Angering Honesty
February 2, 2025
A friend returned from an audience with His Holiness the Dali Lama. “When his Holiness speaks,” the friend said, “everyone in the room becomes quiet, serene and peaceful.” Not so with Jesus. Things were fine in Nazareth until Jesus opened his mouth and all hell broke loose.
(We are continuing the story from last week, when Jesus preached “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind.)
And (remember) this was only his first sermon! One might have thought that Jesus would have used a more effective rhetorical strategy, would have saved inflammatory speech until he had taken the time to build trust, to win people’s affection, to contextualize his message… No, instead he threw the book at them, hit them right between the eyes with Isaiah, and jabbed them with First Kings, right to the jaw, left hook. Beaten, but not bowed, the congregation struggled to its feet, regrouped and attempted to throw the preacher off a cliff. And (yet) Jesus “went on his way.” (Sermons.com, Will Willimon) READ Luke 4:21-30
“Dr. James Sutherland Bonnell, a Presbyterian minister of another generation, has a great line on this text. ‘Jesus was favorably received by his townsfolk until he challenged the provincial, racial prejudice. He dared to declare that the children of Israel were not special favorites of God.’ Indeed, the heavenly Father had singled out individuals in Sidon and Syria for unparalleled blessings. ‘And that,’ Dr. Bonnell wrote, ‘really set the heather on fire!’” (Sermons.com, James Garrett).
Scripture is filled with God’s preferential relationship with Israel. The eternal covenant that started with Abraham and was renewed generation after generation. Here Jesus quoted Isaiah promising compassion and freedom but then throws Israel under the bus. Jesus gives two examples, highlights two foreigners, the widow at Zarephath and the leper Naaman, the Syrian, who God chose to bless instead of a widow or leper from Israel. Why not highlight a widow or leper from Israel? Because God’s liberation came first to the Jews but was always intended to be for all people. Jesus’ two examples of God’s mercy were not designed to sooth, but to indict. Jesus’ word amounted to angering honesty.
You see “Jesus is for everyone. Both Elijah and Elisha take God into places where God was not thought to be and had no business being. It is these words of inclusion, Jesus’ own interpretation of his ministry, the real reason for God in a manger, that elicit a very quick transition from awe to rage for the hearers of Jesus’ words. Why is that?” (Working Preacher, Karoline Lewis).
As humans, we hate cognitive dissonance, when what we believe turns out not to be true. We see it all around our country right now. People who never believed January 6th felons would be pardoned and released. We can’t believe that Federal funding can be halted with a stroke of a pen.
We don’t like it when our status quo is challenged. “We despise people who challenge our cherished myths and kick us out of our comfort zones. The truth is that when Jesus sets about the task of saving us, he has to heal us of any myth or prejudice that is contrary to the spirit of Christ. Billy Sunday was the Billy Graham of a previous generation. He was conducting a crusade in a particular city. In one of his sermons, he said something critical of the labor conditions for workers in that area. After the service, several prominent businessmen sent a message to him by one of the local pastors. The message was this: Billy, leave labor matters alone. Concentrate on getting people saved. Stay away from political issues. You’re rubbing the fur the wrong way.’ Billy Sunday sent this message back to them: ‘If I’m rubbing the fur the wrong way, tell the cats to turn around’” (Sermons.com, Bill Bouknight).
For the folks in Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, Jesus was rubbing the fur the wrong way. Jesus was telling them to turn around, to repent. Stop thinking that God is only here to save them. God’s plan is bigger than that. God is inclusive, loving, compassionate. God is not your own private deity. This honesty angered them.
Prophets often anger people. That might be why Jeremiah made excuses when God called him to be a prophet. But God knew Jeremiah in the womb and appointed him a prophet to all nations. God’s claim, love and purpose existed before Jeremiah was born. An inclusive call that Jesus is now declaring in his hometown. God’s salvation is for all people, all nations, not just Israel.
This fact felt like an indictment to the people of Nazareth. To them, Jesus was just Joseph’s son, not a prophet. But Jesus needed to establish that he was not “just Joseph’s son,” but God’s Son, and the way to do that was through prophetic declaration and fulfillment.
But the town folk would have none of that. They were so mad, so insulted, that they tried to throw Jesus off the cliff. Threating a preferred status is dangerous business. The people of Nazareth liked being God’s favorites, they did not want to share this privilege with others. I think Jesus would have some choice words to say to the Christians who believe that Christian White nationals are the chosen ones of God. To the administration who wants to get rid of everyone who does not think like them, look like them, or comes from another place. As one commentator puts it, “This is no therapeutic Jesus who pats little children on the head. This is a bold antagonist who makes preemptive strikes against the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Roman rulers, the priests and scribes, Democrats and Republicans, Socialists and Capitalists, and any other creature who presumes upon the Divine” (Working Preacher, Roy Harrisville III). Remember this passage started with Jesus’ stated purpose, the good news is fulfilled in your hearing.
So that begs the question. When we hear that God’s salvation is for everyone, that Jesus came to provide love, compassion and accountability to people, how do we respond? Do we “fear the loss of privileged position? (Let’s step back for a moment and recall.) Simeon, guided by the Spirit, said of the infant Jesus: “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed” (Luke 2:34-35). The truth of Simeon’s prophecy is laid bare at Nazareth” (Working Preacher, Elisabeth Johnson). The inner thoughts of many are being revealed. May that truth be revealed in our country as we watch people deny our celebration of cultural difference, seek to retire civil servants to gut our government so that we become a monarchy, and try to end birthright citizenship.
The crowd around Jesus sought to kill him by throwing him off the cliff. But God had other plans. A group of people angered by the honesty Jesus was embodying, wanted to turn their anger into destruction. But God had another idea. It reminds me of the time Jesus was crucified by angry Romans only to have God raise him three days later. One commentator writes, “The good news of the gospel in Luke is tied to the person of Jesus, who is still both crucified and risen. We are not promised any easier fate than is our Lord, who preached prophetic grace, dealt with rejection, and still managed to be on his way. The great preacher and activist Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was frequently fond of paraphrasing Reverend Theodore Parker, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”2 The way King uses it, of course, is not for the sake of resignation, as if we could sit back and let historical determinism have its way. It is, however, from King’s prophetic mouth a balm to those in the struggle” (Working Preacher, David Schnasa Jacobsen). We are in the struggle. May we embrace the purpose larger than our own, and live the prophetic grace Jesus preached, so that like Jesus we will be capable of passing through rejection and still be on our way. Amen.
