Good & Bad News

Many of us have heard someone tell us, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news; which one do you want to hear first?” Sometimes the good news doesn’t outweigh the bad news. I imagine that for those hearing Jesus’ first sermon, the good news didn’t sound like good news.

Jesus’ first sermon is probably one of the world’s shortest sermons ever, but it packs lots of punch. The people of Israel have waited for centuries for the fulfillment of promises God made throughout their history, beginning with Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3). Now Jesus declares that the wait is over—that the day has come—that the promises are fulfilled—that salvation is nigh! This is indeed good news.

The “good news” function is “to show people their wounds and impart upon them, love. It shows them their bondage and supplies the hammer to knock away their chains. It shows them their nakedness and provides them with garments of purity. It shows them their poverty and pours into their lives the wealth of heaven. It shows them their sins and points them to the Savior.” (Billy Graham)

As an introduction to this series, this passage helps us see a potential response to the good news about Jesus. The audience was astonished, but would they accept Jesus’ good news?

The gospel is good news. But Jesus never said it was easy news.

Charles Colson

N. T. Wright writes, that the people were astonished that he was speaking about God’s grace—grace for everybody, including the nations—instead of grace for Israel and fierce judgment for everyone else.’”

As much as we want to admire Jesus love for everyone we must realize that as you follow him you will be hated and rejected.

In Galilee, Jesus appears to have been accepted and praised, but in his hometown of Nazareth, there is a surprising reversal, and he was rejected. His kin folk had difficulty understanding that God’s grace was for everybody. They wanted to be like Jonah and let the nations perish in their sins. Jonah knew that God was gracious, and each one of us has experienced God’s grace. God intended the people of Israel to be a blessing to all people, which was a promise to Abraham. This good news was bad news for them.

It was the good (and extremely dangerous) news that the living God was on the move, was indeed now coming into his kingdom. And it demanded a definite response. It was ‘God’s good news’

N. T. Wright

You see, friends, Jesus speaks a truth so outrageous, so unsettling, that his hometown friends and neighbors want to throw him off a cliff!

1. Have any of you had a friend speak the truth to you that you were ready to kill them?

The fact is that Jesus told this congregation that “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled.” The claim Jesus makes is that he is the Messiah. He has come to bring good news to the poor, set the captives free, bring sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free, and proclaim the year of Jubilee. These ideas sound nice, but they would have overturned the social status of many and the economy.

The year of the Lord’s favor meant that every fifty years, all property returned to its original owners, and all debts were canceled. This law was created to ensure that kings did not eventually gobble up all the land. It is the great equalizer. It is God’s RESET button. This economic system would not work well in our society. Right?

Now, Jesus picks a fight with the people. He puts words in their mouths and says they don’t accept him as a prophet. Why does he say this? This is where it suddenly becomes BAD NEWS.

Jesus reminds them that the most famous prophet, Elijah, walked past many widows of Israel and went to a foreigner. His protege, Elisha, walked past many lepers in Israel and healed a foreigner.

We don’t know exactly why Jesus provoked the people like this but here’s a guess. The people thought they would get special privileges when Jesus set up his kingdom simply because they were from his town. Further, they believed that God’s Promise was exclusively for the people of Israel. After all, they are the chosen ones!

However, Jesus shines the light of truth into their exclusivist perspective. It’s not that God won’t bless Israel. It’s that God’s promise is not ONLY for Israel. Jesus is expanding the tent to remind us that those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick; Jesus said that he had come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance. Lk 5:32

The people got the message, and they didn’t like it. They tried to kill him. Jesus would experience this kind of fickle reversal from the crowd throughout his ministry.

The question for us today is this “Is there anyone with whom we DO NOT want to share the good news because they are…” (liberals, conservatives, gays, the addicted, ex-cons, street people, non-Christians, undocumented immigrants)

As Luke presents it, a central message of Jesus’ teaching is that God’s good news is for everyone. That doesn’t mean everyone is automatically good and righteous, and everything is fine. It means that Everyone is welcome, and God doesn’t keep anyone from coming to God’s table.

The person or type of person we fill in that blank depends on our perspective. We tend to label each other, create categories of good and evil, valuable and worthless, and then try to align ourselves with the good and valuable and remove ourselves from that other person.

The good news offers freedom to those who are suffering. We should evaluate whether we are people in need of freedom, people who oppress others, or people who extend the gospel message to all around us.

Now the good news is a beautiful message that demands a response. Are you willing to hear the truth of Jesus’ words? Are you ready to repent of your sin and freely accept God’s grace and love for your life?

Questions

What is one thing that stood out to you from this week’s message?

How would you describe the gospel message?

How does the gospel free people from oppression?

How would you evaluate yourself? Do you need freedom? Is there someone who may consider you an enemy? Do you need to extend the gospel message to others more intentionally?