Newburg Christian Church

09-14-2008 Sermon

Why Can't Jesus Leave Well Enough Alone?

Luke 4:16-30

Imagine if you will Barak Obama or John McCain (pick your candidate for president) went back to their hometowns when they announced their candidacy to be President of the United States. Each of them tells the crowds that America is the greatest nation in the world. Each of them says, if elected they will lower your taxes, create more jobs, take care of the poor, and provide quality healthcare with low insurance rates. Sounds a lot like what they are promising now doesn’t it.

If they leave it at that, everything is good. But they don’t leave well enough alone. Now imagine, the candidates stand in front of cheering crowds that include friends and neighbors and say, “America has been blessed by God, but so have many other people including some who belong to al Qaeda and the Taliban. God has poured out His blessing on them in some very real ways. He cured an al Qaeda leader of cancer…and he made sure a Taliban family never ran out of food while the father was training terrorists.”

Without much doubt, the adoring people would turn into a mob and probably try to harm McCain or Obama because of the good things they said about an enemy of America. They may even be labeled traitors. This is what Jesus did. This is what our scripture says Jesus did in his first act of public ministry recorded in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus just couldn’t leave well enough alone. He told the people what they wanted to hear, then he told them what they didn’t want to hear and couldn’t accept.

Jesus has recuperated from 40 days of fasting in the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan. He returned to Galilee and his hometown of Nazareth. As Luke 4:14 tells us, Jesus returned to Galilee “filled with the power of the Spirit.” News about Jesus had spread through the whole region, he taught in synagogues and everyone praised him. Now he was in Nazareth on the Sabbath which meant Jesus was in the synagogue. Being popular and a hometown boy, Jesus was given a scroll to read as part of worship, the scroll of Isaiah.

Jesus opened the scroll and began to read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then as he finished reading he rolled up the scroll and said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

The people were shaking their heads in agreement. Yes, this Jesus who is one of us just may well be the Messiah. He’s promised to help the poor, to help get fellow Jews out of Roman prisons, to heal the blind, and to proclaim the year of Jubilee. Jubilee was a day when all debts are canceled. Jubilee was a day when all lands would be returned to their original (Jewish) owners. Jesus had just promised to make all of this happen.

The people were amazed. They spoke well of him. Everything was going good. Luke has given us a beautiful picture of Jesus beginning his public ministry. Jesus has told the people of Nazareth just what they wanted to hear. This Jesus, the son of Joseph a carpenter, was going to set things straight with the Romans. Not so fast. Jesus can’t leave well enough alone.

This would have been a fantastic start to His earthly ministry, but He doesn’t want pats on the back or their empty praise. He begins to speak harshly to them, accusing them of wanting him to perform miracles as he had done in Capernaum before coming to Nazareth. They want Him to heal their sick; they want Him to perform. Doesn’t this sound a lot like us? We want the same things. We want Jesus to give us miracles, we want Him to perform; we don’t really want the Jesus who wants us to change. After all this Jesus tells the people, “No prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.”

Even then Jesus just can’t leave well enough alone. He reminds this Jewish crowd in the synagogue that God provided food to the prophet Elijah and a Phoenician widow in the middle of a drought while a severe famine caused great hardship in Israel. Then he reminded them of a time when many in Israel were dying of leprosy when God allowed the prophet Elisha to heal a Syrian named Naaman. The manner in which Jesus told the stories was traitorous. It told them that God would not favor Israel over other nations. That God would save whom God chose to save. The crowd was furious.

Jesus was quickly ushered out of town, taken to a cliff where the crowd was ready to throw Him to his death. Without explanation, Luke then tells us Jesus passed through the midst of them and went on His way. This was no way to get elected Messiah. Jesus built up the crowd and had their full support, then threw it all away. It’s like he stepped on the gas of his ministry SUV, and then slammed on the brakes before it went too far too fast.

What does all this have to do with you and me? Where is the Good News in this story? If we ended our scripture this morning when he said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” we could have had a wonderful story of Jesus proclaiming Himself as anointed by God and giving us an outline of the ministry He planned to fulfill. But Jesus can’t leave well enough alone. He wants us to know who He is. He wants us to know what He is doing. He is not about to let us assume the Good News is only for us; it is also for those who haven’t heard. He’s not about to let us assume that just because we call ourselves followers of Jesus that our hearts and minds are closed to new ideas, deeper spiritual understandings, and new callings.

Jesus is not going to leave well enough alone in our lives until we believe and act on our beliefs that the Good News is not ours to keep. The Good News of Jesus is to be given away freely and given away intentionally. It’s called Faith Sharing. Faith Sharing is an integral part of our 40 Day E-vent that begins next month. If you call yourself a Christian, then you have a faith that must be shared. If you believe you are a follower of Jesus, then you can point someone else to the path you are following. If you don’t have a faith that can be shared are you sure you have a faith that will serve you when you need it? If you don’t know the path you are on are you sure where you are going?

Jesus can’t leave you alone. It’s something that’s taking place in your own life. Maybe your life is moving along in pretty good order but your relationship with Jesus is filled with doubts, questions, and maybe even places where the church has hurt you. You like your life, but there is a tugging that you just can’t ignore. Jesus can’t leave well enough alone. He can’t leave you alone, those urgings, those thoughts; those nudges are the Holy Spirit saying there’s something much more for you to experience. There are answers to your questions; it is where doubt is resolved, and where hurt begins to heal. This is why Jesus can’t leave you alone.

You think your life is good enough right now. You do good things, you help people, you give to charity, you attend church, you love your family, and you even pray when necessary. You think life is good. Jesus is the voice calling out saying, “I can make it better if you will only trust me.” Jesus just can’t leave well enough alone, He has to make it something more.

Jesus was telling the people in Nazareth there is more to God than miracles. Jesus was telling the people in Nazareth there is more to God than a nation.
Jesus was telling the people in Nazareth there is more to God than love for a single people.
Jesus tells us today there is more to God than what we could ever imagine.
Jesus tells us today he will not leave us alone when there is so much more for us to experience.

Jesus doesn’t leave me alone because He loves me too much and knows there is something better for me to experience. Jesus won’t leave you alone because He loves you too much and knows there is something better for you to experience. Jesus loves us too much to leave us alone. Aren’t you glad He won’t leave you alone? Won’t you allow Him to transform your life from what it is now to what He would have you be? Jesus will not leave well enough alone.

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