Wednesday, November 14, 2018

How to Wreck a Homecoming in One Easy Lesson



Wednesday, November 14, 2018

When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures.  The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him.  He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:  “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 that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”  He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down.  All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently.  Then he began to speak to them.  “The Scripture 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?”  Then he 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.  “Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land.  Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them.  He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon.  And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”  When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious.  Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built.  They intended to push him over the cliff, but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.  

Luke 4:16-30(NLT)

It was the first time the hometown crowd saw the little boy they’d known, who was a carpenter-apprentice, now-turned preacher.  For someone who was accused of being a party guy Jesus really knew how to throw a wet towel over a homecoming!  And all it took was 11 words:  The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!  What Jesus said lit the crowd up, and they resorted to mob-violence, wanting to push him over the cliff.  He had simply announced that He, Jesus, Joseph and Mary’s son, was the Messiah – the one for which they’d been waiting.  Sermon, truth, and Lord…rejected!
I rained on a homecoming one time, but it took many more words than Jesus used.  I preached on how Jesus didn’t want to close the church down, even though it was happening all around us; hundreds of churches closing their doors every year.  And if we wanted the fine history of our old church to end with a whimper, all we had to do was sit back and rest on our laurels; the rest would take care of itself.  
The church had been declining for years, a history of squabbles, fired ministers and other terminal signs.  A lady who hardly knew me said as she was leaving after the service:  Well, I hope you’re happy; those people didn’t need to hear THAT!  I asked her what she would have said.  She replied:  Well, I’m not a preacher.  It was YOUR job to say something nice.  I replied as kindly as I could muster:  Ma’am, I’m supposed to say the TRUTH; “nice” has nothing to do with it.  I wish I could say she never spoke to me again, but she kept it up for the whole time I was pastor there.  It was an interesting 6-year minefield, trying to do the best, truthful thing for one who obviously despised the ground upon which I walked!
I’ve only just recently discovered what I missed those many years ago; there are some people you weren’t sent to reach…only endure.  That lady would have been part of Jesus’ lynching party if she’d been there.  (Come to think of it she did seem that old!).  Accordingly, she wouldn’t have heard or sensed anything positive from the likes of me, unless it was the kind of flattery that told her just what she wanted to hear – a lullaby that wouldn’t rock her religious cradle.  I wonder these days why I tried so hard to help her understand.
But Jesus certainly understood his words were going to cause trouble amongst the entrenched power brokers; he knew, if he told them the truth, it would cause trouble.  That’s what Isaiah said would happen to the Messiah, rejection from his own:

He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.  We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.  He was despised, and we did not care.  

Isaiah 53:3(NLT)

In some measure the people of Jesus’ hometown DID care; they cared about shutting-down the truth that hurts.  And, as Sonny and Cher Bono once sang, the beat goes on!
For You Today
Advent is nearly on our doorstep.  It’s a time for clearing the way of the LORD and opening the doors of our hearts to hear truth and receive the genuine message of hope for all peoples.  And this truth will come to us no matter how we may look to others, no matter how big we’ve messed it up with what we’ve done, or how messed up, prejudicial, selfish, or angry our thinking has been…if we have ears to hear.
So…don’t worry about whether your preacher says it like you wanted to hear; hear like Jesus is preaching truth to you; He IS, you know!   
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

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