It was supposed to be a homecoming welcome when Jesus arrives at Nazareth, his home town. Local boy makes good. We get very excited and proud when one of our own makes it to the stage. Like when Ash Barty wins a tennis competition.
We even don’t mind if Tomic and Kygrios win despite their brattish behaviour. But something triggers a reaction in the people of Nazareth that want to hurl Jesus over a cliff. It didn’t start that way. No, after he read the passage from Isaiah and made a comment about it they all spoke proudly about him. All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. What changed?
What did Jesus do or say that triggered this angry mob that filled them with rage. Well, you see, it was because Jesus suddenly didn’t seem as loyal to the cause as they were. All of a sudden he seemed to suggest that God seemed more favourable to foreigners than his own people. That even though there were many widows in the land of Israel during the drought and famine of Elijah’s time he went and supported a foreigner – the widow of Zarephath from the land of Sidon.
And even though there were many lepers in the land of Israel during the time of Elisha, God healed the foreigner Namaan – a Syrian.
Wait a minute. We were the ones who slaved in Egypt for 400 years. We were the ones who wandered the wilderness for 40 years. We were the ones who built then rebuilt God’s temple. Maybe at times you’ve felt that way. I’ve given my life to God and he rewards me with suffering. I go to church every Sunday and what do I get for it? Yes I know that God makes the sun to shine on the righteous and the unrighteous – but what I don’t understand is when God makes the sun to shine on the unrighteous and I get nothing. That’s what Jesus was highlighting had happened.
There were many widows in Israel and God blesses the widow of Zarephath. There were many lepers in the land of Israel and God heals Namaan. This attack on Jesus will continue when he begins to associate with the sinners and tax collectors rather than the religious leaders who thought they were the privileged ones. When tax collector Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law complained, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” This is not to say that once Jesus has us believing him that he just ignores us and goes looking for new recruits. But sometimes it seems like we should at least have some privileges.
Jesus once told a parable about a landowner who needed workers in his vineyard. He offered a group of people a day’s salary to work at his vineyard. They were overjoyed – a fair reward for a day’s work. It meant they could feed their families that night. But throughout the day the land owner realized he needed more workers so he went out again and again right up to the last hour looking for workers. When it came time to pay them he paid the ones who worked only an hour a full day’s salary. Those who had worked the entire day in the heat thought they would get paid more or at least some sort of bonus.
But the land owner paid them exactly the same. If he hadn’t hired the later workers then they wouldn’t have grumbled because they received a day’s salary. It was fair reward for their work. But because people worked less but received the same pay they grumbled. It now seemed unfair.
But what they need to understand is that from the start of the day they knew they would be able to feed their family whereas those who only worked an hour had for the entire day not lived with the comfort of knowing if there would be a meal for their family that night. So it wasn’t a case of not receiving what was fair but that God treated others more than they deserved.
And what happens then is that we disregard all the blessings that God has showered on us – including the assurance of eternal life – while God is working hard to convert others who have rejected him. The workers who once were overjoyed at receiving a day’s salary for a day’s work now grumbled at what they once considered to be a blessing because others received it for much less work.
God loves everyone and wants all people to be saved. So if God blesses someone whom we believe is not deserving – firstly we need to remember that none of us are deserving. But secondly that God is working hard in their lives to turn them back to him.
As Jesus said, he came to call sinners to repentance. So when Paul explains what God’s love looks like it looks somewhat different: He says:
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; love keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
So sometimes in showing this love it might seem unfair to us but not to God. We want God to punish evil, not love them – that’s what seems fair. Whereas God wants to forgive – that can seem unfair to some people. And sometimes God goes the extra mile, just as he has asked us to do. Jesus reminds his hometown people that God works in mysterious ways. That God’s power is often focused on strangers – those outside our communities of faith. Not because he loves them more but because they don’t know how much God loves them and has sacrificed for them. They don’t have the assurance of salvation as we do. And during those times we go through suffering, remember Paul’s statement – I consider that our present suffering is not worth comparing to the glory that awaits. Imagine suffering without that knowledge of salvation.
So many times I have heard people when going through difficult times including the death of a loved one – I don’t know how people without faith cope in times like this.
That was the difference between the workers who worked a full day and those that worked only in the last hour. God has always looked out for those in need beyond the community of faith, beyond the boundaries of our towns, our countries – our own congregation. Jesus reveals that God is not a God who lives only in Israel. And neither does God only live in the Christian tradition, in our denomination, in our parish, or whatever boundaries we wish to set. God is not ours. Jesus is not ours. We are his. And we are to go beyond the boundaries we set just as Elijah and Elisha, and Jesus did.
And so did Paul when he found that the Jews did not appreciate God’s blessings he declares – from now on I will go to the Gentiles.
Maybe, like the Jews of Paul’s time, we have become complacent of just how much God has done for us. Jesus, Paul and all those who have truly heard the Word of God in their hearing, in their hearts, want all people to experience those blessings. As Jesus said last week – The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor – to ALL people. God calls us to work where and when God pleases.
Jeremiah didn’t want to go but God reassures him: You shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,
So we need to let go of all notions that Jesus, the hometown kid, is ours, and discover what it means that “we are his” rather than He belongs to us. Jesus belongs to ALL people but sadly not all people know him. God has a special claim on us, not we on him. And remember that God knew you well before you knew him. He knew all people while they were still in their mother’s womb as Jeremiah reminds us today. So we can understand why God sometimes goes after people that we would not. And that’s what the people of Nazareth did not understand from Jesus today. Do we?
Our cups are overflowing with God’s blessings but what happens to that overflow? Will it be like rain that falls and goes down the storm water drain with no use – or will it flow to others including those that we might think don’t deserve it.
God loves all people and wants all people to be saved. If we think there are some who don’t deserved to be saved then let us remember that it was while WE were yet sinners that Christ died for us.
