’s son and we know Mary and his brothers and his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn these things?” And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. These would be the people who believed Jesus suffered from Jerusalem Syndrome and was under the delusion that he was the Messiah, the Son of God. And the next verse says, “And Jesus was amazed at their unbelief.” Matthew 13:54-58 and Mark 6:1-6
It is a sad thing when we read of Jesus in the passage that says, “He came to his own people and they rejected him. But to all who believed and accepted him, he gave/gives the right to be called the children of God.” John 3:11-12
Conclusion
Jesus was not delusional. He did not suffer from Jerusalem Syndrome or a Messiah Complex… but he did suffer Rejection Syndrome. To reject means to throw back as in the body rejecting tissue or a fisherman throwing back a fish too small or an individual or a crowd of people throwing back and isolating someone they do not like.
In our story today:
• Some people rejected Jesus because he disappointed them when they did not see and hear what they wanted to see and hear.
• Some rejected him because of their stone cold bias against others unlike themselves.
• Some rejected Jesus because, though impressed by Jesus’ wisdom and power, they simply could not believe that someone like Jesus could be the Messiah, the Savior of the World.
We might ask how may we as 21st Century Christians reject Jesus?
• We reject Jesus when we fail to embrace his vision of God’s Kingdom… Jesus has a heart for people – all people!
