“Today in Your Hearing”
Original sermon given on January 26, 2025, written and delivered by Pastor Jeff Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
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“Today in Your Hearing”
Luke 4.14-21
Luke 4.14-21
In the name of the Living God and the Christ who has appeared to us. Amen.
Our Lord’s early ministry has met with great initial success in the region of Galilee: the scripture says that the whole region has heard about him and are glorifying him. Now he returns to his own hometown: the village of Nazareth, west of the Sea of Galilee in a hill region along the road to the Mediterranean Sea, the Great Sea. Although recent archeological evidence suggests Nazareth was bigger than once thought — up to about 1,000 people may have lived there — still, it’s a humble place. Certainly nothing like the great “eternal city” of Rome or the political, religious, and cultural center of the Jews in Jerusalem or even the bustling trade city of Capernaum, which becomes Jesus’ home base of operation in the region.
You can get an excellent picture of Jesus’ Nazareth at the Museum of the Bible, in DC. They’ve recreated parts of the village that you can walk right into a get a feel for what life was like. It’s an amazing exhibit: the town well at the center, the public stone wine press, bread making and oil making on display. They’ve even recreated the synagogue of Nazareth, the very place we find Jesus in today’s gospel preaching. It is his first recorded sermon in his own hometown… in front of his own people… where as far as we know, he will never return again.
What struck me about the Nazareth Synagogue, in the Museum of the Bible’s exhibit, was its intimacy. When the synagogue assistant hands him the scroll of Isaiah, he unrolls it, and the Lord selects this specific passage and reads it. When he rolls it back up again, sits down to preach, and all eyes are fixed upon him, those eyes are just a few feet away from him. Jesus will one day preach to thousands, but here among those who know him best it’s just a few dozen. Upfront and Personal. It doesn’t go well because, although they’re impressed by his eloquence, they’re offended by his claims. At the end of today’s account, we find them trying to run him out of town and over a cliff.
You see, Jesus here in Luke 4 speaks beautiful, powerful words, but they are costly words.[1] They will cost him everything. He’s not taking Isaiah’s prophecy and turning it into a social justice sermon. You know, we should be on the side of the poor, the captives, and the oppressed. (Although, to be clear, we should be!) But this isn’t what will cost him, what will “cross” him. Rather, with all eyes and ears just a few feet away from him, Jesus preaches his only hometown sermon about himself. All that Yahweh would do, could do to restore his people is fulfilled in himself, in Jesus. And what is more, it’s not even just about the chosen Jewish people, but now all people — Jews and Gentiles — are partakers of God’s salvation found in who Jesus is and what he does. “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your very hearing,” he says, looking right into their eyes. These are powerful words, but costly words.
To understand how powerful and how costly, let me take you back to the original context of Isaiah’s prophecy, which Jesus applied to himself. Isaiah speaks of the upcoming Babylonian exile — the poverty, broken-heartedness, the chains of slavery, the dark captivity of God’s people which their sin had wrought upon them. And Isaiah speaks in the strongest terms of God’s restoration of them after their exile. Isaiah prophesies in the voice of the suffering servant, who would give himself, his blood, for the redemption of Israel. Everyone knew these passages, and the people in Jesus own hometown and sitting there in that synagogue longed for and looked forward to the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words in the coming “anointed one”: in Hebrew, Messiah; Greek, Christos; English, Christ.
Now fast forward again to that intimate synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus’ words are costly because he says three remarkable things: first that, this prophecy has been finally “filled up” and is overflowing in him. Second, that it is fulfilled on that very day, in his very presence. And third that it is for all people, not just the Jews (as he’ll make clear in the following verses).
What he’s claiming is that God’s faithful, eternal, full, and final restoration of his covenant happens in a person, himself, the suffering servant; that it happens as people are brought into his presence. There could be no greater claim to make — that God has reordered all of salvation history to unfold it in the person and work of this rabbi from Nazareth, who we call Jesus, because his name means salvation.
And do you know what is even more remarkable? It is unfolded even here this morning, today, in your hearing as we come into the presence of God on this Confirmation Sunday. All these things which Isaiah prophesied and Jesus claims for himself, are manifested for you and me again this day: good news, release from the captivity of sin, spiritual sight in a world of darkness, release from the oppression of the evil one, and the resting of the Lord’s favor and grace — all this manifested in the presence of the crucified and risen Jesus, who sits intimately among us through his word and in his sacrament.
Powerful but costly words Jesus speaks, because they will cross him, take him all the way to the cross. Our confirmands this morning are also about to speak powerful and costly words: Jackson, Tasha, Andy, Mason, Caitlin. This morning you renew your baptismal vows and join the Lutheran confession of faith. Together with the whole Christian church throughout time and space, you are bearing witness that what Christ has done is fulfilled also in your hearing, in your life. The Anointed One, Jesus, has given you too the good news of the gospel — poor sinners that you are, yet forgiven by his costly cross. He has freed you from death, hell, and the power of the devil. Broken the chains of your guilt and shame. Given you spiritual sight in a darkened world. Lifted the yoke of oppression from you. Rested his grace and favor upon you.
The words you speak today, the confession you make about Jesus, might cost you more than you think. It may even cross you. We hope not and pray not, but we also know that opposition to Christ will grow in intensity as the end draws near. The world might be impressed with Jesus in some ways, as were his people at Nazareth, but will in the end always be offended by his claims. You’re going to have to wear that sometimes, because you wear him — have been clothed by him in baptism. His cost will be your cost, his cross yours too.
That’s why we pray for the Spirit of the Lord to be upon you, as it was Isaiah. To keep you faithful even unto death to this Jesus who gave himself for you. And we pray that whatever might come in your lives — whatever joys or sorrows, whatever triumphs or difficulties, whatever costs and crosses, wherever the spirit leads you — that your prayer would remain the prayer of the hymn writer:
In suffering be Thy love my peace
In weakness be Thy love my power
And when the storms of life shall cease
O Jesus in that final hour
Be thou my rod and staff and guide
And draw me safely to Thy side. (LSB 683)
Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your very hearing.
Come soon Lord Jesus. Amen.
[1] Michael Card, Luke