Enlarge our Borders

Luke 4:21-30                                                                       February 1, 2004

Intro: Since the first of the year, we have looked at some of the first things in Jesus’ life. We have thought about Jesus’ call, his first teachings, his first miracle, and his first sermon. Today, for the first time, we will hear of the effects of his teaching on people he knows well.

Luke 4:21-30

   Then he started in, "You've just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place." [22] All who were there, watching and listening, were surprised at how well he spoke. But they also said, "Isn't this Joseph's son, the one we've known since he was a youngster?"

   [23] He answered, "I suppose you're going to quote the proverb, ' "Doctor, go heal yourself." Do here in your hometown what we heard you did in Capernaum.' [24] Well, let me tell you something: No prophet is ever welcomed in his hometown. [25] Isn't it a fact that there were many widows in Israel at the time of Elijah during that three and a half years of drought when famine devastated the land, [26] but the only widow to whom Elijah was sent was in Sarepta in Sidon? [27] And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elisha but the only one cleansed was Naaman the Syrian."

   [28] That set everyone in the meeting place seething with anger. [29] They threw him out, banishing him from the village, then took him to a mountain cliff at the edge of the village to throw him to his doom, [30] but he gave them the slip and was on his way.

CCI: Faithfulness to God’s call is the bottom line.

Intro: A couple years ago, Bruce Wilkinsen created quite a stir with his book, The Prayer of Jabez. Some found it a tremendous blessing, others regarded it as another way of presenting a gospel of health and wealth. However, in that prayer, offered by a little known OT character, there is a theme that Jesus picked up in this passage. It is the first line in the petition: “O LORD, enlarge my border.” Now Jabez may have praying for personal wealth, but enlarging borders, and perhaps removing borders is one of God’s favorite things.

         At times I have had people tell me that the Bible is boring. And I will confess that while reading I Chronicles 1-10, I have become very bored. And there are times I have fallen asleep while reading about how Joshua divided the land among the Israelites. However, this is not a passage that anyone could consider boring.

         Word had traveled swiftly through the little village of Nazareth. The community never had any more than about 300 residents. The hometown teacher who was making a big splash wherever he went, was coming home. This was their boy. Rumor had it he was going to be the guest rabbi at worship on Sabbath night. He might even do some miracles for them to see. Everyone planned to be there. The neighbor girl who babysat for Jesus; the friends who had admired his carpentry, his first teacher, an old rabbi who had taught him the Shemah; his brothers and mother, they were all going to be in attendance.

         Things seemed to be going very well, when all of a sudden we discover that the worshiping crowd has become a rioting mob that is taking their hometown hero up to the brow of a hill to his death. What happened?

         Well, when the time came, Jesus stood to read the scripture, it was done flawlessly, then he declared that the one who was to proclaim good news, the one they had been longing for, was in their midst that day. They were amazed at the clarity with which he spoke, he was so eloquent. But then they began thinking about the rumors surrounding Jesus’ birth. They began thinking about that day when after his bar-Mitzphah he had disappeared. And they began whispering, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son, isn’t this the boy we have known from the time he was a baby?” Implied in the question was, “How can he be the one to fulfill this promise?”

         Things became very tense very fast. Now a wise preacher would have sensed the tension and backed off. Perhaps a seminary trained rabbi would have realized that the people were not ready for the message he had prepared, and saved that teaching. But Jesus was not a seminary trained rabbi, nor what might have been called a “wise” preacher. Instead, Jesus sensed the tension but refused to become tense and anxious himself. Instead of doing the prudent thing, and let the situation cool off, he raised the bar, by refusing to share their anxious moment, he made them more anxious.

         “No doubt you will say, ‘Do some of the things you did in Capernium, show us your tricks.’ Well let me tell you something, it won’t happen. No prophet of God is ever accepted in his home town.” At this the people really became uneasy. Was this any way to impress the home town crowd?

         Jesus then said, “It is time to open the doors to outsiders.” When Elijah was in midst of the famine, who did he go to with the good news for the poor? There were widows all though Israel, but he went to a Gentile woman in Zaraphath. What about Elisha? To which downcast people did he proclaim freedom? The country was full of lepers, who had been cast out of decent society, in fact, the disease was destroying some communities. But the only one he healed was Naaman, the leper from Syria, a military officer in the enemy army.”

