Jarrett McLaughlin
A Life Worth Living: The Odd Life
Luke 4:16-30
January 26, 2025
Cold Open:
While I was studying theology in Richmond, a classmate of mine gave a sermon in Watts Chapel. He was making a point about the brevity of life – how our time is limited.
He said “Some day, you will breathe your last and they will carry your body down to the seminary….wait…cemetery….I meant cemetery.”
It was too late to put that toothpaste back in the tube.
Students and faculty alike were rolling with laughter.
Have you ever had a slip-of-the-tongue like that – something you did not intend to say, and yet as soon as you did it was perhaps closer to the truth than you realize.
We had a good one in our family a few weeks back.
When I have my wits about me on a Sunday afternoon, I sometimes ask my daughters about Sunday School – who was there? What did you learn? Did anything funny happen?
Back in December, I knew that they must have covered John the Baptist because one of them said “We talked about the guy who eats bugs.”
“Ah, yes, John the Baptist” I said, “can you imagine eating honey-covered locusts?”
“Well, what did you learn about him?” I asked.
And then she lifted her finger in the air and word-for-word repeated one of his more memorable lines…word for word, except she was off by a single letter.
John says “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
She, however, said with great enthusiasm, “RESENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
We laughed at that one for some time, but what made it so funny is that it was 100% true.
Today we wrap up our January sermon series “A Life Worth Living.”
The fact of the matter is that when we live our days as if the kingdom of heaven is near, we should expect some resistance; we should expect some resentment.
It happens to us. It most certainly happened to Jesus
Our reading this morning comes from the Gospel of Luke chapter 4, verses 16-30. Listen to what the Spirit is speaking to us today.
Scripture:
When [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘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 favour.’
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’
He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!”
And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” ’
And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.
There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage.
They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
This is the word of the Lord
THANKS BE TO GOD.
Sermon:
Mama got a look at you and got a little worried
Papa got a look at you and got a little worried
Pastor got a look and said, y’all had better hurry
Send her off to a little bible college in Missouri…
So begins the song “Getting Ready to Get Down,” by Josh Ritter.
In a few short lyrical lines, Ritter puts his finger on a fear that gnaws at the heart of – well, any community really, but perhaps most especially at a community that is more cloistered and closed-off.
Allow me to distill that fear into a single question: “what if our children grow up to have beliefs and values that are entirely different from our own?”
I want to suggest this fear animates this episode from Luke.
When we encounter Jesus in the synagogue, it’s important to remember that he has just returned to his hometown of Nazareth after being away for some time.
We may not know for how long, but Luke tells us plainly that Jesus went out into the wilderness and spent time with John the Baptist. Gospels are never forthcoming with much detail, but chances are Jesus tried some locusts – it would seem to be the only thing on John’s menu.
Chances are also high that Jesus picked up some different kinds of ideas, too. Ideas about who God is and who God cares about. Ideas that the Nazareth homies didn’t share.
So we know a little bit about where Jesus wandered off to, but what we don’t know is what kind of home Jesus left from. What was Nazareth actually like?
Frankly we don’t know. All we can do is speculate with what little information we do have.
If we stick to the text itself – one thing we can deduce is that Nazareth runs a bit hot in the temper.
Doubtlessly I’ve given a stinker of a sermon before, but not once has the congregation tried to hurl me off a cliff.
Yet that is precisely what happens to Jesus. Before he can even get to the Benediction, the once attentive congregation has become a murderous mob.
These are the people who raised him – so Jesus’ pediatrician, algebra tutor and little league coach all march him out of town with the intention of ending his life. Jesus must have some Jedi moves up his sleeve. How else could he pass through the throng unharmed unless he pulled that Obi Wan Kenobi “these are not the droids you’re looking for” mind trick.
Honestly, though, how he got out of that pickle is not nearly as interesting as how he got into it in the first place. It’s an odd story that leaves us wondering what in the world would whip the man’s hometown crowd into such a frenzy?
If we look outside the text itself, there may be some helpful insights.
Archaeological evidence suggests that Nazareth was settled in the second century BC – around the time when a man named Aristobulus (Air-is-tob-you-lus) the Maccabean conquered the Galilee and sought to Judaize it.
