Sunday, January 14, 2024 First Mennonite Church – Harry Harder
Geography of the Bible
Geographical map of Palestine
Hills of Galilee
Sea of Galilee
Jordan Valley
Jerusalem
Nazareth
Today’s scripture story is in situated in Nazareth. I will take the opportunity to describe some of the geography of the place.
Galilee is in the north of Israel. Contains the Sea of Galilee (also called Genesarret, Kinneret, Tiberias). Galilee is a hilly region, south of the Lebanon mountains. South of Galilee are the hill regions of Samaria and Judea (site of Jerusalem). Jordan Valley is a long trough that is eastern border of the region.
Scripture: Luke 4:16-30
Meditation:
This is the story in the gospel of Luke of Jesus making his announcement in Nazareth of the beginning of his ministry. Jesus had been baptized by John in the Jordan River. After he came up from the river, the holy spirit descended on him like a dove and a voice was heard saying “ You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” Luke the Gospel writer emphasized that Jesus has been anointed by God for his ministry. He has God’s divine blessing for what he is about to do.
And so Jesus returns to Galilee and begins preaching in the synagogues of the region. His activities gain attention and even before he comes to his hometown of Nazareth, the people there have already heard what he is doing. This is Joseph’s son—the hometown boy.
On the sabbath he shows up at the synagogue in Nazareth, just like he has always done, with the rest of the local worshipping community. But this time he is given the Torah scroll to read—to read and then exposit about what he just read, to do a sermon. “You went to seminary. Let’s see what you can do.”
The portion he reads is from Isaiah 61: 1-2 61 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; Jesus takes some liberty in quoting his Bible verses. The last phrase ‘the day of vengeance of our God” in Isaiah is omitted in what Jesus says. That takes out the negative aspect of Isaiah’s message. From 58: 6 to “let the oppressed go free.” is added. These adjustments put emphasis on “me”, Jesus is identifying himself in these verses. The word or theme “release” becomes very prominent. Jesus will be the agent who brings release. The word “release” in Luke often has the meaning of forgiveness—release from sins or “forgiveness of sins”. Jesus is the one who grants forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness implies restoration or entry into the community. Who are the poor, the oppressed, that are highlighted? “Spiritually poor” doesn’t cover this category. Status in this culture was defined not just by economic wealth, or if you were a Jew or a Gentile, but by factors such as education, gender, family heritage, religious purity, vocation. All these things determined social boundaries of who was inside or outside of the boundaries of God’s people. These things were all very well understood. Jesus did not recognize these markers and by so doing said that these outsiders were not beyond God’s grace—they too had a way open to God’s salvation. “Recovery of sight” is not just about physical healing but also a metaphor about receiving revelation(being able to see, discern what is happening) and experiencing salvation and inclusion in God’s family.
The passage also draws attention to the Jubilee. The year of Jubilee was part of the law in Leviticus. Every 50 years was to be a year of great reset in the Israelite nation. The release of debts---slaves set free, land left fallow, debts forgiven, land being returned to the original owners. The economic playing field was to be levelled every 50 years. Jesus is the anointed herald of God’s gracious visitation when the social and economic order will be reset. So the people heard the scroll being read and they reflected on the themes of deliverance which they as a people had experienced through history. They responded positively to Jesus reading and were impressed by their own, ”Joseph’s son”, doing so well, and by his gracious words. The people of Nazareth see in Jesus the beginning of prophetic powers, but their understanding of what that meant is different than Jesus’ own vision. For them especially, Joseph’s son could be a special source of God’s favor. Jesus will act as one of us. But Jesus says to them, “You will tell me, “Doctor, cure yourself. Do also in your hometown the things we heard you do in Capernaum.’” That is what you want me to do, isn’t it?
The townspeople’s feeling is “We have heard you do things of great benefit to others. Don’t refuse to do those things also for your own relations. We’ve heard about what you are doing. We are in need of healings and miracles here in Nazareth too. Don’t do all this for other people’s benefit if you refuse to do the same for us.” Jesus saw his ministry for all people, especially for those who claim no status or favor with God. The townsfolk of Nazareth had an inhibited vision of what Jesus was about. They felt they were privileged because Jesus was one of them. This releasing business Jesus was talking about—well they were going to be first in line. Then Jesus refers to - two Old Testament stories. Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 17: 8-24 There was a great three year famine in Israel and Elijah goes for refuge not to his own country but to Sidon, further north in what is now Lebanon, where he is received and cared for by a destitute woman. She was a foreigner, a woman, a widow --all marks of someone being outside the boundaries of God’s people. Scripture reading: 2. Kings 5: 1-19 Namaan a non-Jew, a Syrian foreigner, leper, the military leader of foreign enemy power. God’s good news embraces the widow, the unclean, the Gentile, those of lowest status. The widow of Sidon showed exceptional hospitality. Naaman, the Syrian general, was willing, though reluctantly, to engage in a risky promise. The prophets were not programmed to specifically seek these “other” individuals out, but their ministry made no distinction between the insiders and outsiders. But the Israelites had no special status. Jesus tells these two stories of prophets coming to outsiders when the insiders had just as many needs. The townspeople of Nazareth turn on Jesus. Jesus has deliberately said, ”My ministry is not just for those who think they have a claim or priority on God. It is for all, especially those without status.” They can’t handle a god who has no boundary markers for the community of his people. There is a cliff at the edge of town in Nazaeth and they drag Jesus to its edge threatening to hurl him to his death. If Jesus is claiming divine appointment, then what he is saying is blasphemy and worthy of destruction. A false prophet cannot live.
The people of Nazareth had a tribal god. God was theirs alone and they were God’s people. Other nations had their own god and that was alright. But they had Yahweh and throughout history he had shown himself to be the strongest and that is how they wanted to keep it. They could not handle a larger God. The concept of God in the Bible develops from being a tribal god to a universal God. It is a development of the human idea of God. God probably does not change in that sense, but how people understand God to be that is what changes. God was first a God of the patriarchs and then he became the God of the Israelites. A god was associated with a particular region, specific real estate, a temple, a people. The Old Testament prophets began to see God working in the nations around them and while they lived in Babylonian exile. In the New Testament Jesus becomes the universal Christ—just as illustrated in this story. And the Christian story also develops after Jesus, from being a story of the reformists of the Jewish faith, to being a church of all nations. When I was a child I attended the Pleasant Point Mennonite church. My religious language was German. The country church and community was my whole life and I did not know much else. Because of my language difficulties and the way I read the Bible in my childlike way, I thought that Mennonites must be Jews because we were God’s chosen people and our history paralled Jewish history in so many ways. God’s love and grace was for the people who followed God according to the Mennonite catechism. All others were somewhat suspect. There is a negative arrogance to this. This understanding is something with which I have had to struggle in my life. This is a sermon I have needed to preach to myself many times. What happens when we make the boundaries where God has none? Look at what is happening in the Middle East. Under what circumstances is it justifiable to attack civilians? In Gaza over 23,000 people have been killed in 3 months in response to a terrorist attack in which 1200 were killed. Most of those killed are women and children. Children are starving, injured, and sick and live without medical assistance. The people run to and fro searching for shelter. There is no safe place. When we make our boundaries, of who is out and who is in, we dehumanize others. We exclude others from the humanity that we claim only for ourselves. We can justify doing horrendous things to others, which we would abhor in our own community. Our politics looks for scapegoats who we can blame for our problems. We search, we need something to blame so we can feel good about ourselves. We can only be right when others are wrong. Jesus made no boundaries like that.