"Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning;

but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he's sure of losing." - George Eliot

Very nice sentiment there, Mary Ann Evans, but let’s face it. Who wants to back a loser? Whether it’s the stock market plunging, your favorite NFL team that just lost by a last-minute field goal, a high-ranking player going out in the third round of a grand slam tournament, or that nice guy who just can’t seem to get himself together, losers get to be tiresome at best. That’s why we walk away from them. Your Jesus included.

Granted, Jesus may have started off really well but quickly saw his poll numbers plummet. Love-him-hate-him was the pattern of his public life. As a rising star, he burned out relatively early. You could see it coming.

Like when he made his debut at his very own hometown synagogue. Jesus had some good press from earlier messages he’d given in other places, so when he came home to Nazareth to launch his ministry big time, at first it looked like this would be a good thing. When he spoke that Sabbath evening, he made them look good.

Choosing from the prophets, Jesus read about Good News and how the time of the Lord’s favor had come. Best of all, he declared this proclamation was going to happen like Today, like Now. They considered it as, “gracious words that fell from his lips.” Their very own hometown kid was more than they ever thought he had in him.

Lesson Learned Here

Don’t ever, ever rest on your past successes. Momentary accolades disappear like the wind. Jesus knew what was coming. Watch now how he anticipates and employs a preemptive strike. He understood better than to ride the wave of these people he knew in their true hearts.

“Physician, heal yourself.” An old saying which he brought up to reveal what they were really thinking. Do for us what you did for others. Wow us with your miracles and take care of your own. Give us what we want; what else is a prophet/Messiah for? Good News Maker, let’s have that holy favor you said was here and make it be for us.

“No prophet is accepted in his own hometown.” This wasn’t just a reference to their history of ill treatment of prophets who had not brought good news. Jesus was telling them the kind of prophet he’d be, the kind that points out the truth of who they were and what they needed to change. Their self-centeredness, outright jealousy of what he’d become, was simmering on the surface of expectations they had for him.

Jesus Turned Up the Heat

Seemingly referring again to ancient prophets, Jesus chooses two stories they knew well but would prefer not to remember. A drought had caused a famine for three and a half years. You’d think if God was going to do anything at a time like this, it’d be for the provision for Israel, the chosen people. But no, Elijah the prophet was sent to help a widow in Sidon, an area in what is now Lebanon.  Wait! Aid for a foreigner, not one of us?  You’re catching on.

Just an isolated incident? Jesus follows up with how Elisha healed Naaman, a Syrian king, of leprosy, rather than those in Israel who suffered with this dreaded disease.  Jesus! Don’t you know what you’re doing to yourself here? If you’re going to garner followers, you’ve got to play the game, make them think they’re the insiders, the true recipients of any blessings you can call down from heaven for them. Not smart, good guy, not smart at all.

So you think speaking the truth is supposed to just gloss over the hard parts? When Jesus said he brought Good News, it was for the POOR. That is, not you and me. It’s for these outsiders, the hurting, marginalized. Release for captives, not those who live in privileged freedom. Sight for the blind, not for all those with smart answers. Freedom for the oppressed, those whose rights are diminished by power-brokers who profit from their misery.

Disturbing back then? About as much as talk about eliminating redlining, reparations for the sin of slavery, or gerrymandering voting districts is today. Add in that these examples Jesus used were for help to foreigners, those who live outside national boundaries with all kinds of ethnic and cultural differences. Don’t forget either how vaccines were first available in wealthier zip codes.

Ok, this stepping out of comfort zones is over. Can’t help though but point out Jesus’ justice goes beyond food pantries and donations for the homeless, safe efforts which take little time or investment but still leave you feeling good about yourself. Nobody ever said this was easy.

The Backlash

Swift it was. The crowd who had been “amazed by his gracious words” morphs into an enraged mob. Their worst fears had just been articulated as being in the will of God. Not having any of it, they dragged him to a cliff, ready to see him and his message cancelled from the start.

Miracle(s)

Interestingly, the show of divine power these people wanted finally came to be. Can’t explain it, but somehow those who had tackled Jesus right there in the synagogue lost him in the pile up. “He passed through the midst of them and went his way.”

That way never brought him back home again, back to Nazareth, if you read through the writer Luke’s account. But he stayed on message and called losers to be his followers, blessed vulnerable children and affirmed women, healed those with all kinds of sickness. All the while he challenged and called out those who kept the people under an oppressive religious thumb. None of this did him any favors.

No wonder Jesus culminated his life’s work on a cross. Another mob got their way, eliminated him and whatever influence he’d promulgated among the people. So they thought.

Rejected, killed between two criminals, humiliated in a torturous execution, Jesus died. Only once more to come into the midst of them three days following. Jesus’ way continues.



Luke 4:21-30