Reflection: Just Jesus – 30 January 2022
It’s scary to think about how many lessons of life we miss because we don’t listen to those who we know are the best in their field. Sometimes we hear them but we ignore them.
For example, when Martin Luther King Jr raised the issues of racism and injustice in the United States, and the fact that life was not just, fair, right or good, many people were against him. Death threats, violence, imprisonment, rejection, were all part of the response. And ultimately, they killed him. This is an extreme example, but it draws a picture.
So, what about when we get into conversations with family where somebody expresses a certain position or something contentious, whether that be about politics, Coronavirus, life or faith. Sometimes the voice of experience is discounted, dismissed or talked over? Why? Because, I would suggest, we’re too close.
We know each other too well. We know we aren’t experts. We are just dad; just mom; just granny, just grandpa, just a brother; just a sister; just a friend; and so on. We’re not experts. Sadly, this reality is particularly strong when it comes to matters of faith!
That’s why the folks in Nazareth couldn’t hear Jesus. He was, after all, “just Jesus”. In their eyes, he was no expert. He was just a carpenter’s kid. He was just Mary’s boy, just the kid from up the street, the kid they played backyard cricket or street football with. They knew his brothers and sisters. He was “just Jesus”.
Oh, they were quite impressed with him. Remember, word had gotten back to them about all the great things he was doing in the surrounding area. The rabbi made good was returning home. There was a buzz in the air. They wanted to hear him. They were excited to have him return. Mary and Joseph could feel proud of the son who was making a name for himself. Perhaps they would see some of the mighty works done right there among them. This was an exciting time, but the excitement soon turned sour as things began to go in an unexpected direction.
Read Luke 4: 21-30 here.
Jesus went to the synagogue, the place where the Jews were taught the Scriptures. Synagogues filled the local communities, and the Jews went there every Sabbath to hear and learn. Much like church we experience today.
Jesus must have been the one who read the prophetic text that day. Whether it was a selected text, or whether Jesus chose one on his own we don’t know. But he read from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 61:1-2 was a great Messianic passage for the Jews. Jesus read the passage, and then sat down. Why? Because all good rabbis sat to teach. The people leaned over in anticipation, waiting to hear the words this new rabbi would speak. Imagine their stunned silence when he says to them, “This scripture has come true today before your very eyes.”
The passage leads us to believe that it was well-received, but they didn’t understand what he said. Jesus was simply saying, “Today, salvation has come among you. God’s salvation.” And the response of the people was “What? That’s “just Jesus!”” They couldn’t hear the message, or they couldn’t accept the message because they were focused too much on the messenger. After all, it was “just Jesus”.
Who is it for you that makes us like the folks in Nazareth? Who is the prophet from our city, our suburb, the one with whom you’re too close to view them as an expert, the ones you know so well that they have nothing to teach you?
The lesson for Nazareth is the lesson for us—they had everything they needed right there in their midst. We have “just Jesus” in our midst. And we find him in each other. The trick is to learn from the good people of Nazareth by being willing to learn from one another.
Two questions:
I would like to make three points.
The first is we’re just too close. We need to step back.
It can happen with people. We can get so close to them that we take for granted the awesome work that God is doing in their lives, and we lose the power of their lives. We know their faults and failures. We know what they like and what they dislike.
Sometimes, to see the wonder, beauty, and depth of nature, we need to step back, get a new perspective, so we can see the big picture. Perhaps we need to step back to see what a gift those who are closest to us are. Imagine you are sitting in church. Think of those who usually sit on your left or on your right—to see them as the prophets they are in your life. What is that person saying?
Secondly, we need to sit down because another thing that keeps us from honouring our hometown prophets—the thing that makes us want to throw them off a cliff — is that we just don’t like what they’re saying! This was certainly the case in Nazareth that day. Everything seemed to be going fine. Jesus had come home. Big crowds gathered around him, he was invited to read the scripture, but then, he made the fatal mistake – of explaining what the Scriptures meant. It was a radical message from an everyday guy — “just Jesus”.
His message was a slap in the face to his hearers. He had the audacity to bring up the prophets Elijah and Elisha. He said, “Remember Elijah and Elisha? Jesus reminded them of a couple of well-known stories from their tradition – a gentle, Gentile widow who shared the little she had with one of God’s prophets and was blessed for her generous, inclusive love and faith. Naaman was another Gentile, a leader and he was healed of leprosy. Both were outcasts, marginalised people. Not those whom the local Jews expected God to use. It was if Jesus was saying, “God isn’t going do anything special here. You’re like the people in Elijah’s day—you think you are so spiritual and God’s favourites - but you’re really not. You’re not going to see God work. That work will be done elsewhere.” Radical stuff, especially from someone who was “just Jesus”. They just didn’t like what he was saying.
When someone we know, someone close to us, has a message for us, and that message
that’s the moment we are called to pause…to sit down and consider whether the message might come from our saviour…”Just Jesus!”
What truth is being spoken to you here at Carlingford—your church? What message do you need to hear from someone right here in our own sanctuary (real or virtual)?
Only you can answer, but only if you have the courage and wisdom to sit down and really hear the message for you.
Thirdly, we need to listen! After we step back and sit down, we need to listen in such a way that we’re able to hear a message, no matter how faint and regardless of whom the source may be.
Be listening to hear the message, no matter how unlikely the source. Christ lives in those unlikely places—in mom, in dad, in the friendly neighbour, and even in friends.
Who am I not to listen?
So step back and gain a new perspective. Sit down, even when you don’t like what’s being said. And listen in this increasingly noisy world. So that we, right here in Carlingford, don’t make the same mistake as the people of Nazareth. Otherwise, we might miss Jesus.
Amen
Based on: https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/just-jesus-lynn-malone-sermon-on-church-body-of-christ-167531