When we sit with this passage from Luke 4 for a while, we realize the crowd’s reaction was never about Jesus. It was about them. It is about us. It is about the Beloved Community in our midst. It is about reframing the narrative. It is about inviting Jesus to be who we need him to be – someone who opens our hearts and minds, our very beings to the presence of God in our midst, someone who invites us as his followers, as his disciples to believe, to trust, to work towards the promise that this world does not have the last word.
February 2, 2025
Messages from the Gospel of Luke
“No Prophet is Welcome”
Luke 4: 21-30
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Luke 4: 21-30
He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.” Everyone was raving about Jesus, so impressed were they by the gracious words flowing from his lips. They said, “This is Joseph’s son, isn’t it?” Then Jesus said to them, “Undoubtedly, you will quote this saying to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we’ve heard you did in Capernaum.’”
He said, “I assure you that no prophet is welcome in the prophet’s hometown. And I can assure you that there were many widows in Israel during Elijah’s time, when it didn’t rain for three and a half years and there was a great food shortage in the land. Yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to a widow in the city of Zarephath in the region of Sidon. There were also many persons with skin diseases in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them were cleansed. Instead, Naaman the Syrian was cleansed.”
When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with anger. They rose up and ran him out of town. They led him to the crest of the hill on which their town had been built so that they could throw him off the cliff. But he passed through the crowd and went on his way.
No Prophet is Welcome Luke 4: 21-30
This week’s text is the continuation of the story which tells us of Jesus’ first public act of ministry in the Gospel of Luke. If we remember last week, Jesus stood up at his home synagogue and proclaimed the Good News. He embraced his identity, mission and ministry as the Son of God sent to: “bring good news to the poor, sent to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” If we remember, after making these statements, Jesus sits down and waits.
He waits to see how the people will respond, waits to see who will embrace this vision as their own, waits to see who will follow, waits to see who the world will respond, waits to see if the people understand what is happening in their midst, waits to see if those with eyes see, waits to see if those with ears hear, waits to see if the Gospel message will inspire those around him to become the people God created and calls us to be, people of love, people of grace, people of peace, people of mercy for a time such as this.
If we remember from last week’s reading, after making such statements, Jesus sits down and waits for the people’s response… and wow do they respond! At first, the people’s response is favorable. After all, this is good news, especially for ones who are living under the oppressive systems of the Roman Empire. The people have heard the promises all before and now…now this man, Jesus’ their very own hometown hero is bringing them to fruition! Joseph’s boy, one of their very own, is making these statements, is bringing them the Good News. At first the people are amazed…
That is until…until Jesus says somethings they didn’t like. Jesus basically says, my ministry, my mission is not and will not be limited to the boundaries of my hometown, that my ministry and my mission is not and will not be limited to the walls of this religious institution. The people were all amazed and behind what Jesus was saying until they realized that Jesus was not going to be the Jesus they expected him to be, the Jesus they wanted him to be, a Jesus crafted in their own image, a Jesus who serves a religious institution which projects and protects an image of comfort and complacency.
The people were all amazed. They were behind everything Jesus was saying until they realized that Jesus, that the Good News, that the life transforming Gospel is not and will not ask their permission before God’s life changing love is shared. The people were all amazed, they were behind everything Jesus was saying until they realized that Jesus, that the Good News, that the life-giving Gospel message was not going to play by their rules, only embracing those whom they had deemed worthy.
And frankly that made them may. So much so that they ran Jesus out of town, that they led him to a crest of a hill, that they tried to throw Jesus off a cliff. And if we remember our sacred faith story, we know that wasn’t the only time a crowd ran Jesus out of town, that crowd led Jesus to a hill. If we remember our faith story, in another place, in another time, after Jesus has been teaching and preaching, after Jesus had been breaking bread with those on the margins, after Jesus had welcomed the stranger, after Jesus had pointed out the hypocrisy of the religious institution at that time, after Jesus had proclaimed the Good news, after he had healed people and brought sight to the blind, after Jesus had brought release to the captives, after he had proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favor, in another place, in another time, another crowd led Jesus to a hill outside of their city all the while shouting, crucify him. Crucify him.
Now before we sit in our pews, or stand in our pulpits and say, “We would never do that. We would never try to run Jesus out of town. We would never lead him to a crest of a hill. We would never try to throw Jesus off a cliff. We would never shout crucify him…I’m going to stop us right there and invite us to sit with that for a minute….
Because has there really never been a time when we weren’t offended by the Gospel? Has there really never been a time when we questioned why that person was shown mercy and grace? Has there really never been a time when we didn’t argue with, or reason away, God’s amazing grace? Has there really never been a time we as individuals, when we as a community of faith, when we as the wider Church have not used the Gospel message to exclude, to harm, to craft Jesus in our image?
Because you see, whether we like it or not, whether we admit it or not, in our text today, Jesus names some harsh realities for the group gathered there that day. And whether we like it or not, whether we admit it or not, Jesus is still naming some harsh realities for us as his disciples today some two thousand years later.
Because when we sit with this text, when we sit with its uncomfortable truths, when we fully embrace the Good News for us and for all of God’s people, we realize the crowd’s reaction was never about Jesus. It was about them. It is about us. It is about the audacity of the Beloved Community in our midst. It is about the scandalous nature of the Gospel. Our text is about inviting Jesus to be the person we need him to be…someone who opens our hearts and minds, who opens our very beings to the presence of God in our midst, someone who invites us as his followers, as his disciples to believe, to trust, to work towards the promise that this world does not have the last word. It is about us fully embracing the audacious and scandalous vision of God’s Shalom coming to fruition here and now for all of God’s people
When we look at our text, we realize that Luke is reminding us that at the heart of our faith is realization that the Gospel message turns our world upside down, not just for a select few but for all of God’s people. Luke is reminding us as people of faith that we will be constantly offended by the Good News every single time and that is a good thing…. because hopefully, that will get us to pause, to stop, to think why that may be. Because here’s the thing about the Good News, when it no longer offends us, that just means we have lost our passion for justice, we have lost our connection to our community. We have lost the vision of God’s Beloved Community bringing healing and wholeness for all people.
When we look at our text today, we realize that Luke is reminding us that as people of faith, our very first words uttered after we experienced the life transforming, life changing, life giving Good News; after we encountered the holy, were words of grace and that it was grace our fears relieved. Luke reminds us that disciples of Christ, as followers of Jesus, living out the Good News in all we do and say is about admitting in all humility that each and every day, we give thanks that God is God and we are not, that we give thanks for the grace, shown to us, given to us time and time again. When we look at our text today, we realize that Luke is reminding us that if the crowd reacted in such a way to Jesus proclaiming the Good News, then how can we as his followers expect anything less than we do the same? Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, February 2, 2025 – No Prophet is Welcome Luke 4: 21-30.
Additional sermons are available in the Sermon Library.
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