February 2, 2025
By Kristin Berkey-Abbott
Luke 4:21-30
Today we hear about the reaction to Jesus’ preaching in the Temple; it’s part 2 of the reading that we began last week. You may remember that Jesus reads from Isaiah and then he sits down saying that today the scripture has been fulfilled.
Today is also the feast day of the presentation, 40 days after the birth of Jesus, where Joseph and Mary take the baby Jesus to the temple, according to the custom and the religious law. We have this story just 2 chapters earlier in the Gospel of Luke. Simeon is in the Temple, Simeon who has been promised that he will not die before he has seen the Messiah. He holds the baby Jesus, the fulfillment of the promise, and declares his faith, declares that he has seen the Messiah. Anna, too, is there—she’s a prophet and she’s 84. She, too, proclaims Jesus as Messiah, and goes out to tell others.
What a different reaction than the one we see in today’s Gospel from the lectionary. In today’s reading, some are amazed, some are surprised at the claim, while others say, “Who is this guy? Isn’t he Jospeh’s son?” Judging by Jesus’ reaction, there must be a sense of dismissal of Jesus, as if they are saying “How arrogant do you have to be to claim to be the Messiah. Jesus reminds them of other ancient prophets: Elijah and Elisha, prophets who were sent to Israel, but also to outsiders who accepted them—and more, to outsiders who helped them survive.
Some interpreters of Luke see this as Jesus telling the hometown crowd that his ministry will be broader than some might have expected the Messiah’s focus to be. Some have wondered if Jesus was trying to provoke a negative reaction.
If that’s the case, Jesus certainly succeeds! The people behave with a mob mentality as they move to throw Jesus off a cliff. Somehow, Jesus escapes. Is it because he’s a shapeshifter? Does he vanish like smoke? Does he have a protective shield, a force field? Are there people in the crowd who hold the others back? Are the murderous impulses of the crowd not that strong after all?
Now look back to the reaction of Simeon and Anna. They see the baby and believe, before the baby has done a thing. The people who hear Jesus in today’s reading have seen what he has done. Reports about him have come back to his hometown. Like Simeon and Anna, they have had the chance to see the Messiah with their own eyes. And their response: let’s get rid of him. Not “Praise God, we have seen the Messiah,” but “Kill him.”
It's easy to feel superior, from a distance of thousands of years. It’s easy to imagine that we would be like Anna or Simeon, that we would instantly profess our faith. We wouldn’t be like those hometown folks who wanted to throw Jesus off of a cliff.
And yet, as I reflect on my own life, I think about the times I have been closer to that murderous crowd than to Simeon and Anna. I think about the times I throw Jesus off the cliff.
How often have we wanted to rely on ourselves alone? How many times have we suffered, knew that we needed help, but not wanted to pray about it. I find myself thinking about the larger problems of the world; surely God has better things to do than to worry about my little anxieties. And yet, we know that God wants to be involved in our lives.
How often have we wanted to rely on human innovation? How often have we trusted our own resources instead of God? I think of every miraculous healing and how often I want to give the credit to researchers or medicines or the body’s ability to heal itself. I think of how often I am reluctant to say that I have seen a true miracle.
We may be like those who heard Jesus preach that day and say, “Messiah? Joseph’s boy was not the Messiah I was expecting.” We might want to want to micromanage the miracles we are requesting. We might wish we could trade in the miracles that come to us for something different, something with more power and domination. We might not be able to be like Simeon who can see the Messiah in human form. We might wish that God came to us in a different form.
How often do we sink into despair? We see chaos and assume that God has left us to our own devices and that we are doomed. We discount the power of good to overcome the powers of evil. Again, we throw God over the cliff. God commands us to be children of the light, committed to love. Many humans seem to prefer to wallow in our feelings of fear and despair. Ah, despair, the sin that medievalists would remind us is the deadliest of the deadly sins--for it is despair that keeps us from believing that life can be different, that God is really in control. And if we can avoid believing that God is in control, then we can avoid our responsibilities towards this world that God created, this world that God declared “Good and very good.”
The new year, which is quickly moving towards becoming the old year, is a good time for reflection, a good time to turn inward and to become aware of areas where we could still use improvement. Sure, God loves us the way that we are (a gift of grace to be sure). But God always calls us to be better. It's time to work on our attitudes and beliefs and actions that throw Jesus off the cliff, attitudes and beliefs and actions that make others think that God is indeed dead.
Today, let us remember that God makes us a similar promise to the one that Simeon receives. We need but open our eyes to see the presence of the Divine. And if we're faithful to the best of our abilities, we may find out we've been holding the Divine in our hands all along.
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