God's Last Words

“JUST A FAN?” --- LUKE 4: 22-30  (NRSV)

Joe Paterno said, “Sport is a product of human culture. America seems to need football at this state of our social development. When you get ninety million people watching a single game on television, it … shows you that people need something to identify with.” 

Today is Superbowl Sunday – a wonderful day if you’re a football fan. Everybody’s a fan on Superbowl Sunday. Have you ever thought of the type of fan you are and who you root for in your life? 

Growing up I was a Philadelphia Phillies fan listening to games on the radio starting at about age 6. I suffered through the ‘64 season and I remember when the World Series was played only during the day and you’d have to sneak earphones and a transistor radio into school to listen. 

Baseball had great players in the 60’s, Ted Williams was still playing, Gil Hodges, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Al Kaline, Harmon Killibrew, the Robinsons, and my favorite Johnny Callison. 

 

I got to meet Johnny in Philadelphia in the middle 70's  and told me a little about his story after I told him he was my idol and that I was a fan.

 

Did you know who Callison replaced in the Phillies’ lineup? Del Ennis. Ennis played for the Phillies for 12 years and was known as a home run/RBI hitter. He hit home runs in 4 consecutive games twice and retired with 2,100 hits, over 1,200 RBI’s, averaged at least 20 game-winning hits per year, and had a lifetime Batting Average of .285, stats that would get you in the Hall of Fame today. W/O steroids! 

But he’s not there. Ennis grew up in Philadelphia and played before his hometown folks yet he was “booed” during every at bat and while in the field. You see the fans felt they couldn’t depend on him to consistently play well. In the top of an inning Del would drop a fly ball that would allow three runs to score and in the bottom he’d hit a 3 run homer. The fans labeled him a loser they couldn’t trust.

As a consequence of the dislike of his his hometown fans Del never got any good press or recognition despite finishing in the top ten in every hitting category for 10 straight years. You could say Del never got any respect in his hometown after his first game when 35,000 people came to see his debut when he came home from the War in 1946. He homered in his first at bat and it was downhill after that. 

He was forgotten after he retired, and got few votes for the Hall of Fame. 

Jesus’ hometown would not have voted to put Him in the Hebrew hall of fame either. Let’s hear why (NRSV):  

All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” ’   

And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’  

When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

We are not prepared for this passage. The previous verses seem to suggest that Jesus will take his home town by storm. He had received a God-approved baptism, had emerged victoriously from wilderness testing, and had just finished a whirlwind preaching and teaching tour that brought commendations from all.

After reading from the prophet Isaiah, he told the people in the synagogue that he was the one that Isaiah had written about who would be sent from God to preach the good news to the poor and heal the sick and give sight to the blind.

Everyone was quite impressed with the words of Jesus until some of them recognized that he was a hometown boy. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.

They demanded that Jesus perform some miracles such as the ones they had heard about that he had performed in other places. When Jesus refused to put on a show for the people, the crowd began to turn against him. They mobbed him and took him out to the edge of a hill on which the city was built.

They planned to throw him off the edge of a cliff (“death by stoning”), but Jesus slipped away from them and escaped through the crowd.

Most people make a fundamental mistake when they think Jesus is only love and warm fuzzies. His hometown folks could only see Him as Joseph’s son and not as both man and God. They wanted to sit back and enjoy His play in the Big leagues of Hebrew Religion and politics.

They can’t see the confrontation and contrast with human ways versus God’s way that comes about in any encounter with Jesus.

Folks Jesus is usually offensive to the world; I’ll say it real simply, so no one misunderstands. Jesus is God; Jesus; the only Son of God, the only human being who in the history of the world was and is God. Believe it and live – elsewise die! This is a harsh reality and it doesn't mean God doesn't love you.

 

God wants a relationship with you but if you choose not to have one with Him then He has no other choice but to give you what you want - a world without Him -- and a world without God is eternal death.

I always laugh when I encounter progressive pastors and laypeople: Jesus isn’t and wasn’t a liberal: He was the perfect incarnation of God and human – who has no time for sin or foolish use of His power. You are either with Him or you will be without Him. You don’t get to set back and evaluate His actions.

Jesus of Nazareth was the most radical person this world has ever seen. He is the way, truth, and life. No one will gain access to God except through Him.

Unlike the Philadelphia fans I talked about at the start of this message we don’t get the opportunity to be a fan of God or Jesus Christ and set on the sidelines. We must choose to serve and follow and be a part.

Jesus calls us to relationship and service: not to entertain spectators sitting in the out-of- bounds areas.