Confrontation in Nazareth (12)

“And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, ‘Is this not Joseph’s son?’” (Luke 4:22).

 

Some thoughtful folks see genuine wonder and praise in Luke 4:22, other thoughtful people see “who does He think He is, we know Him and His family?”  As we saw in our previous reflection, the congregation, His hometown church, soon tried to murder Jesus.

 

In John 8:30 – 59 there is a similar pattern. We go from “many believing in Him” (Jn. 8:30) to these same people “picking up stones to throw at Him” (8:59).

 

How does Jesus respond to “many believing in Him”?

 

“If you continue in My word then you are truly My disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:31 – 32).

 

Just as in Nazareth, Jesus could have left well enough alone. In Nazareth Jesus could have found a different passage to read in Isaiah, but He didn’t. In Nazareth He could have not introduced the stories of the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian, but He did. In Nazareth He could have eased into the idea that He was the Messiah, He could have given His hometown folks time to get used to the idea, time to adjust, time to consider, time to ponder, but He didn’t.

 

In John 8, in Jerusalem, He could have eased the people who were “believing in Him” into the idea that there was a freedom they were not yet experiencing.  He need not have brought up slavery to sin (Jn. 8:34 – 36). Why does He say that “You seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you”? (Jn. 8:37). After all, outwardly they were believing in Him, why not leave things alone, why penetrate their hearts? Why not give these people time?

 

Why keep insisting that they can’t hear His word (Jn. 8:43)?

 

And why, O why, tell the people, “You are of your father the devil”? (Jn. 8:44).

 

This makes no sense, doesn’t Jesus want to build a nice large church? Doesn’t He want to get His message across? Why does He alienate people?

 

The people go from believing in Him (verse 30) to accusing Him of having a demon (verse 48) to attempting to kill Him (verse 59). Things move quickly toward attempted murder in John 8 just as they do in Luke 4. Why, in both instances, does Jesus say things that will incite the people to reject Him and attempt to kill Him? Why can’t He be a seeker-sensitive Messiah? Why won’t God Incarnate cater to our needs and wants and desires and agendas? Why won’t Jesus play church?

 

“For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind” (Jn. 9:39). The simplicity of the story of Jesus and the blind man ought to instruct us. Just as Jesus was put out of the synagogue in Luke 4, so the blind man who was healed by Jesus was cast out of the synagogue in John 9. Even the blind man’s parents disowned him “because they were afraid of the Jews [the religious leaders]” (Jn. 9:22).

 

Jesus strips away our pretentions, our religious facades, our Sunday-morning personas, and He gets to the heart of the matter – we are blind; our heritage – whether religious or national or ethnic or family – does not make us God’s chosen people – we have no possibility of righteousness outside of Jesus Christ and He will make certain that we know this. We will either know this and accept this, or we will refuse to acknowledge Him and attempt to murder Him.

 

I imagine the attempted murder of Jesus Christ occurs every Sunday morning in “Christian” gatherings across the globe. The idea that He may be working in the widows of Zarephath or in the Naamans of Syria is too much for us, the thought that Jesus may want to burst our wineskins and replace them with Himself as our Temple, and that He wants to bring those who are not like us into our lives, is too much for us. We will kill those ideas, we will bury those teachings, we will replace any pastors who dare suggest such things.

 

We must seal ourselves off from the Samaritans in our communities and nation and world. We must isolate ourselves in order to protect our way of life, our “lifestyles,” our religious self-righteousness. Just as the people of Jerusalem, we say to Jesus, “We are the children of America and have never been slaves to anyone!” Unless of course, we are African – American.

 

We say to Jesus, “We are Pentecostal, we are Reformed, we are Lutheran, we are Roman Catholic, we are Anglican, we are Arminian, we are nondenominational, we are Conservative, we are Liberal.” Well, you get the idea. Don’t mess with our security, with our identity, with our righteousness.  Do not question our way of doing church, of church growth, of the End Times; and most certainly don’t take issue with our view of what it means to be prolife (as Pope Leo has done).

 

We see much the same scenario in John 6 as we do in Luke 4 and John 8. Jesus goes from a crowd to a few.

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled” (Jn. 6:26).

 

“Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, ‘I am the bread that came down out of heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, I have come down out of heaven?’” (John6:41 – 42). What does this passage remind you of?

 

When Jesus says, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father,” many of His disciples leave Him “and were not walking with Him anymore” (John 6:65 – 66).

 

Now here is the thing dear reader, and here you can know where you really are in your relationship with Jesus Christ. It all comes down to your answer to Jesus to this question of His.

 

“So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘You do not want to go away also, do you?’” (John 6:67).

 

What is my response to Jesus?

 

What is yours?