Jesus will run into the problem of a prophet raised up “from
among your own people” as a “prophet is not without honor except in his hometown.”
(Mark 6:4) Truth is a fair amount of people will only hear “what their itching
ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3) so hometown prophets may be tempted to only
speak soft words. Other prophets consider the measure of their word by its
capacity to offend but maybe they just get off on making people mad. The
Lutheran two step of Law / Gospel preaching is meant to convict both people and
preacher who are then “driven into the arms of the Gospel.” (Luther) I’ve never
shied away from a difficult word because I know it is a word I need to hear and
since I always preach to myself I suppose God thought others needed to hear the
difficult word as well. And I can tell you I am always desperate for a forgiving
word from God so maybe others need to hear that just as much as I do. I believe
that is the partnership of prophet and people that God intended so that the people
of God might become a prophetic word for the world.
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