“Hail to the Lord’s Anointed” Luke 4.16-30, Epiphany 3C, Jan. ’16

1. Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our redeemer.  Amen.  Today we’ll be looking at the Gospel lesson from Luke 4:16-30.  We’ll be looking specifically at the words from two verses later in Luke 4:32 where it says, "They were amazed at His teaching, because His message had authority." The message is entitled, “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed.” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. "Authority" is an interesting word isn’t it?  You can't help but have a reaction to it.  Why? Because everyone here has at some time in their life had a negative experience with authority. Every one of us has gotten angry, at times, against those in authority. Those people who for one reason or another are in places of power, who tell us what to do, or in some way exert some control in our lives.  We all have to admit there has been a time where we have sinned against the 4^th commandment and despised and angered our parents and others in authority and failed to honor them, serve and obey them.
3. That word authority can cause a great emotional reaction.  The word brings to mind people and places, feelings and situations with a variety of images because when you're face-to-face with someone who has authority, rightly or wrongly, you remember it.  The people in our text who were from Galilee had witnessed Jesus' miracles at the beginning of His ministry.  They were impressed with Jesus' authority as the Holy Spirit filled Him to speak for the first time to his home-town crowd in Nazareth.  In fact while we translate it as "they were amazed," what it really says about their reaction to the words of Jesus is that they were dumbfounded - speechless as if they'd been struck by a hard blow.  The presence of God in their midst – the Spirit’s anointing on Jesus and the Spirit at work through His words was astounding. This was a man who had something to say.  This was a sermon you'd never forget. Unlike a lot of sermons you hear.
4. Now, don't look so surprised, I know that only 15% of what I say today will be absorbed - I learned that in seminary.  And I learned much more when I sat in a pew for a number of years before I became a pastor.  I used to sit there and think that what the pastor was getting at was obvious. I would tune the message out and plan what I was going to do with the rest of my day as I'm sure some of you have from time to time.  And I wouldn't be surprised if the people of Nazareth hadn't been in the same rut before Jesus had come to their town and taught in the synagogue.  They didn't sit through exactly the same service we have. No doubt some of the Psalms we used in the Liturgy this morning were spoken by them as they sat around their teacher, the rabbi, who would open a scroll from the law or prophets, read from it and then say some words to apply the reading to their lives. But what they were experiencing with this new teacher was out of their realm of experience.  No one had ever spoken to them with this kind of authority.  The power of the Holy Spirit that was evident as they listened to their hometown boy soon to be called elsewhere, Jesus of Nazareth.
5. The other rabbis who taught would use a quote from a great teacher from the past and embellish it a bit with their own thoughts.  From time to time there might be a rabbi who would make some new observations, but citing an older authority as his basis was the only way his thoughts would be heard.  A teacher quoting from his own authority was unheard of.  Not that there weren’t some great teachers.  Hillel, who lived just prior to the time of Christ and his grandson, Gamaliel (the Pharisee who taught the apostle Paul) were the greatest of their age.  Gamaliel was a fan of Jesus’ parables, as a matter of fact.  But it was grandpa Hillel who said:  “A Gentile asked me one day if I could sum up the Jewish law while he, the Gentile, stood on one foot.  I replied, ‘Whatever would be hateful to have done to you don't do to anyone else. The rest of the Jewish law is a commentary on this.’"  Wise saying, when you think of it.  Hillel was a marvelous teacher, but he mostly built on what had been said before. Someone with their own authority, Holy Spirit empowered authority like Jesus, went against that tradition and spoke words that amazed! 
6. No wonder Jesus was a threat to the Pharisees and their stacks of laws and rituals.  He wasn't skimming the surface looking to stroke their egos and find a place in their ranks. He wasn't quoting human authorities and basing His conclusions on what had been stated before.  Jesus wasn't speaking in trivialities.  His words spoke to the heart.  He could see, like only the "Mighty Counselor" could, right into the hearts of people.  Anointed Authority through the power of the Spirit moved like a wind blowing fast and wild reaching through their minds and their consciences, making clear the will of God and the purpose of this kingdom He'd come to establish and rule. 
7. In this Kingdom the Spirit of the Lord so evidently upon Jesus would come.  In fact, it has come to all in the kingdom to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the never-ending year of the Lord’s favor.  As we live in the kingdom where our sins are forgiven – washed away – and God’s favor rests on us here and clear through to eternity.  
8. What incredible Good News.  But, this is where the authority of Jesus began to irritate those listening.  Those who didn't want a savior at all.  Those who thought they had it worked out on their own, as well as for those who had in mind just what their savior should be.  And that picture didn’t look like the Jesus before them – the one they’d known since He was a boy.  This is where His message became a "hard teaching," because He called for change - because His message demanded a response. 
9. And this is where some hard questions must be asked of His followers today: How do you think we’re doing – how are you doing in bringing good news to the poor, freedom to the oppressed and healing to those who are hurting or sick?  How are we doing in speaking out for those who can’t speak for themselves, the unborn in our society who are being killed at the hands of abortionists, speaking out on the sanctity of human life.  That all life is sacred, from the children growing within a mother’s womb to the elderly, because they are created by God and are made in His image.
10. Tough questions – who wants those from the pulpit?  Apparently Garrison Keillor of all people!  He wrote, "I've heard a lot of sermons in the past 10 years or so that made me want to get up and walk out.  They were secular, psychological, self-help sermons.  Friendly, but of no use.  They didn't make you straighten up.  They didn't give you anything hard...At some point and in some way, a sermon has to direct people toward the death of Jesus Christ and the campaign that God has waged over the centuries to get our attention."
11. Keillor directs our attention to where God comes to us.  The authority of God comes to us when he meets us in worship and the Word.  When he becomes tangible for us to feel in a drop of cleansing or refreshing water through Holy baptism that forgives us all our sins, as well as in the bread and wine/body and blood of Christ we consume to empower us for action in the Lord’s Supper.  Today Jesus reminds in Luke 4 why we support our Lutheran day school at Christ Lutheran West Bloomfield.  In our Lutheran school our children are learning the authority of God’s Word and of Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  They are learning that only in Jesus will they receive freedom from their sins and the gift of eternal life.  At Christ Lutheran School they are learning not only the importance of believing in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but also how to live out their Christian life in service to their neighbor.
12. Hail to the Lord’s Anointed!  As I said before the people who heard this in Jesus’ hometown were greatly shocked.  Imagine a guest preacher whom you had grown up with reading an Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah and then announcing at the end that He is the Messiah.  As C.S. Lewis suggests such a person is a either a lunatic or really the Son of God.  There are no choices in between.  Jesus’ words show Him to be what He claimed to be.  He came to be our Savior from sin whom God had promised in the Old Testament.  Amen.