Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

It has been said that disappointments and frustrations are usually caused by unmet expectations.

It may be that the person knows what is expected of them and doesn’t fulfill those expectations.

It may be that they do not know what is expected as those expectations were never voiced.

Nevertheless, those who have unmet expectations become disappointed and frustrated with the one who fails to live up to what they want.

This is not much different than what we see in Jesus’s ministry that Luke presents in the passage we are looking at today.

Jesus was in his hometown of Nazareth and was a home-grown celebrity rabbi.

He was the guest-speaker and teacher at synagogues throughout Galilee.

His reputation had gone out all over the place.

And now he was back home, speaking in his local synagogue and has proclaimed that the ultimate Jubilee year has begun and that he is the very one who is anointed by the Spirit of the LORD.

Now one might assume that this would make people excited, but as we will read, the excitement soon turned into anger and rejection so that Jesus, who was invited to speak, became Jesus who was thrown out of town.

And as we look at this episode in the ministry of Jesus, I want us to see four phases in this part of the text.

These phases go back and forth between Jesus and the Jewish men in the synagogue.

The first phase comes in the form of the Jewish Response.

The second comes with Jesus’s Rebuttal.

The third phase is seen in the Jewish Reaction.

Finally, we see the last phase with Jesus’s Removal.

Jewish Response

Jesus’s Rebuttal

Jewish Reaction

Jesus’s Removal

The Jewish Response

The first phrase in this text begins when the Jewish men in the synagogue respond to Jesus’s previous statement.

Jesus read from Isaiah 62, and told the men in the synagogue that the prophecy had been fulfilled in their hearing.

In other words, they were witnessing the coming of the Messiah—the anointed One of God—and the ushering in of the Jubilee to end all Jubilees.

And the response seems to have started off positive, but moved quickly into the negative.

Luke tells us that all the people spoke well of Jesus.

What he actually says is that they testified to Jesus, meaning that they testified to Jesus’s good character.

They marveled at his gracious words—his words of grace; it’s probably has a dual meaning.

On the one hand, Jesus’s words were gracious words.

They were kind and encouraging and exciting.

On the other hand, they were words of grace—words about God’s grace to the marginalized.

Words that said, “This is the year of the Lord’s favor—the year of the Lord.’s

welcome/acceptance.”

Thus, it starts off with exaltation and excitement—exalting Jesus and excited about his message.

People love their celebrity preachers.

But at some point, that began to change.

We’re not told how, but at some point, the people began focusing on their own notions rather than on Jesus’s news, their expectations as to whom the Messiah should be rather than Jesus’s explanation of who the Messiah would be.

And so we see them pointing to Jesus’s father Joseph.

Remember Luke already wrote back in Luke 3:23 that Jesus was the son (as was supposed) of Joseph.

Joseph was just a carpenter living in a no-name town of Nazareth.

That did not fit the profile of the Messiah in their opinion.

It is amazing, isn’t it, at how easily a person can go from thinking Jesus is the greatest thing since sliced bread to tossing him away like he’s the heel of the loaf.

No one eats the heels.

They’re unworthy of consumption.

At best we tear them up and give them to the birds.

People can be so fickle about Jesus.

This isn’t the only time.

We know that Jesus had a huge following at one point and yet when he tells them that he is the bread of life, all but the 12 abandon him.

He has a following and then is arrested and the people quickly turn against him and cry for his crucifixion.

Even today, people continue to have their expectations of who Jesus is to be.

Sometimes those expectations come from outside of the church and sometimes they come from inside the church.

There are those who see Jesus as the great information-giver.

He sets people right as to who God is and how God works.

Teach me more, preach to me more!

It’s all about information-gathering.

There’s no category hardly for Jesus’s acts of service.

Sure, he has them, but only as a side-kick to his teaching.

They lend support but are nothing in themselves.

Then there are those who are just the opposite.

They see Jesus as the great social-justice warrior, doing all these great acts of service and standing up for the little guy.

Yet, they ignore his teachings.

And when confronted with facts that do not conform to expectations, suddenly there is doubt and frustration and disappointment.

Jesus’s Rebuttal

So then how does Jesus rebut these expectations and doubts?

That’s the second phase.

The first was the Jewish Response, but now we see Jesus’s Rebuttal.

And it begins with a prediction that Jesus makes.

He reveals not just their doubts, but their cynicism.

Cynicism goes beyond doubt.

Doubt generally comes from a distrust based in uncertainty.

One is not sure about something.

“Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” That’s doubt.

They know (or at least suppose) he’s the son of Joseph; there’s no doubt in that.

What they’re unsure of is that the Son of Joseph could be the Messiah.

But Jesus shows their cynicism.

Cynicism is deeper than doubt.

Cynicism distrusts and disparages.

Cynicism derides a person or situation.

Doubt can lead to cynicism if we’re not careful.

And Jesus showed it would lead to that very thing.

You may have heard it said, “Never trust a skinny chef’s cooking.”

Or perhaps, “Never go to a bald barber for a haircut.”

Still, “Never seek healing from a sick doctor.”

Spoken like a true cynic.

But that last one, is the proverb that Jesus said they’d be saying.

They’d look on Jesus as a sick doctor.

Who would want to go to a doctor for treatment when he couldn’t even treat himself?

Why would people come to Jesus when he was out of step with God?

Why would they come to him for guidance when he himself was out in left-field somewhere?

That’s what they would be thinking.

They distrusted Jesus.

They sought to disparage him and his ministry.

They derided him all the way to the cross.

Remember this wasn’t just a Nazareth problem, this was a national problem.

In their cynicism, they’d want Jesus to perform miracles for them.

In Luke 4:14, we saw that Jesus returned in the power of the Holy Spirit and he went around Galilee.

It’s from Matthew and Mark that we find him healing various people of various ailments.

But he’d later go to Capernaum and other places and also perform some pretty magnificent feats.

And they’d demand Jesus to do the same for them.