The sermon that began so well has taken a turn for the worse
and Jesus has no one to blame but himself. Somewhere in the well speaking and
amazement his gracious words have taken on an edge and the home town crowd is
not amused. At first glance it looks like Jesus is provoking without
provocation. So maybe Luke the historian left out some details. Maybe there’s a
heckler in the last pew or shouts of “prove it” when Joseph’s boy claims his real father is a higher power. On the other hand Jesus is not doing something here
that he won’t do elsewhere and for the next three years a lot of places will
begin to feel just like home. Before we judge the home town crowd too harshly we
might ask ourselves what words of Jesus might prompt us to do him in? Given our
ability to rationalize hard sayings and contain the difficult in dogmatic boxes
it’s more likely that nothing Jesus’ says can upset us very much unless of
course it’s about someone else. Then we puff up with self righteous pride and
use Jesus’ words to throw the less pious or too pious or not pious enough off
the hill upon which our rigid theologies are built. The word of Jesus is that
God stepped outside the boundaries of God’s own people to bless a foreigner and
an oppressor. In the same way God will not be contained within our constructs of
who is deserving and who isn't who belongs and who doesn't and even who is saved
and who isn't because that right belongs to the One who climbed another hill and didn't come down until he was finished.
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