I have really enjoyed the last few weeks of preaching. We've been led by the Lectionary (our scripture guide) through some passages in Luke chapter 4. These verses (14-30) recount a fascinating incident in a synagogue in Jesus' Hometown. Jesus first of all reads from the prophet Isaiah and aligns himself with the interesting view that God's blessing is on the poor, the blind, the prisoner and the oppressed. People in Jesus' time commonly perceived sickness or any other kind of trouble in life as a punishment from God. 2000 years later, many people still are tempted to interpret difficulties in life as some kind of punsihment from God. And yet Jesus announces that the "favour of God" rests upon these people. Even more interestingly, Jesus chooses to edit Isaiah, leaving out the "day of vengeance of our God" reference which appears in the Isaiah prophecy. Jesus seems content to picture God as a God of Compassion.
How often the church has been guilty of presenting people with a very different picture of God...
Jesus goes on to offend his home town faithfuls... He points to the stories in Jewish history where God reached out on Compassion, beyond the borders of Israel: to the widow in Sidon and the Leper from Syria. Jesus confirms this tentative thread in the Hebrew scriptures that suggestst that God is not OURS. (Israel's) God is the God of all creation, all people... and as such will not respect human or religious boundaries. While Jesus' offence didn't get him killed on this occasion, we know that ultimately Jesus was killed for "the gracious words that came from his mouth" (v22).
I think it might do us well to reflect on why a person who speaks gracious words gets killed...
Why does speaking gracious words cause so much offence to religious people?
(download my sermon notes from 21st Jan here: What shaped his vision? (part 1&2))
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