"Mission -- and Opposition"

Jan.11/04 Lk.4:14-30

To be a Christian is to have a Mission

The very first evening after the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to His followers and said to them, "As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you." (Jn.20:21) The Christian church has been on a mission ever since, for the word "mission" comes from the Latin word meaning "to send". If we want to follow Jesus, then, it's essential for us to understand what our mission is, what we're sent for. To be a Christian is to have a mission. Everyone who receives Christ right then and there receives new purpose, a new goal in serving the Master whose heart reaches out to the whole world. As we begin a new year, let's recall how Jesus began His ministry with His very own mission statement. Reviewing our Master's priorities can revitalize us as a church and spare us from the pitfall of becoming distracted and aimless.

Serving God requires Holy Spirit-power and Anointing

Introducing this passage, Luke says in 4:14, "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit..." Already back at Jesus' baptism in chapter 3(22) we've been told "the Holy Spirit descended on Him", and at the beginning of chapter 4(1) the Lord heads off into the wilderness "full of the Holy Spirit" and "led by the Spirit". So it's not surprising that the passage Jesus chooses to read to introduce His mission, from the prophet Isaiah, starts off this way: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me..." before it goes into all the "doing" aspects. Jesus links the anointing or marking or touching of God's Spirit as necessary for the tasks the Father calls Him to do. So our mission as individual Christians and as a congregation needs to be Spirit-led, Spirit-powered; the Greek word for "power" in v.14 is where we get our word "dynamite". Serving God requires Spirit power; woe to those who launch into projects based solely on their own steam, their own good intentions. The Christian life is a spiritual endeavour, subject to many attacks and traps of an unseen spiritual nature. Success and lasting progress comes only through the Holy Spirit's direction and help.

      Where did Jesus get His direction from? Chiefly the Word and prayer. At the synagogue He was reading from Scripture, the holy writings inspired by God's very Spirit; 2Tim.3:16 can be translated as saying they're "God-breathed". 2Peter 1 says the prophets such as Isaiah "spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit". The Bible offers vital guidance for our daily walk. Prayer is a living communication with our Lord through the Holy Spirit meeting with our personal spirit. Jesus deliberately set aside time alone to seek God's face. To stay "on track", we need to do the same. In Jeremiah 23(15-18) God criticizes the false prophets who "speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord." God asks, "Which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?" Keeping in touch with God's Spirit takes time to focus on Him, with a quiet, waiting, expectant attitude. Then He can show us the right path rather than rushing into unseen pitfalls.

      There's been excitement in the news lately about the robot rover that's now touring the planet Mars. For some reason NASA chose to call the rover "Spirit". That's how our projects need to begin, too! But satellites and rovers need a power source, commonly through solar panels to harness the energy of the sun. We too benefit from deploying our antennae each day to receive guidance and strength from God's Spirit, beaming straight into our heart.

Mission benefits primarily those "on the edge"

Who is Jesus' mission aimed at? Verse 18 clearly mentions the POOR will have good news preached to them, God sent (missio) Jesus to proclaim freedom to PRISONERS, the BLIND will recover their sight, the OPPRESSED will experience release. Not your usual newsmakers, or even those who make up what we call the "silent majority". These are the folks at the edges of society, those we tend to overlook, the invisible. God's concern and attention seem to be directed at those on the edge, not the "established".

      Later in vv.25-27 Jesus notes that the ministry of Elijah and Elisha centuries before helped not just Israelites, but a foreign widow from Sidon and an official from Syria. God's mercy spilled beyond the borders of the country to change the lives of a leper and a poor woman suffering from acute loss. Those on the edge.

      In Isaiah's time, the words of the synagogue scroll hinted at the year of Jubilee when every 50 years all debts would be cancelled; the release of those captured by enemy armies; and the return of the Jews who had been exiled in Babylon. Not those at the top, but those at the bottom, those who are "without". The word the NIV translates as "oppressed" (which we tend to think of in a political or categorical sense) actually means "to break in pieces" -- "broken in heart and often in body as well", as one commentator puts it. One translation has, "to make the wounded free from their chains". Robinson comments, "One loves to think that Jesus felt it to be His mission to mend broken hearts like pieces of broken earthenware..."

