January 31-Epiphany 4-St. Luke 4:21-32

‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.’ (Ps. 19:14) Amen.

‘Grace, mercy and peace will be with you, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.’ (2 John 3) Amen.

‘And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority.’ (V. 32)

This word, authority, carries a special meaning. We may not get what Luke is really trying to tell us when we hear or read our translations. Here is a story to illustrate this fact.

E. V. Rieu was a distinguished British scholar, well known for his translations of the works of Homer into English. After a time, this man was asked by his publisher to translate the Gospels. This happened when this scholar was at the age of sixty. He had a lifelong agnostic, that is, he refused to choose whether there was a God or not. He agreed in spite of this to try his hand at translating the Gospels.

At this time, E. V. Rieu’s son stated, “It will be interesting to see what father makes of the four gospels. It will be even more interesting to see what the four gospels make of father”. What a curious statement!

Within a year, Dr. Rieu was converted to Christianity. He observed, “I got the deepest feeling that the whole material was extraordinarily alive. My work changed me. I came to the conclusion that these words bear the seal of the Son of Man and God.” Again, what a curious statement. So, why was it that the people in Capernaum, after Jesus was run out of Nazareth, found Jesus’ teaching to be remarkable?

This story tells us what Luke meant by the word translated as ‘authority’. The words of Jesus, the words of the Gospels that is, are extraordinarily alive. So, let’s explore a bit of that teaching.

‘And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”’ (Vv. 21-2)

So, Jesus tells the people of His hometown that the Messiah had come. The words of Isaiah (Is. 60:1, 2) were fulfilled in their hearing. That is, what Jesus preached was what that Old Testament text spoke about. This statement that ‘“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”’ (V. 21) was simply a first sentence to what Jesus preached that day. Because this was all so remarkable to the people, Jesus went on to explain what He meant by this statement.

On this day and later on, the people would hear Jesus preaching good news, proclaiming freedom and the year of the Lord’s favor (Vv. 18, 19). So Jesus must in this way be the One that Isaiah spoke of. Jesus is telling the people, and you, that He is the Savior sent to save us sinners from sin and damnation by dying in your place. This preaching was not meant simply to convince minds but more importantly, win hearts.

Luke tells us that these Jews thought Jesus’ words were ‘gracious’, which is only to say that the words sounded good to them. In other words, Jesus sounded to these Jews as if he were a smooth talking huckster. We can see this from how they object. They complain that He is Joseph’s son.

What they are telling us as hearers is that, well, this guy can’t be the Messiah. He must be lying to us because we know where He comes from. We know who this is, they thought that when the Messiah came they would not know where He came from. They did not expect Jesus to be the One because they had grown up with him. These Jews only went as far as their eyes would take them.

Some of us are like this with the subject of Chemistry. It is hard for some students to grasp the subject of chemistry because they cannot actually see what is being studied. We can see a rabbit; we can handle it and dissect it. We cannot do the same thing with an oxygen atom or water molecule. These Jews could not comprehend that which they could not handle and see for themselves.

We have this problem even today. We cannot get our sinful minds to go beyond the idea that Jesus is more than simply a great teacher, a good example. We cannot see that He really is the Son of God. So His words amaze us. This teacher speaks with authority. Christians are different. You and I are not different because of some great thing within us. Rather, we are only different from the world because of the faith created in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (SC II: 3rd part). This faith comes not from seeing but by hearing. (Rom. 10:17; St. Jn. 20:29) You and I too need to be on our guard against letting our reason or the outward appearance, as the world describes it, from getting in the way of faith in Jesus and God’s sure promises.

‘And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.”’ (Vv. 23-24)

Jesus knew what the people were thinking. He could probably tell just by watching their expressions. It was understandably hard for these men to understand and accept what Jesus said because they had either seen Him grow from a boy into a man or they had grown to manhood right beside Him. We have the same problem. We have this problem when someone who grew up in our hometown returns and tells us fantastic things. We most especially have the same problem with Jesus as these people. Our sinful reason thinks, “How can this be? He is just a man.”

Again, we see these people viewing Jesus as just another kind of entertainment. A huckster come to entertain them with wild and amazing stunts. They wanted Jesus to show off to them by doing miracles like He had done in Capernaum. After all, Nazareth was Jesus’ hometown. They should get some pride of place. What they are doing is testing Jesus. They are demanding proof that they might believe Him. We might find ourselves doing the same thing. Don’t we from time to time demand a sign? Especially when God does not seem to be near? Sometimes we require of God that He prove He still exists. For in this “real world”, so-called, God must play to our demands. What a bunch of arrogant clay flower and water pots (see also, Is. 45:9; 64:8) we are.

‘[Jesus said:] “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’”’ (V. 23) We, with these listeners to Jesus’ preaching, are the ones in need of healing. You and I are the ones with deadly sores and we are the ones demanding to tell the Physician how to go about His work.

Jesus tells these people something else. He tells them that a prophet, including Himself, is not welcome in his hometown. For this reason, a pastor is not usually sent to the place that He grew up. As we see from Jesus’ experience, the called one of God sent to preach, whether prophet or pastor, is still apt to be second-guessed. This in spite of the pastor getting what he is saying from the Bible. This set up is hard for the faith of both the hearers and the preacher.

Often when a preacher speaks in his hometown, it is like what happens to Jesus, the people refuse to believe. These people at Nazareth still treat Jesus like the little boy they remember and they think He does not know any more than they do.

‘When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down a cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.’ (Vv. 28-30)

How do these people react when they hear the preaching of the Gospel? What happens when Jesus tells them what He meant by saying, ‘“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”’? (V. 21) They are furious. The Gospel often angers people because it does not tell us what we want to hear.

We may threaten or demand from God that He do what we wish, when we wish. Yet, God will not humor us in this. God, in Jesus, tells us what we need to hear. He never tells us what we want to hear. The only way that you hear what you want to hear in the true preaching of the Gospel is because of the power of the Holy Spirit working faith in your heart. Praise God that you do hear what you want to hear! If you did not, then would be the time to fear.

It is as the Psalmist tells us, our wickedness is without limit. We do not see that our iniquity can be found out by God. In spite of any attempt made by you or me to hide (Gen. 2, 3). And yet, over against this, God continues to love each of us. Though we are sinful, He continues to lavish us with His love through Jesus. Even when on our part, we do not want to believe the gospel. (St. Lk. 16:31)

‘Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in his heart;
there is no fear of God before his eyes.
For he flatters himself in his own eyes
That his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. …
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light.’
Ps. 36:1-2, 7-9

In Jesus’+ Name. Amen.