Luke 4:31-44—And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, ³² and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. ³³ And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ³⁴ “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” ³⁵ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. ³⁶ And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” ³⁷ And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

³⁸ And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. ³⁹ And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them. ⁴⁰ Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. ⁴¹ And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.

⁴² And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, ⁴³ but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” ⁴⁴ And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

This world is broken.

Last week, we began to see how broken this world is.  Jesus proclaimed the Gospel in the synagogue of His hometown and was rejected.  Maybe, it’s not so surprising that He was rejected.  He openly claimed that He was the Lord’s Anointed, and the people of Nazareth weren’t morons.  They were able to do math; they knew Jesus’ birthday was a couple of months before His parents’ anniversary.  They knew Joseph’s Son.

Even though Jesus, the Word made flesh, proclaimed the Gospel, the broken people of Nazareth rejected Him.  They brought Jesus up a hill to the edge of the cliff, prepared to throw Him down and stone Him.  But He walked through the crowds.  He made His way down the hill, and down to the city by the sea – Capernaum.

Capernaum welcomed Jesus, but it was broken too.  Even while the crowds of Capernaum are marveling at the authority and the power of Jesus, they are still suffering the brokenness of this world.

Peter’s mother-in-law lies ill with a high fever.  Hordes of people were broken with illnesses and diseases.  Many individuals are possessed by unclean demons.

Jesus works to fix the brokenness, and when He tires and tries to find a deserted place to pray, the people search for Him and try to make Him stay.  They want Jesus to fix their all their brokenness.

Nazareth and Capernaum were broken.  And our world is still broken.

Now, I’m not just talking about the pain of having to upgrade from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5.  I’m not just talking about the difficulty of having too many chips for your dip.

I am not talking about the brokenness caused by a young man who is able to walk into an elementary school and shoot and kill young children who are completely unprotected.

I’m not even talking about the brokenness of our politics and society.

Do you know where the real brokenness is?  It is in you; it is in me.  We don’t have to look any farther than that.

Because of the sin within us we are just as broken as the people who had various diseases in Capernaum.  Because of the sin within us we are just as broken as the demonically possessed.  Because of the sin that surrounds us, we are broken.  Because of the thoughts of our own minds and emotions, we are no less sinful than any mass murderer of children.

It is shocking to think that a man possessed by a demon could walk into a synagogue in Capernaum on the Sabbath day to be in the presence of Jesus Who is preaching with authority.  Or is it?  What bitterness and resentment is festering in you?  What evil have you brought here?  What sin have you carried into God’s house?

When you stop and think about it, how dare you be here?  If you pause for a moment and truly examine your life, the brokenness isn’t just devastating, it’s terrifying.

It looked bad in that synagogue in Capernaum.  The occult belief is that, if you know the name of your opponent, you have power over him.  And the demon recognized Jesus exactly for Who He is – the Holy One of God.

So the people in that synagogue were impressed when Jesus is able rebuke the demon.  The people in Simon Peter’s house are amazed when Jesus is able to rebuke the high fever.  The throngs of people are impressed when Jesus is able to rebuke the demons and cast out the diseases.

Yes, the demon had it right – interestingly, only the demon recognizes Jesus for Who He is and what He has come to do.  Jesus did come to destroy the dominion of Satan and demons and sin and death.  That is the work He does.  Jesus has the authority to rebuke the brokenness of this world caused by evil and sin and Satan.

It is no problem for Jesus to rebuke the brokenness of your life.  He is the one with all the authority.

Jesus doesn’t just fix what is broken and give it a year-long warranty that if it breaks again you can bring it back to Him.  No.  He takes your broken body, He takes your broken life, He takes your broken, sinful heart and buries it all in His tomb.  And He leaves it there.

He takes your brokenness and rebukes it.  And He gives you His body which was broken for you.  He gives you His blood which was shed for you.  Jesus gives you this meal of His body and blood – the feast of victory.  Alleluia.  Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Luke 4:16-30—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. ¹⁷ And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.