      Jesus' mission is people-centred and heart-oriented. The church's mission ought never to be primarily about fundraising or repairing the roof or protecting the stained glass windows; these are secondary to bringing people into contact with Jesus' power to change lives. God's heart is for people, not buildings or even projects. So we need to be asking of our church programs, is anyone actually being helped by this activity? What difference is it really making for the Kingdom in the lives of men, women, and children?

      Haiti is about as good an example as you can get of someone on the "edge" - the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Devin is in for a shock when he arrives there and sees the appalling conditions, then returns to our prosperous Canada. Bouncers are required at the medical clinics just to keep them from being overrun, the demand is so dire! The EMC project to enlarge the dining facility will provide very tangible help to our Missionary Church sisters and brothers there, and no doubt leave quite a mark on the lives of those who go to help with the construction.

Mission is fundamentally Positive & Gracious

Think a moment about the words from Isaiah - good news, freedom, recovery, release, "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour". These are good things, positive things. Luke notes in v.22 that those who heard "were amazed at the GRACIOUS words that came from His lips". So, mission is fundamentally positive and gracious. It has a note of blessing. "The year of the Lord's favour" recalls that on the first day of the year of Jubilee, priests would blow loud trumpets to announce the blessings of that year, as designed in Lev.25(8-17). When someone arrives from a long journey, they might toot the horn coming up the driveway; when Keith came home from Saskatchewan for Christmas, he announced his arrival by a snowball to our window! We rushed out to find him because we were happy he was home. So Jesus' reading this passage announces Messiah's arrival. The people of Jesus' time discovered He was walking proof that God is GOOD; and as we are His representatives now - His feet and hands - people should keep on experiencing God's love and care through us.

      Check out Isaiah 61:2 and you'll discover Jesus quit reading just before the next phrase, "and the day of vengeance of our God". That day will come, the day of judgment, but it's not our task as Christians to be judgmental. That's the Holy Spirit's job, to convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, as Jesus forecasted in John 16(8-11). There IS a word that will judge people at the last day, but it's not OUR word. Even Jesus didn't come to judge the world at His incarnation. He said in John 12(46-48), "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him.For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it." He went on to add, "There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day."

      In a Covenant Players drama, a person would come along, bop another person on the head with a rolled-up newspaper and announce, "I am an evangelist!" That's not good news. Our testimony, our short summary of what Jesus has done for us, needs to be positive not condemning. People are already hurting without us needing to lay a guilt trip on them. When they ask, we can offer a Biblical explanation from God's truth for why their sin or the world's general sinful condition causes such woe, but Jesus' method is to begin with genuine caring not condemnation. I was recently told of a man who was a homosexual and found a gospel tract on the windshield of his car. There didn't seem to be tracts on the other cars around. The tract likened guilty humans to cockroaches scuttling away from the light. The man was upset by the message, especially as he seemed to be targeted by it, and showed it to his friends. This is not a positive or gracious way to share the good news; instead it shames Christians and casts disrepute on the church for a cowardly, heavy-handed, impersonal attack. Not Jesus' style. Even if the tract is true, the method in which it is shared needs to also communicate grace, not finger-pointing.

      Health Partners International is a Montreal-based group that provides free medical aid for the world's most needy in Christian love. In April, they provided more than $800,000 in medical aid for Iraqi refugees displaced in the southern portion of the country. A shipment to Cuba worth $260,000 contained medicine for the treatment of 2,000 Cuban seniors. In December, they sent 34 pallets to Iraq, including children's antibiotics, allergy, and cough medications, worth more than $420,000 wholesale. An estimated 15,000 adults and children will benefit. In total, over the last dozen years they've distributed more than $123 million worth of medical aid to 103 countries. Their Director of Communications puts it simply: "The message of Christmas is a message of hope. Jesus cared for us and Jesus wants us to care for others." Positive and gracious.

Frees us from the burden of expectations

A clear sense of mission frees us from the burden of other's expectations. It's been said that if you don't have an agenda, someone else will soon give you one. Expectations for the Messiah had been building for centuries, so Jesus was not immune from this; people were only too ready to tell Him what He should do. It was His clear vision, His focused sense of mission that helped Him say "no" to the good so He could say "yes" to God's best for His life.

