Hometown hero
Text: Luke 4:14-3
Today is the second Sunday of Epiphany. It’s the time of the church year when we’re encouraged to think of Jesus in a new light. The lightbulb flickers on above our heads and we realize, for the first time or the umpteenth time, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the World.
Today’s epiphany happens in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth. So far, the Gospel of Luke has told us that a heavenly host of angels sang at Jesus’ birthday party and Jesus was celebrated by shepherds in Bethlehem. He was blessed by Simeon and Anna in the Temple, he studied with rabbis at the temple when he was 12 years old, and was baptized by his cousin John the Baptist. That’s an auspicious start to the gospel story. But Luke hasn’t listed any of Jesus’ accomplishments yet. In today’s story, almost as an aside, Jesus mentions that he miraculously healed people in nearby Capernaum.
Luke invites us to think of Jesus as a small town boy who grew up to be a successful doctor. This medical analogy should not surprise us. Paul describes Luke as the “beloved physician” in Colossians 4:14. The Gospel of Luke takes distinct interest in how Jesus healed lepers, the paralyzed, the blind, and even raised the dead. Luke’s Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles both use specialized medical jargon to diagnose Jesus’ miracles. It makes sense that Dr. Luke would kick off the ministry of Jesus with an ancient proverb: “Physician heal thyself.”
Imagine a young doctor coming back to their small town after graduating at the top of their class from Harvard Medical School. Family and friends would be so proud to be part of their success story. The locals expect their hometown hero to settle down, get married, start a clinic, and serve the community for the next fifty years. Then imagine the young doctor saying, “I can’t stay long. I’m going to work with Doctors Without Borders, wherever there are conflicts, disasters, and epidemics.” Instead of being proud, the neighbors resent their young physician. “Charity starts at home!” they protest. They can’t believe their hometown hero would rather serve foreigners than their neighbors.
This is the conundrum that Jesus faced when he returned to preach in Nazareth. His neighbors thought they had an exclusive claim on Jesus. In today’s lesson, the people of Nazareth learn that Jesus came to heal and bless everyone—equally.
Nazareth was tiny. Some scholars estimate that the population of Nazareth was only about 400 when Jesus grew up there. Others argue that the population could not have been more than 200. Nazareth was not even a small town. It was a tiny village.
And Nazareth was historically insignificant. You will not find any mention of Nazareth in the Old Testament or any other Jewish literature before Jesus was born. Nazareth was a Jewish enclave, quite possibly without foreigners. The Village of Nazareth may have been built for priests and their families, set apart from foreigners and sinners. Jesus grew up in a tiny, insignificant, cloistered village. But that doesn’t mean he was isolated from the world.
Sepphoris, the capital city of Galilee, was an hour’s walk from Nazareth. Sepphoris was an ethnically and religiously diverse city. Some speculate that Joseph and his sons might have worked as day laborers on building projects in Sepphoris. Nazareth may not have had any foreigners, but Jesus would surely have been exposed to people from other backgrounds.
The Prophet Isaiah and the Gospel of Matthew both called this region “Galilee of the Gentiles.” Nazareth was also near a major trade route between Egypt and Syria. There is evidence that the population of Nazareth spoke Greek, the dominant language of international culture and commerce. Jesus grew up in a small, insignificant, cloistered village, but he always had a window to the larger world.
Jesus had recently been preaching and healing in Capernaum, the most important city on the Northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum had foreign intrusions like a tax office, a customs station, a Roman Centurion, a garrison of soldiers, and a royal delegation representing Herod Antipas. Capernaum was larger, more important, and more diverse than Nazareth. It was the perfect place for Jesus to launch his ministry to save the world from sin and death. But the folks back in Nazareth were not pleased about their hometown hero caring for strangers.
They were happy enough when Jesus came home to preach in the synagogue. Everybody spoke well of Jesus, but they were harboring some pretty deep resentments. Some thought, “Physician, heal yourself!” Others, “Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.” Jesus knew what was on their minds. They wanted him to forget about healing foreigners and take care of them.
But Jesus infuriated the locals by talking about their prejudice against foreigners. The people of Nazareth didn’t like the Greek and Roman pagans living in Capernaum. They didn’t understand why Jesus would preach to strangers “Good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” They wanted those ancient promises of God’s blessing for themselves. They didn’t want to share them with outsiders.
This is why Jesus preached about how the prophet Elijah saved a foreign widow, but not his friends and relatives back home. He told them about the prophet Elisha saving the foreign general Naaman from leprosy, but not his friends and relatives back home. Jesus opened up the Hebrew Scriptures and showed his neighbors that God had always cared for foreigners.
That’s when his hometown congregation tried to kill Jesus. There were two ways to stone a person to death. The most familiar way was to throw rocks at the victim until they die. Another is to toss them off a cliff onto the rocks below. The people of Nazareth decided to try the second method. They tried to toss Jesus off a thousand-foot cliff on the edge of town.
Blasphemers were stoned to death. Rebellious sons were stoned to death. Maybe they thought Jesus was blasphemous and rebellious. We don’t know. There was no official charge against him. This was mob violence. The congregation finished their worship service by trying to kill a neighbor and a miraculous healer. They would rather murder their hometown hero than see foreigners inherit God’s blessings.
This was a tragic misunderstanding of God’s Covenant with the children of Abraham. The people of Nazareth wanted to hoard God’s blessings for themselves. Long ago, God had promised a special blessing for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s family. Abraham’s family wrestled, lied, and stole to keep that blessing for themselves. God gave Abraham this blessing so “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” It was always God’s plan to save the whole world. Abraham’s family were called to be priests who would pass God’s blessing on to everyone. Everyone. Jesus of Nazareth came to fulfill God’s ancient Covenant with Abraham for all people. But his neighbors and childhood friends tried to kill Jesus for passing on that blessing to foreigners.
We have a lot of neighbors who are terrified they are going to lose their homes this week. Tomorrow is Inauguration Day. The incoming administration has promised to start deporting immigrants living in Chicago on Tuesday, January 21. The Chicago Public School system sent an email to the whole district trying to calm students and parents. The schools promised to welcome all students, no matter what their citizenship status might be. Maybe you have a friend or neighbor who will be sleepless tonight. Maybe there’s someone who worships in this sanctuary who will be sleepless tonight.
Deuteronomy 10:18 tells us the Lord, “defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you.” The people of Nazareth forgot that last part. The part about God loving the foreigners residing among you. We must never forget that God loves and defends the foreigners residing among us. Ravenswood Covenant Church is called to respond to this humanitarian crisis by living into the prophetic words that Jesus preached in his hometown of Nazareth.
Jesus, the Great Physician, has called us to proclaim good news to the poor. We are called to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. We are called to open our eyes to what’s happening, and open the eyes of the blind to what’s happening. We are called to set the oppressed free. We are called to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. I don’t know what it looks like yet to care for all our neighbors. Our congregation must figure that out together. What I can tell you is that this Good News is not just for you and me. The Gospel of freedom is for all people, including the foreigners in the land who will be sleepless tonight. Amen.