February 2, 2025 – Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany
Jack Belsom
The doctor looked at the overweight 45-year-old executive and said, “You are overweight; your blood pressure and cholesterol are high, and you don’t exercise.” It was the truth, and that truth demanded a decision: “If you don’t change, you will have a stroke or a heart attack and die.” The trouble with truth—any truth—is that it demands a decision. Most often that decision will involve change that will be uncomfortable.
I would like to tell you that the executive immediately consulted a dietitian to change his diet and signed up with a personal trainer, but, as you probably guessed, the executive went looking for another doctor who would tell him what he wanted to hear. In doing that, he completely missed the good news: he could still have a long and healthy life. That was the good news of the truth. The trouble with truth is that it demands a decision that will affect us for the rest of our lives.
If I am truthful with you, I need to tell you that what we have received is a story that the writer of the Gospel of Luke put in the gospel. Every storyteller has favorite topics and ways of telling the story. Of course, Luke is not our only source for the life and ministry of Jesus because we have Matthew, Mark, and John. Each of those gospel writers wanted to tell the good news. Each had to tell it in ways that spoke to their communities, their cultures, and their life situations. Our job is to learn how to apply the good news of the gospel—God’s truth about Christ—to our life, our culture and our situation as a community of faith.
Luke has Jesus begin his ministry with the reading from Isaiah and announce Jesus that he had come to bring good news…to the poor, release…to the captives, recovery of sight…to the blind, freedom…for the oppressed, and a time of God’s favor. In Jesus’ day the average life expectancy for a man in Judea was 35 years because access to food and health care was not good for the vast majority. Day laborers earned enough to survive for one day, and staying home sick meant you did not have enough money to survive the next day. They were the subjects of Roman domination and had very few rights and privileges. Those who heard Jesus in his hometown synagogue were living marginally. They heard his announcement as incredibly good news for them.
Everyone was astounded and proud of the hometown boy. Luke tells us that Jesus did not stop to bask in the accolades, he proceeded to speak more truth.
23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb,
‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ”
24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. (Lk. 4:23–24 NRSVUE)
That is the turning point of Luke’s story. Jesus didn’t quit while he was ahead. He went on to tell two stories from the Hebrew Scriptures. In the first, Elijah helps a widow from Sidon—a foreigner—survive a famine that swept the entire region. In the second, Elishah heals Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army which had defeated Israel. Recalling Bible stories was okay until Jesus made his point by saying none of the widows of Israel were helped by Elijah—none of them, and follows up by saying none of those with leprosy in Israel were healed by Elisha—none of them. It is amazing how many stories in the Bible tell of God’s offering life and healing to outsiders. The good news Jesus announced was for those hometown folk in Nazareth, and it was for all—good news for the outsider, the foreigner, even the hated Roman occupiers. It was true, and the hometown folks got the message and got angry.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with getting angry. The problem came when the crowd decided what to do with their anger. They hustled Jesus out of the synagogue and to the edge of a cliff. They tried to throw him off the cliff. Luke tells us, “30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way” (Lk. 4:30). My first thought was, “Some of the crowd let Jesus get away. They might have been angry, but they were not going to kill.” Luke doesn’t tell us that. The message is that God’s good news—the truth that Jesus shared—was not going to be stopped…not even by a crowd with murderous intent.
With whom do you identify in this story? Would you have joined the crowd in its attempt to toss Jesus off the cliff? Perhaps, you would not have been angry enough to kill Jesus. Maybe you would be one of those who simply remained in the synagogue or went home deciding that was enough for one day. In Luke’s account, no one stands against the crowd. Jesus just passed through the crowd and went on his way proclaiming the same gracious message of healing, release, sight, and hope for all. Jesus’ gracious truth would not be stopped.
Peter Gomes, former chaplain at Harvard University, commented on this story and he remarked, “the people take offense not so much with what Jesus claims about himself, as with the claims that he makes about a God who is more than their own tribal deity” [Peter J. Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s So Good about the Good News” (New York: HarperOne, 2007), 39]. If you are like me, you delight in a merciful God and struggle when God’s gracious love is extended to those I don’t like, those who disagree with me, those who look different than me, those who are a different nationality, those who believe differently…
Bishop Marianne Budde of Washington D.C. has been in the news because she dared to call on President Trump to act with compassion on the weak, the poor, and the marginalized—the same gracious compassion Jesus proclaimed and lived. Too often we want to decide who deserves our compassion …to decide who
deserves God’s compassion. In the words Jesus used from Isaiah, “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 set free those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Lk. 4:18–19). Maybe you have to live on the margins to understand the depths of God’s love and mercy. Jesus and his family were refugees from Herod in Egypt. Jesus was trained as a carpenter, and carpenters had no guaranteed income. Jesus lived under the domination of the Roman Empire that did not care how it used those it controlled to promote its own good: those marginalized subject people were expendable for the good of the elite in Rome.
Hawai’i has not always been kind to immigrants, refugees, and foreigners. Even the kanaka maoli—the indigenous people of these islands, have found themselves on the margins. Jesus came announcing good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and a time of God’s favor, and that’s good news—God’s truth. The trouble with truth—
especially God’s truth—is that it demands a decision. May God help us make good and faithful decisions. Amen.