For the last year at the Seminary I was an assistant at the church where I grew up, and my dad had been the pastor there. Jesus’ words about a prophet not being accepted in his hometown were sort of on my mind all the time when I would preach. How can they hear what I have to say about the Word, when they can remember me as a young child running around causing trouble in this church? Or how can I preach to my former elementary school teachers? Who is going to give me any honor as someone speaking for God when they know very well how human I really am? Fortunately for me the people at Crown of Life in Hubertus are far more gracious with me than the hometown crowd for Jesus. But they’ve heard this Gospel reading before: They’ve heard about why one would honor a sinful human with a message from God’s Word. How much more honor then is due to the Holy Son of God bearing the message of a prophet! But that is the message Jesus has for us today as well: who will honor the prophet?

Jesus has begun his ministry and has been traveling and preaching and even doing miracles. He returns to his hometown of Nazareth. This is a town he grew up in, in the northern part of Israel. He comes home as a guest preacher. We see how Jesus faithfully attends the worship service and his guest preaching is all part of the ordinary way they do things in the synagogue at this time. The outcome, as we heard becomes quite irregular!

Jesus preaches on the reading from Isaiah that we heard today. That section is grouped together with some other portions of Isaiah that are called the Servant Songs, or the Suffering servant portions of Isaiah. It was accepted even before Jesus came that Isiaah spoke of the promised Messiah in these portions specifically. We heard, and Jesus preached, about what the work of that Messiah would be. One important thing to see about what Jesus says is that he unambiguously claims this title multiple times, and this is only one example. Jesus was and claimed to be the Christ without question. Sometimes people may claim something like “well Jesus himself never claimed to be God, or the Messiah.” This is untrue. Jesus makes a very clear claim about himself and his work, which as we see the people in Nazareth understood well.

What does Jesus claim? First he is to preach the good news to the poor. Scripture describes three offices of Christ- Prophet, Priest, and King. Here Jesus’ office as prophet is clearly spoken of. Jesus came to preach. Jesus’ proclamation of Good News is an effective proclamation. He speaks with real authority, with real power to make what he says come true. The picture you should have in your mind with Jesus’ preaching is that of a Herald. A herald declares the effective proclamation of the king. The Good News is not merely information, it has an effect.

Jesus explains what he has brought into the world. First, he preaches good news to the poor. The idea of the poor is important. This is not just physically poor of course. The poor in that sense are important as well. Christians are to care for the poor. But the poor also includes everyone whom Jesus was sent to proclaim the good news. What characterizes someone who is poor? Someone who has limited resources, perhaps has difficulty taking care of themselves because of a limitation in body or mind. In the spiritual sense the poor are those who are without righteousness, without any spiritual power inherent. In short, because of sin all mankind has become beggars. But Jesus tells us blessed are you who are poor. He has come to bring you good news.

Jesus has come to open the eyes of the blind. Jesus does this literally at times, probably a lot more than even are recorded in the Gospels. Jesus needed to open the eyes of those blinded by sin as well. Jesus came to help those without the light of God’s revelation in the word! He came to lead those without a vision of the path to heaven.

Jesus came to break the chains of the captive. In the original context of Isaiah, one would first think of the promised return from literal captivity in Babylon. That exile of the entire nation of Judah foreshadows the return from our captivity to sin and the devil.

Finally Jesus comes to preach the year of God’s favor. This is an allusion to the year of Jubilee as God had laid out in the civil law of Israel. Every 50 years was to be one of these years. Every debt was wiped away. Anyone who had sold himself into slavery was freed. The land itself was given a total rest from agriculture. All Property that had been sold outside of the clan was returned with the proper pay. God was pouring out his providence and grace on the people by giving everyone rest through this proclamation of God’s favor. We experience God’s favor, a true release from the captivity of sin through the favor poured out for us on the cross. The only true way to be acceptable to God is through true righteousness. You have been made acceptable to God through Jesus atonement on the cross.

The reaction to Jesus’ claims made in Nazareth start off mixed. Some are amazed, some begin to ask questions: “Isnt’ this Joseph’s son? Don’t we know him and his family? Don’t we remember Jesus growing up in this town? Where does he get off telling us that we are poor, and captive, and blind?” Because isn’t that the implication? Isn’t that the hard truth? That if you are one whom Jesus was sent to preach to, and here he preaching, and he says this stuff in Isiaah is happening right now, then you are blind, captive, poor.

Jesus does something a bit shocking. He knows what they are saying and he provokes them. “No Prophet is accepted in his hometown. But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months, while a great famine came over all the land. 26 Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in Sidon. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian.” This really sets them off. Why? Jesus goes out of his way to uncover their true heart, their real religion. This is also one of the reasons Jesus came to earth. They didn’t want to see themselves as poor, blind, sinners. They didn’t want to need the same thing that the outsider Gentiles in Jesus’ examples needed. They saw themselves as above that.

Jesus guards against the people of Nazareth presuming upon Jesus. They had no special hold or right over him for being from there. Just because they had seen him grow up didn’t mean he was going to water down his message or make it easier on them. He wasn’t going to compromise on that hard-to-swallow truth that they needed to hear: that the poor, blind, captives he had been sent to save were right there in front of him.

We too have no special obligation from Jesus. Our lineage, our right doctrine, our actions, even good things don’t make Jesus indebted to show us any special favors. That would be to take away the very idea of Grace- that undeserved love that God has revealed to us in Christ. The true religion of God which Christ preaches to us is reliance not on anything about ourselves but reliance on the grace of God. This is what we call faith.

Jesus uncovered the hearts of the people of Nazareth. Perhaps one definition of one’s religion is what moves your emotions to extremes. Jesus attacked the religion of their hearts and they were motivated to murder him. This ought to move us to examine ourselves as well. What really moves our hearts? What violates our religious sensibilities? That question ought to reveal our true religion as well. What makes you angry? What brings you sorrow? More often than not when you examine these questions its easier to find that they have nothing to do with your faith in Jesus. More often people’s emotions are moved more strongly by the outcome of football games than by sins against God! Or people are more affected by the outcome of an election than by blasphemous displays which are tolerated by that government in its halls, or by the continual sacrifice of unborn children which is permitted to go on in this country.

Jesus communicates that God is willing to take his Grace elsewhere when it is presumed upon or rejected. Jesus came for lost, poor, blind sinners, and that is what we are. Jesus changes us into his followers by grace. We want to act like it, we want to hold only faith in Jesus in our hearts, not fear of man, or love of money, or trust in self. And that is exactly what is meant by the very first commandment: Fear Love and Trust in God above all things. It’s that fear love and trust in God alone, granted by the Holy Spirit, that shows us the way to heaven, that releases us from the captivity of sin. Don’t go back under that yoke!

In the face of the murderous mob of the people of Nazareth, Jesus is fearless. No one can touch him- he is the Son of God, and his time has not yet come. Later he willingly submits to the murderous mob in Jerusalem. Standing firmly on the truth about Jesus may lead to you facing a mob. And remember, these were members of his home church! But speaking truth in the face of pressure is when it really counts. But Jesus has been there in our place. The strength to speak clearly against the devil’s lies is Jesus strength. The confidence we can have is in the light of the clear preaching of Jesus: the year of God’s favor is now, and it rests upon all those who trust in him. Amen.