Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany

‘And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.’

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‘And 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 proclaim good news to the poor.’

During this season of Epiphany, we note especially carefully those times
when Jesus reveals Himself as the Son of God and exclaims his divine mission.

We see that at the start, He already identifies himself with the Holy Trinity:
for the Spirit is upon Him, the Spirit that is of the Lord, the Father Almighty, who
Himself has anointed Jesus, His beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased.

Christ also shows Himself to be the promised savior, for the Hebrew word
for ‘anoint’ is mashiach, Messiah. So
the prophet reads ‘The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he has made me Messiah, to proclaim good news to the poor.’

‘And all spoke well of him, and marveled at the gracious words that were coming
from his mouth.’

The people of Nazareth are amazed. They publically express
their pride in believing that the Messiah may be born from one of them. They even
cry out ‘Is this not Joseph’s son?’
Perhaps this is said in mockery, but seeing that ‘they all spoke well of him, and marveled’ it is more likely that
they want to know his parentage to know that Jesus is, in fact, a Nazarene;
that He is, in fact, one of their kindred; that the savior of Israel was indeed
from their own house.

Yet it is not the fate of prophets to be accepted by God’s people. Isaiah was
sawn in half by the king of Judah. Daniel was executed under the orders of
Haman. So it is that, though the people of Nazareth seem to praise our Lord who
is now speaking to them, yet they shall reject Him, even as they rejected the
prophets who came before Him.

For our Lord speaks: ‘Doubtless you will
quote to me this proverb, “Physician, heal thyself.” And ask, “What we have
heard you did in Capernaum, do here in your hometown a well.”

For what the people of Nazareth ask is simple: you do miracles among the
gentiles, now do miracles among your own people, upon your own neighbors. But
this is not the way the Father has chosen for His Son.

So our Lord retorts, ‘Truly, I say to
you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there
were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah. But Elijah was sent to none
of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon.’ ‘And there were many
lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, save
only Naaman the Syrian.’

Who could bear this saying? What our Lord is implying is hard to swallow.
He comes from doing miracles in the land of the gentile unbelievers, and then
refuses to perform any signs among his own flesh and blood, his own Israelite
people. And how does he defend his actions? That Elijah saved no widow, save
the heathen widow of Sidon. That Elisha saved no leper, save the heathen leper
of Syria. That neither came to save Israel, but rather to save them that are far off. To the sick who have need of a physician. To the lost who have no shepherd.

And now Christ, too, comes not for hard-hearted Israel, but for the lost among
the nations of the earth, for He must be the savior not of Israel alone, but of
all mankind.

‘When they heard these things, all in the
synagogue were filled with wrath.’

How could they not be? For this man, Jesus, who claims now to be the
Messiah, was to come not to save the gentile nations, but destroy them. For it
is written that the savior would give to Israel ‘relief from their suffering, and liberation against the cruelty of
their oppressors.’ ‘He shall avenge the blood of his people; for he does not
forget the cry of his afflicted.’ He would ‘break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer.’ ‘He would cause the
nations to perish from the land.’ He would ‘doom the daughters of Babylon to
destruction’ and ‘kill the mighty kings of the gentiles.’ ‘He would dash their
children against the rocks.’

But now this man Jesus, who said he has come to ‘proclaim goodness to the poor, liberty to the captives, recovering of
sight to the blind, set free those who are oppressed’ seeks to do so, and
not among God’s people, the Jews, but among the heathen? Christ has called the
rich poor, and the free captive. He has called the mighty oppressed. They
desired revenge, justice. But this is not the way the Father has chosen for His
Son.

So ‘when they heard these things, all in
the synagogue were filled with wrath.’

‘And they rose up and drove him out of town, and brought him to the brow of the
hill so that they could throw him down the cliff.’ ‘But passing through their
midst, he went away.’

Our Lord went away, not to avoid death, but to seek out the right death.
He, the greater prophet of which Moses spoke, must go to the widow, the gentile
nations who have no God to guide them, and betroth Himself to them, making from
a widow a Church. He must go to the leper, those corrupted by ignorance and
sin, blindness and heresy, and heal them by life of His body, making of those
damned to second death these destined for immortal life.

And when He has healed the leprous nations, and married widowed mankind, then
He shall die for them, even death on a
cross. For ‘greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’

He leaves Nazareth not to save His life, but to seek out the right death.
Therefore, hear His voice as he parts into the wilderness of Judea, away from
His family, away from His people, for to you, His disciples, He speaks simply:

‘Follow me.’ ‘And I will show you a still
more excellent way.’

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Preached by Pastor Fields

Sermon Texts: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians
12:12-31; Luke 4:16-30.