There's no place like...home?

Luke 4:14-31

Jesus is at the beginning of his preaching ministry.  We see that there is already a lot of talk circulating about the messages and insight he is bringing.  Then the day comes that his travels bring him back home.  There’s really no place like home, is there?

Or…is there? 

The Sabbath comes, and he goes to his home synagogue, surrounded by the friends he grew up with, their parents, spouses, and families.  These are “his people”; people he has known his entire life.  He stood to read (as was their custom, they stood to read the Holy text, any lay person could participate in this part of scripture and they sat to expound, or preach) and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.  Then, he began to read the text that pertained to him:  Anointed by the Lord, he will bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recover sight to the blind, and let the oppressed go free. 

And there must have been something about the way he proclaimed these Holy texts, because Luke tells us that as Jesus rolled the scroll back up and sat down, it was dead silence.  All their wide-eyed attention was on him.  Then, he made a shocking revelation:  today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your presence. 

What?!?

We see next that all the people spoke well of him and were amazed by him…well, not exactly all the people.  We see that someone spoke up, casting doubt, shining light on the “ordinariness” of Jesus reminding everyone, almost in a provoking dare, that he is just “Joseph’s son”, mounting the evidence that Jesus is not and cannot be the Messiah.  So Jesus responds to this with a proverb…and then answers his own response with a second proverb.  He answers directly the person who reminded everyone gathered who Jesus’ father is with “surely the next thing you’re going to spit at me is “physician, heal thyself”…giving voice to his critics who would surely come for him because he started his ministry in rival Capernaum instead of at home.  So he replies to this voice, reminding all gathered that no prophet is acceptable in his own country.  And we see this is true…because who can doubt you and tear you down more than your own people…and while we’re at it, who else to exploit what they’ve heard of Christ’s actions in Capernaum, daring him to perform these acts in his home, like he was some circus side-show or on-demand miracle worker.    

As if this didn’t rile the crowd up enough, Jesus seemingly rubs salt in the fresh wound when he (for whatever reason) doesn’t stop.  He continues his retaliatory response with the recollection of the prophet Elijah, during the 3 ½ year drought.  There was no water, no food, and all of Israel was suffering; and Elijah provides never-failing, never-ending food and oil for a gentile widow.  Similarly, there were many lepers in Israel at the time of Elisha, and the only one cleansed was a Gentile.  A person who was not Jewish.  Lesser than.  Despised.

So how did the “home crowd”, Jesus’ “people” take to his preaching?  They didn’t.  In a fit of rage they ran – literally ran - him out of town, chasing him to the edge of the hill the town was built on with the goal of throwing him over; but he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. 

So what is he telling them?  Surely reminding them of some history didn’t get the crowd amped up enough to kill this now grown hometown kid…so what?  Could it be, that he is not only telling them that there will be no miracles or incredible acts here among you all, instead I am going to the land of the Gentiles to do these miracles and incredible acts? 

It’s important that we see that Jesus doesn’t go elsewhere because he is rejected by his hometown friends and neighbors; Jesus is rejected by his hometown friends and neighbors because he goes elsewhere.  They wanted to throw Jesus off the cliff because he told them that the love and grace of God extends past their city walls and beyond Israel to the whole world.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of a story by Flannery O’Conner…”Revelation”.  If you aren’t familiar with the work of Flannery O’Conner, I can’t urge enough how your life will be enriched by her writing.  While often difficult to read, her insight to the philosophy of the human experience is invaluable. 

So “revelation” is the story of Ruby Turpin.  It begins with Ruby siting in a dr’s office, quietly judging herself to be superior to everyone else there, especially a poor, unkept teenage wretch named Mary Grace seated on the other side of the room reading a book.  All was well and good while Ruby kept her judgements to herself, but that wasn’t enough; Ruby felt she should share them out loud.  She tells Mary Grace that she’s nothing but “white-trash”…the lowest of the low, then she proceeds to thank Jesus for making her who she is and not one of these people….  And with that, Mary Grace slammed shut the book she was reading and hurled it directly at Ruby and hit her over her left eye.  “This”, writes O’Conner, “was the beginning of Ruby’s road to redemption.  Revelation, it appears, often begins when a large book hits you in the head”.

And isn’t this what just happened with Jesus and his hometown friends?  He didn’t just throw any book at them…he threw The Book at them.  He hit them right between the eyes with Isaiah, then 1 Kings, then 2 Kings. 

The inclusive ministry of Christ is something we still struggle with even today.  If we’re truly honest with ourselves, are we not guilty of judging the worth of others?  Don’t we like the idea that God’s blessings are meant for us, and maybe people like us, and not others?  Aren’t we still trying to constrain Christ and keep him obedient to our rules and boundaries?  Don’t we all keep our list of “Mary Grace Gentiles”?  We do. 

And yet the Good News remains BOTH a healing balm as well as a blow to the head-the Good News that the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ is for ALL PEOPLE.  Alleluia.  Amen.