      In v.17, handed the scroll, He finds a certain place in it - the verses specifically about Him. Then in v.21 He astonishes the synagogue listeners by saying, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." It's come true while you heard it! In not so many words, Jesus is claiming to be the Messiah, and this does not escape the officials' notice. People are shocked that this "local yokel" would have the audacity to make such a claim. Their initial pride in His ability turns quickly to skepticism and challenge. They seek proof. Jesus reads their thoughts and anticipates their objections. He says in v.23, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’" In other words, if you think you're the Messiah, prove it! This has a hint of the Tempter's challenge for Jesus to prove He's the Son of God by turning stones into bread or throwing Himself down from the temple (Lk.4:3,9). But Jesus was secure enough in His awareness of belonging to the Father that He didn't need to prove Himself. His concern instead was with leading people to the fruit of repentance, wakening them to the hardness of their heart and need for God's intervention.

      Because Jesus had already identified for Himself God's particular mission, He could resist the pressure to perform placed on Him by the hometown crowd. Likewise, understanding God's mission for us as individuals and a congregation frees us from trying to live up (or down) to people's expectations. For instance, some would expect us to be focused on getting a building right away, but that's not the main thing. Some would expect us to "do church" the way it's always been done, but while we do benefit from structure and some tried-and-tested forms organizationally, we needn't adopt old ruts for their own sake. In our families, in our circle of friends, in the lunchroom and at the arena, knowing Jesus personally frees us from just following the crowd or catering to others or bowing to pressure to join in or give assent to immoral conduct. It's about the wine, not the wineskin.

God's Mission brings a reaction of deadly Opposition

The hometown crowd proved fickle fans; when Jesus wouldn't dance to the tune they played, they quickly turned on Him. He saw it coming. Look at vv.24 and 29: "I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown." In other words, prophets suffer REJECTION. How does this work itself out? "They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff." What violence and rage lies behind a short sentence! The words "drove him out" are putting it mildly - the Greek word means literally to throw out, as in to throw a "ball". Imagine being dragged by a crowd to the brow of the cliff overhanging a gravel pit. Murder is in their eyes. To be thrown over would mean certain death. But mission may come to that - many missionaries in the history of the EMC have actually died prematurely on the mission field.

      The crowd was in a rage, yet cunning enough to choose the cliff route of murder. It's not going over the cliff that kills you, but the splat at the bottom; so technically the crowd could escape guilt because all they were doing was pushing Him over! Deadly, dastardly opposition, all from a stubborn refusal to welcome God's ways.

      It happened with Jesus, and it will happen with us too, if we're being obedient to God's leading. Those who seek to make a difference for the Kingdom will be criticized, scorned, misunderstood, sabotaged, and attacked. Paul Brandt is a Canadian country music star who's also a Christian. He and his wife Elizabeth are moving back home to the Alberta foothills after 8 years of living in the industry capital of Nashville Tennessee. With his rise in the charts, Brandt says, "I began to notice the pull my career was having on my life and the amount of control the people around me were trying to exert. The record label was asking me to sing songs that I happened to be morally opposed to. Managers encouraged me to play in honky-tonks night after night, even though I shared with them my concerns with influencing young people to embrace a lifestyle that I didn't agree with." He was even asked to reschedule his honeymoon to attend an industry event! Brandt refused to bend. Now he says, "It was the best decision that I ever made.The label got quite angry with me.And it may have actually hurt my career in the long run, but they only remembered it for about 3 months and Liz would have remembered it for the rest of my life." Like His Lord, Brandt faced opposition.

God's Mission in the end is Undefeatable

It looked like the end of the road for the would-be Messiah - abruptly pre-empting this miraculous missionary. But then an amazing thing happened. V.30: "But He walked right through the crowd and went on His way." How did He do that? One minute they're breathing threats and death, the next they're parting to let Him stride forward to His next destination. It wasn't His time. Jesus' Heavenly Father was protecting Him because His mission wasn't completed. His life was spared despite the enormous risk because He trusted and relied on God every step.

       Music star Brandt discovered that while there was opposition along the way, when he stood up for God's cause and Christian values, opposition morphed into opportunity. Brandt says he came to the realization "that I needed to give up my dreams and aspirations and put them back into God's hands. This prompted me to start standing up to temptations. The label and other business associates were pressuring me to do things that I knew wouldn't bring glory to God. What was amazing was that the more I stood up, the more God would bring new and unexpected opportunities for me." God's mission is undefeatable. When the Lord has a job for someone to do, He intervenes in a wonderful way to help it happen. Jesus and the Spirit are still at work today offering counsel and healing so His grace continues to be felt. Let's pray.