[Propertalk] Sermon tips for Luke 4:21-30 - January 31 - Part 3

[Joe Parrish]

...he makes it clear that he will just keep moving on, and he also makes it clear that in doing so, he is following God's lead from the old days. I once heard a speaker talk about how Luke does not use verbs that have to do with status or with being established in favorable contexts. Rather, being "on the way" is Luke's metaphor for the Christian life. Of course, not every impulse toward restlessness is an impulse to be a better Christian. For this reason, parts of the Christian tradition have put a high value on stability. Yet Jesus doesn't. Jesus "the same yesterday, today and forever?" I don't know how the writer of Hebrews meant it, but if we're talking about Jesus, we have to say, "For Jesus to 'stay the same' is to say that he will stay on the move. To stay with him will mean joining him on the road rather than coming back to a place where he has established himself, or a place where he will establish us, "setting us up" in a manner to which we could become accustomed. 

http://maryhinkle.typepad.com/pilgrim_preaching/2004/01/on_staying_put_.html

Mary Hinkle, 2004
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Jesus' execution, prefigured here by the attempt to stone him (i.e. the common method of throwing people over a precipice and then dropping large rocks on them). In Acts we find a similar pattern. An initially positive response among the Jews leads to anger and hatred when the mission opens up to the Gentiles.
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Luke is using the opening scene of Jesus' ministry as the key to all that follows in both books, the Gospel and Acts. It is a reading of history which is by no means incontrovertible. A simple key is likely to lead to oversimplification and do injustice in the process. Luke's church will have faced fierce competition from resurgent Judaism of the 80's and had to grapple with the pain of its relative failure among Jews. One of the sub themes of both books is the attempt to help people to come to terms with this situation. 

http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkEpiphany4.htm

William Loader
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Does the church exist to serve its own members or outsiders? Is the church governed by "in-group loyalties" or by outsiders' needs or by the "purposes of God"?
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One of the songs that will be sung is: "I'm so glad, Jesus lifted me." Why sing just about what Jesus has done for me? Should we have even more joy because Jesus has lifted others, e.g., "I'm so glad, Jesus lifted you"?

http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/luke4x21.htm

Brian Stoffregen
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Many of us would love to be able to control God, to have God save those we think should be saved, love just the loveable, and forgive only the forgivable. Yet God is sovereign and God's ways are not ours. Those people who are least worthy of being saved are included in those God came to save. Those who are least loveable because of how they behave or what they have done, remain precious children in God's sight, worthy of redemption. Christ died not just for what is forgivable, but for what is seemingly unforgivable.
It is easy for us to be like the people of Nazareth, offended that the grace of God might extend to some we might consider as unworthy. Still, we need to remember that at one time we were the unworthy, and the word came to us and abides in and with us.

http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=28

Paul Scott Wilson
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The primary source for this story appears to be Mark (6:1-5).  The placement is, of course, different.  For Luke, this whole episode (4:14-30) marks the beginning of Jesus' public ministry.  In Mark, Jesus had been at it for awhile.  
The tone is different too.  Mark's story seems oppositional and negative--the people "took offense" and Jesus "could do no mighty work."  True, in Luke, the people did try to throw Jesus off a cliff, but Jesus strides confidently and courageously through their midst and they don't touch him.  Luke heightens some of the tension by adding a threat of assassination, but uses this as a device so that Jesus emerges even more triumphal.    

http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2010/01/lectionary-blogging-luke-4-2130.html

John Petty, 2010 
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Bruce Malina (page 243, Social-Science Commentary on the Letters of Paul, 2006) helps correct the possible interpretations:
  In asking if Jesus is Joseph's son, the synagogue participants are cutting him down to size. They are questioning how such honorable teaching could come from one born to a lowly artisan. This exchange has often puzzled Western commentators who fail to understand the magnitude of the insult implied by the question.

http://www.holytextures.com/2010/01/luke-4-21-30-year-c-epiphany-4-january-28-february-3-sermon.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+typepad/davidewart/textures+(Holy+Textures)

David Ewart, www.holytextures.com
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