Nobody Likes a Prophet—Psalm 71: 1-6; Luke 4: 22-30
One of the worst things a parent can hear is their kid saying, “I told you so.” I was visiting a friend’s house and his mother, who is a bit vertically challenged, shall we say, threw a bunch of Tupperware in a top cabinet. He said, “You know it’s gonna fall.” She fussed at him and went on her way. Two hours later we hear the avalanche of plastic containers and lids come tumbling down to the fading screams of his mother. Without missing a beat, he hollered, “I told you so.” Another terrible thing for a parent to hear is when they’ve made a point to a child, and only a short time later, the child quotes the parent’s words back to them because they’ve done the same thing or made the same mistake. No one likes a prophet.
In Jesus’s day, prophets did four things: they spoke for God relaying God’s message to the people; they predicted the future often in the form of calamities or punishment; they performed miracles such as healing; and they called people to repentance when they became unrighteous. With the exception of miracles, it was never a good sign to see a prophet coming. And sometimes those miracles were just as bad as the dire predictions. Prophets weren’t unwelcome because of anything they did wrong. Instead, they were unwelcome because they spoke a word people didn’t want to hear and predicted consequences they didn’t want to face. Thus, nobody like a prophet.
We read of a tense and scary exchange in the gospel for today. Following the miracles Jesus performed at Capernaum, he returned to his hometown of Nazareth. There he began to teach in the synagogue. Jesus begins to speak telling words of grace and hope to the people. They are amazed at his teaching and his graciousness. Then Jesus switches to the prophetic. He tells them that a prophet is not accepted in his or her own town. Jesus finally pushes them too far. The people of Nazareth strongly believed that these promises and God’s grace were for ethnically Jewish people only. But Jesus teaches of a much wider interpretation.
Jesus references Elijah who could have blessed anyone in Israel during the famine, but he is sent by God, instead, to the widow in Sidon (Zarephath). Elisha could have healed anyone of leprosy when he was prophet, but instead God sent him to Naaman, a Syrian. Essentially, Jesus is telling them that God’s grace is not based on who they are and what lineage they come from, but on the faith they have. It's radically different than their expectation and long-held belief. In response, they mob Jesus, push him out of the synagogue, and to the edge of a hill intending to kill him. But Jesus walks way and loses them in the crowd.
Here’s the hard truth in this gospel lesson. Jesus didn’t lie. Jesus didn’t make up an example that wasn’t true. Jesus didn’t stretch any meaning of the ancient scriptures. Jesus didn’t factually misrepresent anything in the Word or in the examples he provided. It was all true. But the people didn’t care, and didn’t want to hear it. I’ve heard it said that the truth shall set you free, but I’ve also learned that the truth will make some people lose their ever-loving mind. I have seen this in my regular job working as an attorney. I have watched as people sat there looking at high-definition video of themselves doing something wrong, then will look you in the face and say, “I didn’t do that.” Case in point, see the video. This desire to disregard the truth can include everything from a traffic ticket to what I call a 5-finger discount at the store. People don’t always want to hear the truth or respect it. Nobody likes a prophet.
Whether people listen to the truth or not, speak it anyway. There is a long history of God speaking to the prophets—Ezekiel, Elijah, Ezra, and so on telling them that the people of Israel will not listen to or follow their prophetic truth. But God also tells every single one of them, speak it anyway. They attempted to throw Jesus off a hill to kill him because they hated what he said so much. It was the literal truth, but they refused to listen and became angry over it.
Deflection and anger are the most common ways of avoiding the conviction of hearing the truth, especially when God is speaking to us. Think of an argument between husband and wife, and this is a real example. A husband confronts his wife about her spending habits bleeding the family savings dry. When confronted, she throws back at him, “Well, do you remember that time your brother backed into my car, and we had to pay the deductible four years ago? That was expensive too.” But so I’m even handed, here’s another disagreement I’ve heard. A wife sees her husband’s cellphone unlocked as he is in the shower. She decides to glance at some of the pictures he took from that day. Instead of pictures she finds several communications where he’s been cheating on her. When confronted, he loses his temper yelling about her violating his privacy.
The same was done to Jesus repeatedly. Here they get so mad they want to kill him. But in other places in the Gospel, they asked Jesus absurd questions and trick questions to try and mislead him or misrepresent him. Deflection and anger are two of the greatest weapons at avoiding the truth. Now I don’t think people in our communities would literally throw us off a cliff, but Jesus’s teachings are still hard none-the-less.
Blessed are the poor. When you do it to the least of these, you do it unto me. Looking at someone lustfully is the same as engaging physically in adultery. Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Put down your sword. The greatest love is in sacrifice or giving up your life. All of these are from the Gospel…words of Christ in red if you want. And all of them are hard teachings to a people raised in a nation that values wealth, individualism, and strength over vulnerability. Many people become deluded into believing that walking with Christ is an easy road, and it’s absolutely not. Jesus’s teachings, Jesus’s life are hard to follow at times, especially when we want to go our own way, or when there’s a clash with our own personal beliefs in this life.
And so, the gospel lesson for today begs two questions of us: Can we follow the truth even when we don’t like it, and can we speak the truth even when others don’t like it? So how did Jesus respond to the anger? He left and went to Capernaum where he preached again to an amazed crowd and cast out a demon. Then he healed dozens of their illnesses. Then he goes to different cities preaching in different synagogues. Jesus was undaunted by the anger and issues with the people. None of it deterred him from God’s calling and mission, and none of it changed the gospel truth he preached to the people that we now follow today.
The harder part for us is following in the way of Jesus even when it’s hard or we don’t like it. I’ll give you an example. Most days I’m a sharp-tongued, smart mouthed lawyer who comes by both of those honestly should you meet my family. And there are times that instead of turning the other cheek, I’d like to test out the other person’s cheek and see how it holds up. But that’s not the way of a savior who spoke words of love and grace and went to the cross for people who were unkind to him as well as his followers.
One of the worst things a parent, or anybody, really, can hear is the phrase, “I told you so.” And the second is like unto it, “Well, when I did it, you said this…so now what are you saying?” And yet sometimes we all need to hear words that challenge us. That is what the prophetic word does. At times we act pastorally to provide care and comfort, and at other times, we act prophetically to challenge those who need to grow in their faith. I pray that we have the courage and the faith in Jesus that we will both follow and speak when God’s truth comes to us.
Worship Service Videod https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/8967088050007162/