         He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” ²² And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” ²³ And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself. What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” ²⁴ And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. ²⁵ But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, ²⁶ and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. ²⁷ And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸ When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. ²⁹ And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. ³⁰ But passing through their midst, he went away.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

After being baptized by John in the Jordan, tempted by the devil in the wilderness, and preaching in the power of the Spirit throughout Galilee, Jesus comes back to Nazareth, His hometown.

Nazareth was an all-Jewish settlement town established outside of Jewish territory.  The thought when Nazareth (and other towns like it) was established was that eventually the Jews would have a strong enough presence to take back those regions.  The people were very patriotic and religious, but they lived among the Gentiles.

Now, Luke has skipped over a large portion of what’s both Matthew and Mark cover.  This scene of Jesus in Nazareth doesn’t come until Mt. 13.  Jesus has been busy healing, casting out demons, and preaching.  You get a sense of excitement from the people in Nazareth as Jesus returns home.  Their excitement makes sense, if Jesus has been doing all of that for people who are strangers, what is He going to do for the people He grew up with?

We know there was a daily lectionary or pericope that was used in Jesus’ day.  I tend to think that this was the appointed reading for the day; there’s no way to know for sure though.  Jesus unrolls the scroll to Is. 61[:1-7], but He only reads v. 1 and the first line of v. 2.  Is. 61:1-7 speaks about what the Messiah, the Christ, will do when He comes.

Residents of Nazareth loved this portion because it said that when God’s Messiah came the Gentiles, who were currently living around them, would do all the work.  Strangers would tend their flocks; foreigners would be there plowmen and wine dressers.  God’s people would be called priests and eat the wealth of the nations.  God’s people would have everlasting joy.

It would almost be like Jesus coming here and reading Ps. 23, “He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death….”  Some wonderful things are read, but some of the best parts got skipped.  You would wonder, “What about the fearing no evil?  What about that table that’s prepared before me?  What about my had being anointed with oil, and my cup overflowing?”

Jesus the miracle-worker returns to His hometown, reads one of the people’s favorite passages but leaves out the good parts about God’s vengeance upon the Gentiles and the Gentiles doing the work while the Jews relax and enjoy a double portion.  Then He its down and says, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.  The Lord has anointed Me.”  In other words, Jesus is saying, “I am the Messiah Isaiah spoke about.  I am the Christ.”

As if this weren’t enough, Jesus then piles on the insults.  He says, “I know you want me to do the miracles that I did at Capernaum.  I know you don’t find Me acceptable here.  You’ll reject Me; just like Elijah and Elisha were rejected by your ancestors.”

Of course, this did not sit well with the people of Nazareth.  Jesus claims that they are rejecting one of their favorite passages of Scripture, so what do they do?  They reject Jesus.  How could He claim to be the Messiah? Where is all the good, tangible stuff, the miracles they can see and touch?  Who cares about good news for the destitute and liberty for the captives?

They drive Jesus out of the synagogue, out of the town, and up a hill to the edge of a cliff.  Just as they are about to throw Him off and stone Him by casting down boulders, Jesus, ironically, performs His miracle.  He walks through the crowd and continues on his journey.

Jesus does the work of a prophet – He proclaims the Word of God and gets rejected.  He continues to proclaim the Gospel, but it’s more than that.  When Christ, the Word made flesh, speaks His words create.  Jesus’ words cause the brokenness of this world to be restored.  The reign of God is present wherever you find Christ.

Jesus continues to speak the Gospel of His rule and reign today.  Now, I would not say this unless Scripture taught it: In what would appear to be a great folly, God has ordained and sent me to you today to speak His Word.  The message that God gives you is, “I forgive you of your sins through Jesus Christ.”

Jesus continued the pattern of a prophet of God; He is a prophet and more than a prophet. He is the Christ.  Jesus continued to proclaim God’s Gospel and get rejected.

Jesus left the hill outside Nazareth that day to journey to a different hill outside Jerusalem where Jesus was rejected by all humanity – by you and by me.  Though He died on the cross, His death did not negate what His words created.  In fact, just the opposite.

Jesus’ death rejected all of your enemies.  Jesus releases you from your bondage to sin, death, and the devil, and He is your double portion Who restores you to harmony with God.  As you hear this, it is the year of God’s favor – for you.  Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, now and forevermore.  Amen.