Prop: The King’s Speech [use a clip from the movie near the conclusion in which the king is grateful to have been freed]
Being “voiceless” has been the cause of many a revolution. Slavery, women’s suffrage, child abuse, human trafficking —the progress of history is the story of the voiceless finding a voice and struggling to be free. The stifled voice will find a way to be heard. Those who have difficulty “finding” their voice, after many years of not “speaking,” will be freed by the act of speaking.
Scottish poet Alastair Reid 1926-2014), wrote this poem in his autobiography:
“A boy, I was content to cling to silence . . .
My sudden voice was too surprised to sing;
Year followed year, the faithful falling seasons.
My voice was never confident for long.
Now autumn haunts me with the fear of losing
anticipation, and the power of song."
Speaking up and speaking out---speaking our thoughts, mind, feelings--is part of what makes us human, part of what makes us free. Speaking God’s story, rendering God’s voice audible in the world, makes others human, and sets others free.
Throughout the scriptures, prophets have been those who have spoken up and spoken out. They have spoken with God’s voice –to warn, to chastise, to correct, to guide those going in wrong paths back into the Lord’s fold. And they have been the most persecuted of people. Likewise Jesus in today’s scripture story.
Jesus goes into the synagogue in his home town to lead worship, to read the Torah for the day, to likely give the message. Perhaps he has been invited, since he speaks in synagogues throughout the entire region. Perhaps he is still somehow connected with his hometown synagogue and is invited to read that Sunday. Perhaps his kinsfolk there have urged him to come and speak there, since he does so everywhere else. Has he avoided doing so up until now? Surely he has read when he was younger. Or perhaps he has not come home since he has come of age, since he has been learning and teaching. Whatever the reason, now he is returning home to Nazareth, a local boy made good.
We can’t be sure. But we do know that when Jesus got up to read the Torah, he chose this passage from Isaiah, and then afterward, announced that this scripture was being fulfilled there among them –through him.
[Read the scripture passage again.]
God’s voice speaking.
Jesus’ hometown reaction to Jesus’ announcement was . . . . horrendous. The Messiah? Son of God? The Deliverer? Remember --these were almost all Jesus’ own relatives, kinfolk of Mary. Nazareth was very small, no more than sixty acres, some say as little as six acres. And when they heard this visiting hometown Rabbi, they didn’t celebrate a hometown boy made good. When they heard him, their feathers got ruffled. Friends and family asked, who does he think he is? He grew up here. We knew him here as a boy. He’s the son of Joseph the “carpenter/mason.” Now he dares come here and announce that he is speaking for God? That he IS God? Jesus’ immediate family were hugely embarrassed.
In the end, Jesus escapes the region, likely never to return. His departing words are these:
“A prophet is never without honor (un-honored), except among his own lineage, with his own kin, in his own family hometown.”
These words, implied by Isaiah as well many years before haunt us from the pages.
The word in Hebrew for “honor” is kabod. This one word conveys a host of meanings: God’s voice from the cloud, God’s glory in his presence, the Holy Spirit’s power, reverence for the Lord.
God’s voice cannot be heard in that place! God’s presence cannot manifest among those doubting people. God is not revered and honored as his presence rests on Jesus in that town of Nazareth.
With that statement, Jesus has “kicked the dust off of his feet” against Nazareth.
Matthew 13:57-58 puts it like this: “And they took offense at him.” The word for “offense” is “skandalizo” which we translate as “stumbling block” but which literally means the movable trigger or baited part of a trap----the part that is designed to trigger the violent snapping shut of the trap and the imprisonment if not death of those who trip the trap. The Nazareth culture of honor and shame, which was based on pride and prejudice, had tripped the devil’s trap. Jesus’ hometown had stumbled on the “trap-trigger” of their own lack of faith and trust in one of their own. “And he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief” (Mt.13:58).
Don’t fall for the trap. If you trip the trigger, it will lead to a life of imprisonment, isolation, and despair. When Jesus speaks to you, can you hear him? Or do you only see the limitations of your own small world? When Jesus speaks, he will spin your world, change your views, alter your life –if you choose to hear him.
We talk a lot in our culture about “finding our own voice.” We talk little about “finding God’s voice within you.” We seldom talk about “hearing God’s voice” and listening to the Shepherd’s voice from amidst the cultural din.
Jesus is still speaking today. (I just completed a book along with Frank Viola called, “Jesus Speaks –Learning to Listen for God’s Voice,” in which Frank and I talk about all of the ways we “miss” hearing Jesus in our lives, in our culture, in the world.) As Christians today, and that word “Christ-ian” literally means “Christ-littles” or “little Christs,” we are called to listen for Jesus’ voice, and then, after listening, to speak the Jesus story in the language of our culture. It takes all of us to tell the Jesus story.
But as with any good speech, you can’t speak until you have learned to listen. You can’t speak the story of Jesus until you have first learned to listen for God’s voice.
We can hear Jesus through the scriptures, through prayer, through our holy communion, through our time around the table. Perhaps we don’t anymore hear the way our ancestors did –through a burning bush, or through the movement of the clouds. But that doesn’t mean that God isn’t speaking to us. God likes to talk. Do we like to listen?
Every time and place has burning bushes. Today, I want you to discover that burning bush in your life, and in your place. This week I want you to live every day with this in mind: God’s burning bushes are everywhere. But you hear them before you see them.
