The Uncomfortable Messiah

I know a guy who has a bumper sticker that says, “Jesus loves everybody, but I’m his favourite.” And rather than thinking that’s a terribly arrogant thing to say, it’s probably true. Not because this guy I know is so special, rather because he’s just like the rest of us.

The love of Jesus is so big and wide that each one of us could claim to be his favourite and each one of us would be right. But be warned, it is not easy being his favourite.

In today’s Gospel (Luke 4:14-21) we can assume that, when Jesus goes home, he’d already gained a reputation as a pretty good preacher and teacher, not to mention healer. Perhaps he’d even been seen with outcast and sinners, but maybe those were just unfounded rumours.

People naturally thought they should have the boy Jesus speak, that they’d like to see for themselves what he says.

Jesus agrees and rather than preaching a barn-burner of a sermon he makes a short little illustration. He reads from a book about the coming Messiah and claims to be the one to fulfill the promise God made so long ago.

Such an extraordinary statement shocked the onlookers, the people who remember the time he got lost in Jerusalem and other childhood stories. They probably asked themselves why they had asked him to preach in the first place.

They knew these kinds of statements would infuriate the authorities and draw unwanted attention to the whole community. They knew they had to get rid of him and they attempted to stone him to death.

Each person in the synagogue that day was loved so deeply by Jesus that each one could have rightfully claimed to be his favourite. But being a favourite of Jesus is really uncomfortable. That’s right, uncomfortable.

It is to his favourites that he says, “(God has) anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."

My neighbour, the poor, blind and captive (literally or figuratively) are as much favourites as me. This uncomfortable truth is at the core of our mission as a people of God.