Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The sermon text is from Luke 4:16-30.
Our text begins simply enough, “On the Sabbath day Jesus went into the synagogue as was His custom.” Isn’t it amazing that for Jesus observing the Sabbath day in public worship was important! The Savior who regularly set apart time to commune with God the Father and Holy Spirit in prayer made it His custom to gather for public worship. How deluded and lost in damnable darkness are those who despise God’s Word! What a powerful wake up call! If the sinless Savior made it His custom to hear God’s Word – do not believe the devil’s lies when he tells you you’re smart enough or learned enough in confirmation or holy enough without Bible study, reading of Scripture and publicly gathering for worship.
There is no such thing as a Christian for whom worship is unimportant; nor are we better off coming to worship but never paying attention, sitting through worship planning our day or week, but never hearing God’s Word. Wake up! Bible study and Scripture reading and Sunday school and worship aren’t important only for kids. Don’t despise God’s Word of life. St. Paul said, “Take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”
Don’t be like the fairy-tale fool, diseased and festering sores from head to toe, wasting away and dying, withered and sunken, yet who looking in the mirror, imagined himself to be beautiful and healthy – the picture of life. So the devil acts like the deceitful mirror not wanting us to notice we’re starving, telling us we’re beautiful and healthy and perfect, we don’t need to be fed by God’s Word of life. My dear friends, don’t be fooled. If we are Christ’s body, His Church, then severing ourselves from each other and Christ and His Word means we’re finished. Arms or legs or ears can’t live severed from the body. We can’t live severed from Christ and His life-giving Word and body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. 1 Corinthians 12 says, “We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”
Our text tells us Jesus rose to read the Scripture, a courtesy often extended to traveling teachers. On that day, He read from Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor…” In the synagogue instead of standing in the pulpit, the preachers preached from a prominent chair. Our text says, “The eyes of everyone… were fastened on Him”, and Jesus began with these amazing words: “[This day]TODAY, THIS SCRIPTURE IS FULFILLED IN YOUR HEARING!”
Did you ever have the experience of talking to someone, oh, let’s just say hypothetically, your wife, and they’re not really listening and it takes a minute or two until they really think about what you said? OK, maybe more often it’s the other way around for us guys, I don’t know, but it feels like that’s what’s going on in our text.
It feels like Jesus just started His sermon which should be a thunderbolt from heaven: “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”, and the people missed it. You know how it takes a certain amount of time to settle in for a sermon, speech or any presentation, before you’re really focused. It feels like: Jesus sits down to preach, the eyes of everyone are focused on Him, and their minds aren’t quite processing the words. Maybe, the women were thinking: “This is so wonderful I bet Mary is so proud.” The men were probably thinking, “It’s too bad I wish Joseph could have lived to see this day.” I don’t know I’m only guessing, but for sure the sentiment isn’t: “Wow! God really is here with us today to proclaim freedom from captivity! The Messiah is here.” It’s more like: “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” They don’t get it. They remember the boy who played in their streets and did carpenter’s work. They couldn’t see that in Christ: “The Word [God’s Son] became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Nazareth has already heard about the miracles of Jesus from nearby Capernaum and Cana. They don’t want to hear Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah Isaiah wrote about 700 years earlier. They want miracles… magic tricks and entertainment. “Now that you’re famous – give your hometown some a good show!” Ironically, after Jesus refuses to be their entertainer, amusing them with magic tricks, and after their outrage attempts to kill Jesus, He miraculously passes through the murderous mob. How could they miss Jesus God in the flesh? Why didn’t they get it?
This winter the Washington Post hired one of the world’s great violin virtuosos Joshua Bell to do a social experiment. On a cold day, he stood in the metro station. In about an hour he played 6 of the most intricate pieces ever composed. He played on a violin valued at $3.5 million. Two days earlier Joshua Bell had sold out a theatre in Boston for $200+ dollars per ticket. Around 2000 people walked by his performance, most on their way to work. Only six stopped to listen for a short period. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace… for a total of $32. Several children stopped, but every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.
The little social experiment dealt with the question of whether in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
Sometimes we wonder how Nazareth missed Jesus as their Savior. Didn’t they ever realize there was something special about Him – I mean, seriously, a sinless child! Weren’t the miracles from his adult ministry a clue? Well, I guess all we can say about that is – not everyone missed the signs, but Nazareth sure seems to have missed out.
The same way people formed an opinion about the kind of person who plays the violin in a train station, they formed an opinion about the Messiah. They expected royal robes and military processions and adoring crowds. They didn’t expect their “favorite son” to sit down and say: “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing… I’m the One anointed by the Spirit to bring freedom and salvation.” But that’s who Jesus is.
What kind of Jesus are you looking for? Do you want a Jesus that more-or-less leaves you on your own, gives you what you want, demands nothing from you? Do you want a Jesus to pat you on the head when you wander, telling you it doesn’t matter you’re still a good person? Do you want a “secret pal Jesus” no one ever has to know about? In the end it doesn’t matter what you want. There’s only one Jesus who can be either received as a blessing or rejected at great peril. Jesus said, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
A world-class violinist, on a multi-million dollar instrument, on the greatest music ever made – how’d they miss that? Because they were human; flawed, rushed, sinful, self-absorbed, self-important, proud, arrogant, dying people; people like we are.
A few weeks ago we celebrated a Baby lying in a manger; a virgin-born Baby with a caretaker father in a lowly city; a Baby King without the royal palace. This Babe of Bethlehem was God and man in one person, but He was rejected by His own hometown who attempted to kill Him, only later to be betrayed by His own disciple Judas and executed between two thieves. Yet, hidden in this surprising package Colossians 2 says, “All the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily.” This Baby Jesus came for flawed, sinful, self-absorbed, self-important, proud, arrogant, dying people.
Before we’re put off by Jesus’ lowliness, think of the incomprehensible love that would cause Jesus to take up human flesh and die for your sins and mine. The God through whom all things were made, one with the Father and Holy Spirit from eternity, is the God who loved you so much He was willing to suffer the indignity of being dragged to the edge of a cliff, the indignity of dying on a cross, the indignity that so many still reject Him as their Savior. Yet, that’s who Jesus is – in an unexpected package, God became man to pave your path back to God. He became a real, flesh and blood man, allowed Himself to be rejected and scorned and tortured to death so you and I could live eternally. Jesus said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
In grace, undeserved love, God still deals with us in unexpected ways. He comes hidden in a splash of water with God’s Word, promising, “We were all baptized by one Spirit into the body of Christ.” He comes to us under His Word – 66 Spirit-inspired books – which are nothing more than letters of God’s love and our salvation in Christ. He comes to us in bread and wine at His altar where you are given – to quote our Epistle – “one Spirit to drink.” Here at God’s Table we receive a Divine meal filled with the Holy Spirit, fed and forgiven in Christ’s body and blood.
Grace is always surprising and unexpected. Judgment and condemnation we would expect – that’s what we deserve. But know this and treasure it with all your heart, the rejected, crucified Christ is alive, and He’s coming again. When we see Jesus, it won’t be the lowly, disappointing version so un-equal to the expectations of Nazareth – it’ll be Christ the King who comes on the clouds of heaven. Then build your heart’s hope and joy on this truth – this King won a place for you by His side forever. Jesus ushered in the “year of the Lord’s Favor.” In Christ, God’s heart toward you is grace – love, perfect love. Receive it. Believe it. Amen.
And now may the peace of God which surpasses human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.