         Jesus was inviting the people of his home town to open their eyes to the whole spectrum of God’s love. The Jews of Jesus’ day were not unlike us today. They had a box that they placed God in, it was called the Children of Israel box. They had groups of people who fit in the box with God, they were the circumcised, the descendants of Abraham and those Gentiles who had adopted their methods of worship and prayer. Their box did not include widows from Zaraphath or lepers from Syria. Their box was for the Children of Israel.

         Maybe we call our box the Baptist Christian box. We have determined who can receive God’s favor and who can not. We close the door to people who come from different parts of the world. We close the door to people who understand communion or baptism differently than we do. Sometimes we close the door to people of different economic classes. Sometimes we close the door to people who struggle with specific sins. We may let people who primarily speak Spanish in our churches, but we often keep them from leadership. We may provide room for a Narcotics Anonymous group in our churches, but we need to keep them away from our children. A friend of mine who was a Youth Pastor was fired because he was reaching out to a very rough group at the local high school. Several had come to Christ and were now bringing their friends, it seems that some of the church kids were afraid to go to youth group because these rough kids were present. The Baptist Christian box is carefully constructed to protect those inside the box from those outside the box. We have boxes just like the Jews of Jesus’ day did. And we get very anxious when the lid of box is opened.

         But when Jesus entered their box, their box broke open. When Jesus entered the scene, the box could not contain his message. Jesus called on the people to preach the good news to all the poor and to open the eyes of blind people where ever they were found. He invited them to declared that all who are captive in any prison can find freedom, and lifted up outsiders who were downtrodden. This incensed the people of his home town. Their box protected them from this kind of people. There was no room in that box for Jesus and his radical ideas. In their anxious rage they grabbed him, they threw him out of town, and then they pushed and shoved him until they came to they top of the hill. They were ready to cast him over a cliff, when Jesus, unwilling to accept their anxiety and fear, simply walked away. As far as we know, Jesus never returned to Nazareth. They drove out Jesus and rebuilt their box and slid back into their contented compartment.

         That is so sad. And yet we do it every day. Our boxes that help us identify who is in and who is out with God get terribly crowded when Jesus enters those boxes. I was very comfortable in my box that says, “God uses physicians to heal people today.” Then I met Leona whose lung cancer was cured in a flash and Alan, whose deaf ear was restored in a matter of weeks, and suddenly my box was too small. I was very comfortable in my box that said, “Speaking in tongues ceased when the New Testament was completed.” Then I met Sam whose life had been transformed when the Holy Spirit gave him that gift. Suddenly, my box began to open. I was very comfortable in my box that said, “Divorce disqualifies people for service in the kingdom of God.” And then I worked with a divorced pastor and I saw the way God used that pain to minister to others, and suddenly my box was too small. I was comfortable in the box that said “Sexual sin makes one unfit for God’s use.” Then I learned the story of Marsha Stevens, the woman who wrote one of my favorite songs, “For Those Tears I Died.” And I discovered that God used this homosexual to touch my life with her music. And once again my box became too small. I was really comfortable in my box when I thought I understood Grace, and then I read “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” by Philip Yancey and my box began to squeeze me.

         Friends, God clearly calls us to holy living. Grace is not an occasion for sin. God reveals his truth theologically and morally in scripture. God wants what is best for our lives now and eternally. However God is free and sovereign. That means God can do whatever he wants whenever he wants. But when we think we know everything there is about God, we leave no room in our boxes for God.

         What are the boxes that you find comfortable? What are those beliefs or standards that you use to decide who is in and who is out? Today I want to challenge you to begin to open the lid on your boxes. Stop trying to set the boundaries yourself. That is God’s business. Instead, let us be willing to preach good news to all the poor. Let us proclaim release to captives wherever they are found regardless of what holds them in prison. Let us work to open the eyes of the blind regardless of the cause of their blindness. And let us struggle to free those who are oppressed by sin and systems and prejudice wherever they are found.

         To be Christ’s presence in our community we must risk opening our boxes, because when we do not, we leave no room for Jesus.

Let Us Pray