The scripture reading this morning has long been one of my favorites. So I find it interesting that over the years it is becoming more and more of a struggle for me to understand this story. It just seems to be a lot more problematic the more I study it, and I find myself needing to do a lot more work in order to fully appreciate it.

It begins with the struggle to place this text in its proper historical context. (And we all know that context is everything.)

There are several problems with the historicity of Luke's account of what happened at Nazareth:

All of these, taken together, add up to a strong case against the historicity of this story, at least as it pertains to the historical Jesus.

Luke found a story of Jesus' reception in his hometown in chapter six of Mark's gospel. Listen to what Mark says happened at Nazareth:

Mark has a much simpler story. Instead of becoming a violent mob, the townsfolk are merely resentful. Maybe this was because Jesus wouldn't settle down in Nazareth and let them reap some economic benefit from his healing and teaching ministry. This would have been of particular help to his family and may explain why they would later seek him out and try to convince him to come to his senses. Additionally, there is no mention of Isaiah or I or II Kings. It would seem that Luke has been very creative in his account.

The first clue lies in Luke's citing of Isaiah. If we were Jews living in first century Palestine listening to this text we would immediately know upon hearing it that Luke was conjuring up an image of the last days, the day of God's favor, or amnesty. This would be a time of blessing for the faithful and punishment for the wicked and a restoration of God's chosen people to the promised land. To put it in another way; our patriotic hearts would thrill to hear this song of national glory.

The first part of Luke's story is the good news that God's great day of reckoning had come and things were going to finally be set right; the longsuffering faithful were going to be blessed and the bad guys were going to get their come-up-ins. The second part of Luke's story is that we are not part of the faithful.

It's like telling the story of the Prodigal Child, and when you get to the part where the loving parent races out of the house to embrace the returning child we discover that the child is not us, it's somebody else; someone who doesn't even look, act or think like us at all. This doesn't feel like very good news. But it does feel very much like the situation of the early church in Luke's time.

These were the people who were being driven angrily out of the synagogue. It's difficult to know how much of this is accurate history and how much is embellished rhetoric. The fact that Christianity would later emerge as its own religion rather than remain a Jewish sect is certainly telling. We know that this did not happen in one dramatic event but over the course of several centuries, more rapidly in some areas, more gradual in others.

The real tragedy in all this is that we forget that the original impetus which eventually led to this split was that some Jews and some Gentiles found a way to break down the social, cultural, and religious walls that divided them and form a covenant community that included them both. It was inevitable that some other Jews and Gentiles would find this unacceptable. And in the midst of the conflict, both sides became more deeply entrenched in their own point of view.

Yet, in the end, both sides would continue to grow and to change. And today both traditions are coming together in mutual respect and appreciation to live and work together in this multi-cultural world we live in.

Luke had Jesus speak to his own people and tell them that they were not the sole arbiters of salvation. We need to hear that same message today spoken to us as if we were Jesus' own people.

The message I take from all this for the Christian Church today is:

In the scroll of Isaiah, chapter 58, God again reveals that justice, social equity wedded to compassion, is the hallmark of the covenant community. And the result of a people living justly, treating one another with respect and compassion, is that they shall be a source of light and healing for the world. This is a vision that can be claimed by both Christians and Jews, and by all spiritual seekers. If God is a universal God then the hope is for the whole universe, for all humanity and for all creation.

Thanks be to God.

Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. News about him spread throughout all the surrounding area. He used to teach in their synagogues, and was acclaimed by everyone.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to do the reading and was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

After rolling up the scroll, he gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the attention of everyone in the synagogue was riveted on him. He began by saying to them, "Today this scripture has come true as you listen."

And they all began voicing approval of him, and marveling at the pleasing speech that he delivered; and would remark, "Isn't this Joseph's son?"

And he said to them, "No doubt you will quote me that proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself,' and you'll tell me, 'Do here in your hometown what we've heard you've done in Capernum.'"

Then he said, "The truth is, no prophet is welcome in his home town. I can assure you, there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was damned up for three and a half years, and a severe famine swept through the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but instead to a widow in Zaraphath near Sidon. In addition, there were many lepers in Israel in the prophet Elisha's time; yet none of them was made clean, except Naaman the Syrian."

Everyone in the synagogue was filled with rage when they heard this. They rose up, ran him out of town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, intending to hurl him over it. But he slipped away through the throng and went on his way.