This week we’re hearing a difficult message; a message of
people rejecting Jesus. Of people
rejecting healing. Of people rejecting
ministry.
At first glance this is not a happy gospel – it’s one that
has left many people scratching their heads and asking “So where’s the good
news?” We hear of Jesus going home, and
bringing his friends with him. He’s
just left the scene of tremendous healings – physical healings as well as a few
miracle cures – and astonishing teachings.
Jesus has not just laid hands on people and walked away, he has taught
them – your faith will bring you health.
So now he’s come home.
He’s come back to his hometown so that he can share the good news
there.
And instead of the joyous homecoming that we all might have
hoped for, he is rejected. He tries to teach
in the synagogue, and is criticised for who he is – regardless of his
message. The past has taken over the
present. It’s as though the people have
been caught in some temporal loop, where they are stuck in one old way of
thinking, and are unable to see what is happening now. These folks knew Jesus growing up, and they
still see him as that child – not even as an adult, not as someone with a
beautiful ministry. Certainly not as
their messiah! No, he is seen as the
same powerless child that he used to be.
And so, as we hear in the fifth verse, “he could do no deed
of power there.” Except, of course, he
did – in that same verse we hear that he could do nothing, except that he DID
lay hands on people and provide miraculous cures. He did what he had done before so many times,
he exercised his ministry. He lived out
his calling to the best of his ability.
He was still expecting the people to see what was new and good, just
like so many others in so many towns had done before. Yet this was not to be. Still, the people rejected his offerings; still,
the people refused to see that things had changed; still, the people denied the
truth that –literally – stood before them.
Is it any wonder, with this blatant and hurtful rejection,
that Jesus and his disciples moved on?
Not like a dog with its tail between its legs, but with intent and
passion. With a desire to live out their
ministry opportunities more fully, in places where they would be accepted. And so they go – not as one group, but
individually. They go out into the world
in 12 different directions to do exactly the same thing – preach the good news,
provide the ministry of spiritual healing, empowering people to take control of
their own lives, engaging people in acts of faith. The disciples are invited to do just as Jesus
has done – to seek out people who WANT to hear the good news, and not waste
time on those who have heard it yet choose to reject it.
So again – where’s the good news here?
The good news is that this gospel is speaking to each and
every one of us. It’s inviting us to
examine our own lives and ministry and to consider what’s happening there.
Some of us are stuck in the past – we’re constantly thinking
about what used to be, rather than seeing what is. We’ve somehow re-written history in our minds
in such a way that the past is glorified – it was always good. We’ve somehow re-written the present in our
minds in such a way that nothing’s good.
And so we’re stuck, in that time loop like the citizens of Jesus’
hometown. Our lives become difficult and
our ministries ineffective because they’re out of sync; they were meant for a
different time and different people, yet we continue to do the same thing now
as we did then – and expect different results from what we’re getting. Being stuck is not living the faith.
Some of us try something and it isn’t received the way we
had hoped. And we consider this to be a
failure. People can be paralysed by
these ‘failures,’ moving from someone who used to be open to trying new ways to
share the gospel, into people who can’t even be bothered making the
effort. These are folks who see
everything as a sign of personal rejection and so they just stop, they give
up. It’s what could have happened in
today’s gospel, when we hear how amazed Jesus is at the people’s refusal to
believe. Any of the disciples could have
just given up. But giving up, of course,
is not living the faith.
So I see Jesus challenging us today to see things in our
lives where we have gotten stuck or given up.
We know that re-living the past doesn’t work, it’s like only reading one
chapter in a book over and over again – you’ll never know what the rest of the
story is. We know that we cannot
convince everyone of the healing power of coming to Christ, all we can do is
invite them to join us. But we also know
that sometimes we find ourselves stuck or giving up – and part of our ministry
is to break free from these trappings, to engage in our ministry in God’s
world.
We’re being invited to consider what our ministry is today
– not what it was yesterday or what it will be tomorrow. We’re invited to think about how we are
exercising that ministry in the wider community. We’re being challenged to go out into the
world and to preach the good news, by word and by example – deciding that even
if people are not ready to hear it, we’re still called to deliver it. And we’re inspired to carry on.
So what’s the good news?
Our ministry is never going to be perfect; but it was never meant to be
perfect. What is perfect is the message
itself, because it carries the power of God. The good news is that God gives us the faith
to live in the present and to celebrate our ministry here and now. The good news is that God gives the courage
to be tenacious about spreading the Gospel.
The good news is that God gives us the strength to move beyond the
people that will reject our Christian message twelve-fold. The good news is that God is always empowering
us to be Christ’s followers, Christ’s disciples, Christ’s family.
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