Can you hear Jesus speak? Will you be willing to speak for Jesus in a hostile place? In words that will make others free? Will you be willing to hear Jesus, even if those around you can’t? If they mock and scoff?
Today….may both your ears and your lips burn with the presence of the Lord!
What are the words to that amazing hymn, written for laypeople, to encourage them in their ministry? Let sing it together.
Lord, speak to me that I may speak
In living echoes of Thy tone;
As Thou has sought, so let me seek
Thine erring children lost and lone.
O lead me, Lord, that I may lead
The wandering and the wavering feet;
O feed me, Lord, that I may feed
Thy hungering ones with manna sweet.
O strengthen me, that while I stand
Firm on the rock, and strong in Thee,
I may stretch out a loving hand
To wrestlers with the troubled sea.
O teach me, Lord, that I may teach
The precious things Thou dost impart;
And wing my words, that they may reach
The hidden depths of many a heart.
O give Thine own sweet rest to me,
That I may speak with soothing power
A word in season, as from Thee,
To weary ones in needful hour.
O fill me with Thy fullness, Lord,
Until my very heart overflow
In kindling thought and glowing word,
Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show.
O use me, Lord, use even me,
Just as Thou wilt, and when, and where,
Until Thy blessèd face I see,
Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share.
**The image today was taken from Wikipedia (public domain).
Based on the Story Lectionary
Major Text
Matthew’s Witness to Jesus’ Rejection in Nazareth (13:54-58)
Mark’s Witness to the Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth (6:1-6)
Luke’s Witness to Jesus’ Rejection at Nazareth at the beginning of his career (4:14-30)
Minor Text
The Lord Speaks to Moses from a Burning Bush
Elijah confronts Ahab (I Kings 18)
The Death of the Prophet Uriah (Jeremiah 26:20-23)
The Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53)
Psalms 7, 35, 37, 79, 119
The Lord’s Prophecy and Jesus’ Messianic Sign (Isaiah 61)
Jeremiah (the most persecuted prophet) (20 and 37)
The Parable of the Wicked Tenant
Stephen Addresses the Sanhedrin (Acts 7: 51-53)
Matthew’s Witness to Jesus’ Rejection in Nazareth
He came to his hometown and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?”
And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor (unhonor/without recognition of God’s glory present within them), except among their own family, among their own people, in their own “house” (lineage).”
And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.
Mark’s Witness to Jesus’ Rejection at Nazareth
[Jesus] left that place [where he had healed the dead child] and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.
On the Sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded.
They said, where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him.
Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.”
And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.
Luke’s Witness to Jesus’ Rejection at Nazareth
[After Jesus was tempted], then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.
He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good
News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and
Recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim
The year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’
And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.
There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.
But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Image Exegesis: The Master’s Voice
“The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see
the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth.”
Acts 22:14
The Hebrew version of Isaiah 53:1-12 (the suffering servant passage) notes that “the Messiah was despised and rejected by others: a man of suffering acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hid their faces, he was despised, and we held him no account.”
On the other hand, the Greek Septuagint (as influenced also by Greek language and sensibilities) reads as follows:
“But his form was without honor. Failing in comparison to all humans, a man in calamity and knowing how to carry weakness, because his face was turned away, he was without honor and not esteemed.”*
The focus on “honor” in the Greek version reflects a different kind of sensibility. The word in Hebrew however is Kabod.
Kabod has multiple shades of meaning. It is the word used in the Old Testament for God’s glory, God’s voice, God’s presence, God’s holy Word, God’s splendor, God’s reverence and majesty. Most often, we have translated the word “glory.”
The word kabod etymologically meant heavy or weighty –to give weight to someone, grant them respect or authority.
In the new testament, the word used is the Greek timao, which doesn’t grasp the meaning of God’s presence and glory, but simply denotes “honor” in the sense of the Greek virtues.
The word used in the passage for today when Jesus spoke in Nazareth was “atimos” --non honor. We translate it “without honor.”
Yet, if we look at the Hebrew connotations, this meant so much much. In fact, what was rejected was Jesus’ “prophetic Voice” –“God’s voice!” The voice of the prophet is the voice of God. And the voice of the Son is evenmore so, endowed and immersed with the presence and glory and holiness of God!
Jesus was not rejected as a man. God was rejected as the Lord spoke as Jesus the Son!
The people of Nazareth did not recognize, did not honor, did not revere, nor even respect God’s voice, let alone His message.
Jesus tells us, “a prophet is not without honor (nonhonor) in his native land, among his own kind, in his own “house.”
Perhaps this is why during Jesus’ later transfiguration, God would say, “This is my beloved Son. Hear Him!”
Not only in the Hebrew scriptures, but here in Nazareth, and throughout the land more and more, the prophetic and messianic voice falls upon deaf ears.
The kabod is not only God’s voice, but God’s presence. It is the word used within the tent of meeting. The “Master’s Voice” comes down at Jesus’ baptism, at his transfiguration, and in everything that Jesus teaches and declares. The kabod is the shekinah (in Aramaic). It is the invasion of God’s reality into the human sphere.
Jesus’ rejection and the reason he cannot do many works of wonder in his hometown is because the people have rejected God! Jesus’ comment declares Nazareth a disappointment.
*See The Historical Jesus in Context, Amy Jill Levine, Dale C Allison, Jr, John Dominic Crossan.