Sermon: February 2, 2025

“To Throw Him Off The Cliff”
Let’s suppose that as this service started, I asked all of you on the right side of the Sanctuary to move over to the left side and those on the left side to move over to the right. Some of you, many maybe, would have stayed right where you are. That’s your pew. That’s where you are comfortable. And we all know it’s hard to sleep in unfamiliar places.

For those that would move, you would probably feel uncomfortable, you’d probably be mad and grumbling a bit. Some of you may even had been “Good and Mad.” We don’t like change—we don’t like being told what to do—we don’t like being inconvenienced—so we get mad, even “Good and Mad!”
Today, we find out a little bit about a time in Jesus’ life and ministry when the crowds got “Good and Mad.”

Luke 4:21-30

We, like those gathered that day in the synagogue are such fickle creatures. We pray for rain and then complain when we think we’re getting too much. We pray for warmer temperatures and complain that it’s too hot. We pray for cooler weather and then complain that it’s too cold. We can’t keep God in a box; we can’t begin to think that we know more than God! The people in our text had prayed for the Messiah but they don’t seem pleased with the One they got; but are we any different?

Our text says, “All spoke well of Him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from His lips.” That doesn’t sound so bad. But their compliments were followed with: “Isn’t this Joseph’s Son?” Hang on a minute! He just finished telling how He’s the answer to the prophecy from 700 years before from the Prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me.” And He proclaims in our bridge verse between last Sunday and today, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” And they have the audacity to ask, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

NO! This isn’t Joseph’s son; this is the Son of God. Were they not listening to Him? Do they not understand what He’s saying to them? Talk about being blind. The Messiah is standing in front of them, and they don’t see Him!

Some of you may remember the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield who made a handsome living with the phrase— “I get no respect.”

“I get no respect,” Rodney would say, adjusting his tie. “I tell ya, when I was a kid, all I knew was rejection. My yo-yo, it never came back…With my dog I get no respect. He keeps barking at the front door. He doesn’t want to go out. He wants me to leave.”

Said Dangerfield, “I asked my old man if I could go ice-skating on the lake. He told me, ‘Wait till it gets warmer.” He said, “Once when I was lost, I saw a policeman and asked him to help me find my parents. I said to him, ‘Do you think we’ll ever find them?’ The policeman said, ‘I don’t know kid. There are so many places they can hide.’”

And things didn’t get any better as he got older. For example, he said that his bank told him if he closed his account, they would give him a free toaster…He said that once in a swimming pool he was drowning. He screamed for help and the lifeguard told him to keep it down…Things got so bad he called the suicide prevention hotline…and they tried to talk him into going through with it.

Rodney Dangerfield was of course making light of a certain truth in our society. Some people simply aren’t given much respect. Maybe you can find some encouragement in this: even Jesus had a hard time finding respect.

These folks in Nazareth weren’t looking for the Messiah that God was sending them, they were looking for THEIR Messiah; someone they could control, someone sent only to them. They didn’t want a Messiah; they wanted a miracle worker. They had heard all the stories coming out of Galilee how Jesus was performing miracles; they wanted to see miracles, not the Messiah.

Jesus said, “No prophet is accepted in his hometown.” To illustrate this, He cited the case of Elijah who was hated in his own country but was cared for by a widow of Zarephath. Or that there were many lepers in Israel in Elisha’s day; yet none of them were cleansed. Instead Naaman the Syrian, a general in the army of Israel’s enemy was healed.

When they heard this the people in the synagogue were filled with rage; they had heard all they could take. Jesus had stepped on some toes! Jesus tells it as it is! The people of Nazareth, the people Jesus grew up with, the ones He probably built furniture for or repaired their roof. The people He had attended Synagogue with got “Good and Mad” when He confronted them about how unaccepting they were. They got so mad that they attempted to throw Jesus off the cliff which the own was built upon. But thankfully He was able to walk right through them.

Jesus’ message was something they didn’t want to hear. He was telling the people of Nazareth that He had come for all people; that He had been sent also to the Gentiles and anyone else who would listen to His instructions and follow them, and at this they got “Good and Mad.” [The parable from Matthew 21: “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”]

How dare He suggest that they share Him with anyone, especially the Gentiles, the unchurched, the ones in their community who stay home on Friday night or Sunday morning? The people who don’t know the stories of God and the salvation available through belief in His Son!

In his book, titled, A Gift of Love, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., talking about preachers writes, “We preach comforting sermons and avoid saying anything from our pulpit which might disturb the respectable views of the comfortable members of our congregations. Have we ministers of Jesus Christ sacrificed truth on the altar of self-interest and, like Pilate, yielded our convictions to the demands of the crowd?”

Folks, it’s time for us to stop hoarding the Good News of Jesus Christ and start spreading it around. Do you remember or have you heard the story of Johnny Appleseed? He spent 49 years of his life walking all over the Midwest spreading apple seeds. His dream was for a land where blossoming apple trees were everywhere and no one was hungry. A gentle and kind man, he slept outdoors and walked barefoot around the country planting seeds everywhere he went. He was a friend to everyone he met, even to animals. His clothes were made from sacks, and his hat was a tin pot. He also used his hat for cooking. His favorite book was the Bible.

Johnny Appleseed’s call was to plant seeds wherever he went so people would be healthy and not hungry. That’s our call as well! To share what we have here with others! To plant seeds; not to keep this Jesus fella a secret, not to think like those in the synagogue that we can keep Him all to ourselves and dictate who and where He is known. It’s our calling, as followers and as Christians to plant the seeds of Jesus Christ so that others will be healthy and not hungry! We must all do our part, through our words, our actions, and our invitations. As followers of Jesus Christ it’s our call, it’s our job, and its time for us to get started!