Luke 4:21-30
21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, “Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ” 24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
How is it that the hometown boy that everyone spoke well of and were amazed at his gracious words, the hometown boy who was becoming famous for some miracles he had been working down the road, could go from hero to zero in exactly four sentences? How do you go from being loved to being hated in about ten seconds? What do you have to do to go from people carrying you into the synagogue wanting you to preach to having the same people carrying you out of the synagogue wanting to throw your carcass off a cliff? Well, following Jesus’ example, tell people that God is a choosing God and he doesn’t choose everybody. Teach them he often chooses outsiders and people who don’t deserve it and haven’t earned his favor. You know, people like Gentiles.
Tell them he often excludes insiders who should have earned it and deserve his favor. Think Jews. Quote scripture to them to prove your point. You know something like “There were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah . . . yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.” In case you don’t know Sidon isn’t even in Israel. Follow all that up by taking away everything they trust and put them at the mercy of the almighty, choosing God who isn’t at all impressed with heritage, religion, moral performance, or any other thing. Then to top it all off proclaim to them that God’s savior is the person they had watched grow up, the person with the sketchy conception and birth, the ordinary, common, carpenter’s son, Jesus. That is what Jesus did to those hearers in the synagogue. In so doing he made it really clear that God was not playing by the rules they had established for him. God wasn’t doing what was expected. God was, perish the thought, uncontrollable even by the children of Abraham. There is only one thing to do with somebody like that and that’s shut him up even if you have to kill him. But God isn’t silenced that easily. Luke tells us that Jesus “passed through the midst of them and went his way” although how he did that remains a mystery. It wasn’t until three years later that Jesus did allow them to lay hands on him and put him to death on a cross, to put him in a tomb and seal it with a stone, and to guard it with soldiers. But this uncontrollable God who isn’t silenced so easily came out of that tomb still proclaiming his message. That means several things for us. It means that God is a choosing God and he doesn’t choose everybody. In spite of our clichés about God’s love and our bumper sticker theology not everybody is going to make it and this is God’s doing.It means he often chooses outsiders and people who don’t deserve it and haven’t earned his favor and he often excludes insiders who should have earned it and deserve his favor. It means it’s really hard to tell who’s in and who’s out. It means God is not playing by the rules we have established for him.
He isn’t doing what is expected. God is still, perish the thought, uncontrollable even by the great spiritual beings we think ourselves to be. That empty tomb means there is nothing more we can do to silence this uncontrollable God. And so we are at the mercy of the almighty, choosing God who isn’t at all impressed with our heritage, our religion, our moral performance, or any other thing. We are done for, dead, finished, game over. But Jesus is not finished. I don’t know why Jesus hasn’t come for everybody but I do know that he has come for you just like Elijah went to that widow.
I don’t know why Jesus hasn’t given every sinner out there a saving promise but I do know he’s given you one just like Elisha gave Naaman a promise from God.
I know this because the Jesus who preached in that synagogue, the Jesus who died on that cross, the Jesus who was raised from dead, the Jesus who has promised to meet you in water and words and bread and wine has commanded me to speak to you, to choose you, and so I shall. For his sake you are forgiven unconditionally by the Father and today this promise has once again been fulfilled in your hearing. Amen