Luke 4: 22-30 (Common English Bible)
This reading from Luke’s gospel is a continuation of last Sunday’s reading. After Jesus took the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, he delivered the surprising announcement that he was the fulfillment of the Scripture that he read. His reading goes beyond liberating the captives and stopping the exploitation of the poor. He assures the Synagogue audience that their Messiah has come at last. Jesus tells the people to accept others whom they have disregarded, the widow, the leper and the foreigner.
Jesus challenges the people to ask for a demonstration of the wonders that he has performed in Capernaum, a city with many gentile residents. His listeners were sure Jesus would do the same for his hometown as he did for strangers, people who weren’t even Jews. But Jesus answered with a rebuttal and said, “No prophet is accepted in his hometown.” So instead of miracles, Jesus gives them two stories from their own Scriptures.
Jesus talks about the famine in the land during the time of Elijah the prophet. Elijah was sent by God to a widow who lived in Zarephath, a city in Sidon. The people living in Sidon worshiped the pagan god Baal. The widow and her son were near starving to death and the son was very sick. Elijah prays for the widow and her son, and through a miracle enough food appears for all three. And the son who was very sick is healed.
And as Jesus tells the worshipers within the synagogue, there were many lepers in Judea during the time of another prophet whose name was Elisha. But the only leper healed by Elisha was a foreigner, Naaman from Syria.
In 21st century America, the call to accept all people is questionable, even among many Christians. Jerry Falwell, president of Liberty University was so worried that foreign people were all terrorists, he invited the students there to carry guns to the campus. That is definitely the opposite of what Jesus would do. But there are Christians who have embraced the hand of hospitality, to protect the foreigner and the migrant. Some churches have become a place of a serious sanctuary and shelter for those migrants who face deportation.
A number of years ago in Indianapolis, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese challenged a former Governor of Indiana to release the state funds, as required by federal law, for the support of a Syrian refugee family relocating to Indiana. Surprisingly, the response from many Christian communities throughout the state was overwhelming support for the Syrian family. A United Methodist Church in Indianapolis organized a vigil and rally to show its support. Danyelle Ditman, the minister of that Methodist Church, told the Indianapolis Star newspaper, that the refugees, “are real people in need.” That is why I say women make better ministers than men, because they are on the frontlines for justice, just like Jesus.
Outside that statehouse in Indianapolis, people protested the Governor’s attempt to prevent any Syrian refugees from coming to Indiana. But the protesters could easily find support for their cause in Luke chapter four, when Jesus proclaims the Good News and inclusion for the poor, the oppressed and the foreigner. And the protestors held signs that said, “Jesus was a refugee.” And he was. Joseph, Mary and Jesus had to migrate to Egypt or be killed by King Herod. But this real story has a happy ending. God was on the side of the Syrian refugees and they found a home in Indiana.
That was a hard and powerful lesson for the Jewish people at that synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus’ short sermon angered them so much that they tried to throw him off a cliff!
They heard Jesus loud and clear and they hated what he preached. Jesus puts people's loyalty above national loyalty. We probably don’t feel the same impact of his sermon like the Jewish people did. To paraphrase it in today’s America, it might sound like this, “Of all the jobless Christians in America during the economic collapse in 2008, a prophet of God was sent to none of them, except a Muslim refugee from Syria.”
If that stings and makes us angry, that could be a good thing. Maybe we are beginning to understand what Jesus said in Nazareth. Maybe we’ve heard something that challenges the status-quo in America. But maybe we haven’t grasped the real meaning and implication of the teachings of Jesus. Jesus didn’t promise a good time, if one really follows his teachings. One could be ostracized, jailed, beaten, killed and even thrown off a cliff.
What borders do we need to cross to go with Jesus on his way? It’s a question all churches must answer. It’s also a question that our nation must answer.
It’s way past time that we leave the status-quo of Nazareth and America. We can do much better than what exists now.
AMEN
