I talked to an old friend several months ago catching up with what was happening in each other’s lives. He loves to tell stories. He told me a story he had told me several times before, about a certain fishing trip he took many years before. He was fishing by himself along the lakeshore. The fish weren’t biting, but he was enjoying the quiet sounds of nature all around him. Suddenly, he said something was pulling hard on the end of his line. He tried to bring whatever it was to shore. His pole, he said, was bent so far that he thought it would break. He dug in his heels to anchor himself to the ground. As he is pulling, he looked out and saw the gigantic fish splashing in the water at the end of his line. It had to be at least 5 feet long. It was the biggest fish he had ever seen from that lake. He pulled and pulled and pulled. The fish was getting closer and closer to the shore, then “SNAP!” the line broke and the big fish swam away. When he finished his tall tale, I said, “No matter how many times you tell this story, I still find it hard to believe. You’re crazy you are.” We laughed it off and continued our conversation.
We love to share stories and tales about ourselves and others. There are the classic “the fish that got away” tall tales. There are the “out of this world” UFO sightings; seen by one human at a time living in the middle of nowhere. In classic American folklore, there are the legendary tales of Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crockett and Paul Bunyan. They are stories filled with unbelievable events, twists and turns, but told as if it were true and factual. Some of these stories are exaggerations of actual events, while others are completely fictional tales set in familiar setting.
When Jesus stands to read the scripture in his hometown synagogue, rumors were circulating all over town about things Jesus did in the nearby town of Capernaum. But this is Jesus the carpenter, son of Joseph and Mary; just an ordinary guy from the old neighborhood. He is a faithful and devout Jew, who regularly attended synagogue services on the Sabbath and adhered to the Law of Moses. Most of the people in the synagogue that day didn’t know what to think of him at first because the idea of Jesus as the promised Messiah was such a remote, foreign idea that never crossed their minds.
I imagine that Jesus was quiet and humble as he stood before the congregation and read the appointed reading for the day from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Now you’ll notice in the text that Jesus rolls up the scroll, gives it to the attendant and he sat down with everybody’s eyes on him. Jesus says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” In other words, the reign of the kingdom of God has begun. Luke says that, “all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” (Luke 4:23) They loved him. He captivated them. I imagine some in the congregation cried out, “Amen! Amen!”. He has a good thing going.
What Jesus says is that he is the one Isaiah is writing about. Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah, but he is not what the people expected. Jesus is sharing God’s truth, a truth so radical, so unorthodox, the people become enraged. Jesus of Nazareth can’t be the Messiah of God, they thought. We’ve seen him grow up from a boy to a man. He’s an ordinary man. What makes him so special? God’s truth comes in ways that we choose not to accept.
Jesus came to tell us that God’s plan for the redemption of the world goes beyond the chosen few. Our God is sovereign and not limited in any way, shape or form. The grace of God that we receive is freely available to all of us, for everyone. Elijah was sent to care for a Gentile widow, instead of the many widows in Israel. Elisha was sent to cleanse Naaman the Syrian from his leperosy, another Gentile. What’s God doing here? God’s love and the salvation he offers us in Jesus Christ is for all people, not just a chosen few. God's truth may come in ways that we choose not to accept.
Think how often, especially during our teen and young adult years, our parents urged certain behaviors or responses from us that we dismissed, thinking they were out-of-touch or too fussy or not hip enough to know what they were talking about. Later, with the perspective of maturity, we may recognize the wisdom in what they offered, but by then, we'd already gotten ourselves in the very complexities they were warning us about.
Further, how often does our familiarity with an advice-giver cause us to disallow that person's suggestions? He or she can't know as much, we think, as someone who's grown up in a more exciting part of the world, encountered more exotic situations or been blessed with the ability to think more deeply than most.
What about when words of truth regarding our faults and shortcomings come from the lips of our spouses or even our children? It takes a special kind of humility to hear those things, and not all of us have it.
Sometimes we even discount encouragement when it comes from someone who is a part of our routine life. We receive praise from other church members for a job well done on a church project, and we think they are only grateful that they didn't have to do the job themselves.
Truth is, we tend to dismiss the crazy idea that God could be speaking through someone who's part of our daily sphere of influence or that our spouses, our parents, our children, or our friends could ever be prophets for us. So when their advice hits too close to home, we dismiss them as crazy and insane.
