When I was a little boy, I had one of those Illustrated Bibles for children. Maybe you had one, too, as a kid.
And, looking back, I guess it was obvious that I would become a pastor, because while my brothers were reading comic books and collecting baseball cards, I was studying all the pictures in that little Children’s Bible.
There was one picture in that Bible, however, that always confused me, and I still have the image seared in my memory.
The pictured showed a mob of angry people pushing Jesus to the edge of a cliff!
And, as a boy, I wondered to myself what in the world did Jesus say or do that made all those people so angry at him.
I remember asking one of the nuns in my Catholic school about it, and she said, “Oh, those were just really bad people.”
As I grew older, of course, and went to Seminary and studied the Bible, I learned that the people in that mob were actually considered to be the good people of Nazareth, at the time.
They were the upstanding citizens: business owners, religious leaders, highly respected people in the community.
And, that confused me even more. Why were they – the good people – pushing Jesus to the edge of a cliff?
Well, that picture in the Children’s Bible, of course, was an illustration of the gospel reading from today’s lectionary for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany.
We’re reading from Luke’s gospel, but a similar version of this same story also appears in Matthew and Mark’s gospels.
It’s a continuation of last Sunday’s gospel reading. If you remember, Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth. He had been away for a few years, but now he was back, getting ready to begin his ministry.
On the Sabbath day, he visits his hometown temple, and where he invited to speak.
And, he comes up and says: “The Spirit of God is upon me. I have come to bring good news to the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed. God’s favor is upon them. The last shall be first.”
And, the people hearing this are very upset, because they thought they were God’s highly favored ones. That they were God’s beloved. That they were first!
And, as we just heard in ‘Part 2’ of the reading, after Jesus sits down, he makes matters even worse by reminding the people that when their ancestors suffered a great famine, God didn’t help them. Instead, God helped a Gentile woman.
And, he reminds them that when their ancestors suffered from an outbreak of leprosy that God, once again, helped only a Gentile man from Syria.
Gentiles and Syrians were considered “outsiders”: people who were “unclean,” “unsaved,” “unworthy.”
Jesus is telling his hometown crowd, “Don’t think that God’s goodness – God’s favor – is only upon you, the so-called ‘righteous.’
“God’s favor is upon all, especially the least-of-these in our midst: the marginalized and the oppressed.”
But, what really enrages the people is that Jesus calls for prisoners to be set free, and he declares a year of Jubilee.
In the Bible, Jubilee meant the wiping away of all financial debts.
The people are so outraged by all that Jesus is saying that they drive him out of the synagogue and to the edge of a cliff.
Now, if we could go back and interview some of the people in that mob, they might say: “Well, Jesus came into our house of worship and he was rude and disrespectful to us and to our ancestors. He should apologize.”
Or they might say, “This guy’s not even a real preacher. He’s a carpenter’s son. Who gave him authority to speak?”
Or they might say, “Can you believe this guy Jesus is calling for mercy for prisoners? Those as really bad people who’ve done illegal things.”
Or they might say, “Can you believe this guy is calling for all debts to be wiped away? That’s so unfair for to us who do the right thing.”
Or they might say, “He shouldn’t even be talking about such things in a house of worship. If Jesus hates his hometown so much, get him out of here!”
Maybe now, my friends, we can better understand that “cliff” picture, and why the message of Jesus was so radical that the people wanted to silence him and crucify him.
I’ve told you before, Jesus wasn’t killed because he was a “nice guy.” He was killed because he was advocating for a new kingdom (a new world order) where, he said, the last would be first and the “least of these” would be most important.
The late American theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr (who graduated from Yale Divinity School and taught for 30 years at Union Theological Seminary) said that the Gospel of Jesus was meant to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.
To comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.
Sadly, we have ‘water downed’ the radical gospel of Jesus so much that there are now Christians in our country today who support policies that afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable.
Today’s reading ends by saying that Jesus left them because he couldn’t work any miracles there, for as he said, “A prophet is never accepted in his own hometown.”
What is a prophet? Well, a prophet is a Truth teller…and speaking Truth is risky work. It requires great courage.
Think of all the prophets who have been killed over the centuries (from Jesus to Lincoln to Gandhi and Dr. King), all of whom were advocating for liberty and justice.
Think of all the whistle-blowers over the years who have spoken out about abuses in revered institutions like the Catholic Church or the U.S. Military.
Or those employees and journalists who have spoken out about corruption in government or in major corporations.
By speaking up, those courageous truth tellers not only put their jobs at risk, they also put their lives at risk.
Speaking truth is risky. It’s why so many of us stay silent about things that matter to us, because we don’t want to alienate our friends, our family members, our coworkers.
I’m guilty of that, too. I’m ashamed to admit to you that when I’m preparing my sermons each week, I often “water down” the gospel message, because I’m afraid of upsetting someone or making someone uncomfortable.
I’m afraid of getting ‘crucified’ over something I might say, so I tread as lightly as possible.
I wish I was more prophetic like some of my brave pastor colleagues are right now, but I’ve got to admit it’s easier to choose comfort over courage.
Jesus, however, calls us to move out of our comfort zones and venture with him to towards the cliff’s edge…to the danger zone…to stand at the margins with the marginalized and the oppressed.
Elie Wiesel, the Nobel winner author and Holocaust survivor, said: “Whenever human lives are endangered, whenever human dignity is in jeopardy, we must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
To follow in the footsteps of the prophets, my friends, is not for the faint of heart, but we are called to speak the Truth of the gospel message, even if our voices are shaking.
For, as Dr. King said: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”