If you want to impose your culture and religion on a region, you are going to need like-minded people to set up camp there. It’s plausible, therefore, that Nazareth was populated with settler types who were ideologically motivated to claim land and advance a very pro-Jewish, anti-foreigner community.
Of course, by the time Jesus is born, the aspirations to create a Jewish Kingdom had been dashed by the Roman occupation, but perhaps a certain xenophobic spirit still prevailed among such a people. It’s conjecture, but it might illuminate why this homecoming sermon went horribly sideways.
When Jesus comes to the synagogue, he unrolls the scroll and reads from Isaiah, chapter 61.
Except here’s the thing – and it’s a very peculiar thing – Jesus doesn’t read it like it’s written.
You are welcome to look yourself – Isaiah chapter 61, verses 1-7 would be the extended reading.
Jesus slices and dices that text until it says something quite different.
The unedited reading of Isaiah 61 speaks about the day of the Lord’s vengeance, when foreigners will serve as slaves to their Jewish conquerors. It reads:
Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,
foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines;
but you shall be called priests of the Lord…
…you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations,
and in their riches you shall glory.
Jesus leaves ALL of that out – opting to emphasize liberation instead: release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed.
With his on-the-fly redaction of the holy text it’s possible that, before he even rolls up the scroll, Jesus is already standing on some very thin ice. Perhaps that is why somebody in the crowd asks “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Perhaps what they’re really saying is “How could Joseph’s son – one of our own – come up with all this inclusive, hippy garbage.”
Mama got a look at you and got a little worried
Papa got a look at you and got a little worried
As the tension builds, Jesus does very little to diffuse the situation.
In fact, he lights a match to blow the whole thing up.
He reminds them of the moments in Scripture when God was inclusive and compassionate to a foreigner instead of a Jew.
He tells them about the days of Elijah when there was a three-year drought in the land and yet Elijah was sent to show compassion to a Sidonian widow – a foreigner.
He reminds them about the days of Elisha when many in the land suffered from leprosy, and yet God healed none of them except for Naaman, a Syrian General – a foreigner.
As soon as he says ‘Naaman,’ the worshipping community transforms into a lynch mob.
We the reader know that Jesus is the beloved son of God – but the good people of Nazareth only see the kid they once knew who has gone horribly wrong.
RESENT! The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
Isn’t it amazing how little things change?
No matter the time and no matter the place –
when you remind people that God is not exclusively on their side –
they will resent you.
when you remind them that God is not an Israelite, or a German for
that matter, or an American – they will resent you.
when you remind people that God calls us to have compassion on the
foreigners in our midst – they will resent you.
And more than resent – like Jesus there may be some who wish you bodily harm.
It can be costly living as if the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Which is why a key ingredient to a life worth living is courage.
In the book we have built this sermon series around, author Mirosalv Volf interrogates what he calls the Walgreens vision for the good life.
He draws on an old ad campaign in which Walgreens claimed they were at the corner of Happy and Healthy.
While I doubt that Volf was one to boycott Walgreens itself, he does invite the reader to consider whether long, happy and healthy are the only things worth pursuing in life.
Invoking Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – who was murdered at just 39 years of age – he reminds us that some people pursue something else – even at the cost of a long life.
Invoking Abraham Lincoln who was prone to bouts of melancholy that deepened into bouts of depression as he surveyed the massive loss of life brought about by the Civil War – he reminds us that some people pursue something else – even at the cost of their happiness.
While nobody wants a life that is short, sad and sickly, the witness of countless individuals as well as the teachings of many a faith tradition suggest that “there are other things worth living for – even if they cost you your health, your happiness, or your life.”
Siblings in Christ – the kingdom of heaven may be at hand, but it is not in hand – so we have our work to do and it will be resisted and it will be resented.
But some day we will breathe our last and they will take our bodies – not to the seminary, but actually to the cemetery – and we won’t be remembered for how long we lived or how happy we were. What people will remember most is what we stood for –
the values we upheld;
the compassion we extended;
the courage we demonstrated.
Chances are – there will be plenty of resentment but, God willing, not one thing to regret.