Pastor Slaughter
January 26, 2025
Epiphany 3
Theme: Expect Rejection
Text: Luke 4:16-30
Have you ever been rejected before? Whether it is admittance to a college, or that dream job you always wanted. Weather it is a child who didn’t get picked to be on that team or that boy being rejected by that girl he asked out. Rejection hurts. I think there are two options that people can choose when being faced with rejection. On the one hand, fear of rejection could keep someone from trying something new or stepping out of their comfort zones. On the other hand, people can look at rejection and not fear it but look for other opportunities that are now available to them. One door shuts and another one opens kind of mentality.
How surprised are you when people reject God’s Word? It is maybe tough for us to relate with the world. We believe in Jesus. We see evidence of his grace and mercy in our lives. But when we look at the world or maybe our nation are we surprised when the Word is met with apathy or rejection by those who hear it? How can they not believe? How do they not understand? How can they reject Jesus?
Instead of being surprised, as we look at our lesson for today, maybe we should expect it. Expect Rejection. Fighting the rejection that maybe is in our own hearts and looking for the opportunities that rejection provides.
Our lesson takes place early on in Jesus’ ministry. News about Jesus was spreading. People were hearing about his miracles, and Jesus was teaching in the synagogues. He returns to his hometown of Nazareth. Verse 16, “As was his custom, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.” The scene is set. Hometown. In the Synagogue the place where people would worship and study God’s word. He is given a scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he reads it.
He reads from Isaiah 61:1-2. A prophecy about the Messiah. I want you to place yourself in this scene for a moment. The people have been waiting for so long for the Messiah. And they hear Jesus read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” The way he read it captivated everyone. Their eyes were fixed on him. To preach good news, proclaim freedom! The blind see! Freedom for the oppressed. Proclaiming the Lord’s favor. We want that! What’s he going to say, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Initially what they heard impressed them. They wanted the Messiah. The words of grace that came from his mouth were so sweet. But has the wheels started to turn their minds about what he was saying. It clicked. He is talking about himself! But they began to ask one another, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
A small-town problem where everybody knows everybody. They knew Joseph or at least heard of him. They saw Jesus grow up there. With that a doubt took root in their hearts. This Jesus, yes maybe he was a Bible nerd but now he comes back and is claiming to be the Messiah?!
Jesus knew their hearts and calls them out for their unbelief. He quotes two old testament prophets, Elijah and Elisha whom God sent to help and proclaim the gospel to foreigners. He sent Elijah to the foreign widow Elijah to fed during the drought. Elisha healed Naaman’s leprosy, a foreign leader.
What Jesus was essentially saying to them, “In your hearts, you reject me because I grew up here. That message of grace, those miracles that prove I am the Messiah will be taken somewhere else.” They were no longer impressed with Jesus but their hears were filled with rage. They rejected Jesus and what he said. They drove him out of the synagogue. They drove him to the side of a cliff to kill him.
How do you respond when God sends someone in your life to share the Law with you? Hopefully you don’t seek to kill them by driving them over the side of cliff. When we hear that we are wrong, confronted with the law, what is our gut reaction and response. Anger toward the person? Resentment at what they say? Instead of confronting the truth of our sin, do we simply avoid it by closing our ears? We might not respond by pushing someone off a cliff but maybe we reject them and the message they proclaim even though we need to hear it.
We are confronted with the difficult truth. That Jesus’ words will always offend. When we are confronted with our sin, we see how we are the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed that Isaiah talked about so long ago. Because of our sin we need help. Jesus’ words offend like an unwelcome diagnosis from the doctor. They offend like the life-saving treatment that comes with painful side effects. What causes Jesus’ words to hurt is what gives them their power to heal. What Jesus tells us will often be a bitter pill to swallow, but it is exactly the pill our Good Physician knows we need. Because when we are confronted with our sin, we are reminded what Jesus came to do. To preach good news…proclaim freedom…to give us sight. To free us. To proclaim the Lord’s favor.
Jesus gives us a pattern to show how his message will be treated. People will be offended at God’s word and some people will reject it. A part of us might be surprised at this and we think to ourselves how can people not believe in Jesus? But I think also a part of us recognizes this and maybe is afraid or reluctant to share God’s word with people.
We live in a world that preaches tolerance even tolerance for sin. People justify it because we live in a culture where truth is relative. So what is true for me might not be true for you and who are you to impose your truth on me? Are we influenced by that line of thinking and so we don’t share God’s Word with people or tell them the truth of God’s word?
Jesus didn’t shy away from saying what needed to be said. It caused offense in his hometown, and they raged against him and drove him out. But how did Jesus respond to this? Did he consider this rejection a failure and adjust his message for them and for others? No He is still the Messiah! That truth doesn’t change nor will it ever.
This response, rejecting God’s message, isn’t something new that happened when Jesus came. That’s why Jesus points back to the Old Testament prophets, Elijah and Elisha. They were similarly rejected within Israel’s borders. As a result, their message and their miracles were given to outsiders.
When Jesus was rejected by his hometown, when people reject God’s word that we share with them, what did Jesus do and what do we do? Do we change the message? No. Do we stop sharing God’s word? No. Instead we look for opportunities God gives us to share his Word.
I recently read a devotion that talked about two shoe companies that wanted to expand their business. They heard about a developing country in Africa that was opening doors to foreign companies. One got off the boat and looked around and saw that no one was wearing any shoes. He went to the telegraph office and said “Halt production. Possibility of opening new market in Africa sim to nil. Nobody here wears shoes.” The other man steps off the boat and sees that nobody has shoes. He runs to the telegraph office and says, “Build more factories. Send as many shoes as you can. Nobody here wears shoes!”
Ok what’s the point of this? Many Christians now might be disenchanted and disappointed by the moral climate in our country. It seems like people have rejected the concept of God or at the very least apathetic toward God. In 2021 Pew Research Group shows that currently 70% of Americans claim to be Christian and that is down from 78% from eight years prior.
When we see so many people who seem to have rejected God, do we throw up our hands in defeat? Hide our faith? Change the truth of God’s word? No. Jesus himself said many would turn away from the faith.
So when we are confronted with the potential of people rejecting God’s word, we don’t say, “Well, I guess we need to close the doors of our churches. There is nothing we can do. Nobody here wears shoes.” No we say, “Let’s get to work. God is giving us new opportunities to share his message of sin and forgiveness— the message of Jesus and his love—because nobody here wears shoes.”
My family in Christ. Because someone rejects God’s word when we share it, doesn’t mean that we necessarily did something wrong. It happened to Jesus. It’s going to happen to us. We should expect it. Instead of throwing up our hand and being done, we look for the opportunities and the doors that God has opened up. Amen.