Not every word that comes our way from those who share our lives is a pearl of wisdom. But who is more likely for God to tap as a channel for spiritual warning or direction -- those who love us and care about us or those who've never heard our names? God is not limited, and he surely uses both, but we should not declare one of those channels -- perhaps the primary channel -- worthless because it is close to home. For the people of Nazareth, to see Jesus, one of their own, as the Messiah, was one tall tale they found too hard to accept and believe. Amen.
We love to share stories and tales about ourselves and others. There are the classic “the fish that got away” tall tales. There are the “out of this world” UFO sightings; seen by one human at a time living in the middle of nowhere. In classic American folklore, there are the legendary tales of Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crockett and Paul Bunyan. They are stories filled with unbelievable events, twists and turns, but told as if it were true and factual. Some of these stories are exaggerations of actual events, while others are completely fictional tales set in familiar setting.
When Jesus stands to read the scripture in his hometown synagogue, rumors were circulating all over town about things Jesus did in the nearby town of Capernaum. But this is Jesus the carpenter, son of Joseph and Mary; just an ordinary guy from the old neighborhood. He is a faithful and devout Jew, who regularly attended synagogue services on the Sabbath and adhered to the Law of Moses. Most of the people in the synagogue that day didn’t know what to think of him at first because the idea of Jesus as the promised Messiah was such a remote, foreign idea that never crossed their minds.
I imagine that Jesus was quiet and humble as he stood before the congregation and read the appointed reading for the day from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Now you’ll notice in the text that Jesus rolls up the scroll, gives it to the attendant and he sat down with everybody’s eyes on him. Jesus says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” In other words, the reign of the kingdom of God has begun. Luke says that, “all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” (Luke 4:23) They loved him. He captivated them. I imagine some in the congregation cried out, “Amen! Amen!”. He has a good thing going.
What Jesus says is that he is the one Isaiah is writing about. Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah, but he is not what the people expected. Jesus is sharing God’s truth, a truth so radical, so unorthodox, the people become enraged. Jesus of Nazareth can’t be the Messiah of God, they thought. We’ve seen him grow up from a boy to a man. He’s an ordinary man. What makes him so special? God’s truth comes in ways that we choose not to accept.
Jesus came to tell us that God’s plan for the redemption of the world goes beyond the chosen few. Our God is sovereign and not limited in any way, shape or form. The grace of God that we receive is freely available to all of us, for everyone. Elijah was sent to care for a Gentile widow, instead of the many widows in Israel. Elisha was sent to cleanse Naaman the Syrian from his leperosy, another Gentile. What’s God doing here? God’s love and the salvation he offers us in Jesus Christ is for all people, not just a chosen few. God's truth may come in ways that we choose not to accept.
Think how often, especially during our teen and young adult years, our parents urged certain behaviors or responses from us that we dismissed, thinking they were out-of-touch or too fussy or not hip enough to know what they were talking about. Later, with the perspective of maturity, we may recognize the wisdom in what they offered, but by then, we'd already gotten ourselves in the very complexities they were warning us about.
Further, how often does our familiarity with an advice-giver cause us to disallow that person's suggestions? He or she can't know as much, we think, as someone who's grown up in a more exciting part of the world, encountered more exotic situations or been blessed with the ability to think more deeply than most.
What about when words of truth regarding our faults and shortcomings come from the lips of our spouses or even our children? It takes a special kind of humility to hear those things, and not all of us have it.
Sometimes we even discount encouragement when it comes from someone who is a part of our routine life. We receive praise from other church members for a job well done on a church project, and we think they are only grateful that they didn't have to do the job themselves.
Truth is, we tend to dismiss the crazy idea that God could be speaking through someone who's part of our daily sphere of influence or that our spouses, our parents, our children, or our friends could ever be prophets for us. So when their advice hits too close to home, we dismiss them as crazy and insane.
Not every word that comes our way from those who share our lives is a pearl of wisdom. But who is more likely for God to tap as a channel for spiritual warning or direction -- those who love us and care about us or those who've never heard our names? God is not limited, and he surely uses both, but we should not declare one of those channels -- perhaps the primary channel -- worthless because it is close to home. For the people of Nazareth, to see Jesus, one of their own, as the Messiah, was one tall tale they found too hard to accept and believe. Amen.
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