“Public Disturbance” (Luke 4:21-30)

Luke 4:21-30


Pastor Tom Johnson, January 31, 2016

In 1967, researchers describe an experiment they did with monkeys. They wanted to learn about their behavior. They put five monkeys in a cage with a banana on top of a ladder. And they turned on the water hose. One of the five monkeys started up the ladder. But all five were hosed down with ice-cold water. Another monkey started up the ladder. Some of the monkeys cried out knowing what was going to happen. All five monkeys were hosed down. After a while, the other monkeys would cry out and attack anyone that tried to climb the ladder. Then researchers turned off the water hose.

Researches then took one monkey out of the cage and put a new one in its place—one that did not see what happened before. The new monkey saw the banana and started up the ladder. And, to its horror, the other monkeys attacked him. The new monkey tried one more time and finally gave up the idea of going for the banana. He did not want another beating. They took another monkey out from the original group and put in another new monkey. And like before, the new monkey saw the banana and started up the ladder. And, to its horror, the other monkeys attacked him. What is really interesting is what the first new monkey who never was sprayed with the water hose did: he participated in the assault with as much enthusiasm as the monkeys from the original experiment. This even though he never was sprayed. Researchers repeated this until the original group was completely cycled out. Eventually, there was none left who had experienced being sprayed with ice-cold water. And yet, when a new monkey was introduced and went for the banana, they still continued to attack.

One researcher said, “People sometimes do the same in the workplace. How many times have you heard ‘It has always been done this way. Don't mess with what works.’ Like the monkeys, we often do not challenge assumptions and simply keep doing what has been done before without thinking,” the researcher said. Monkey see monkey do.

This may help us understand how a mob would form so quickly in Jesus’ hometown. How could they become so violent so quickly? Some experienced violence from neighboring nations such as Sidon, Syria, and now Rome. These foreign people brought terror and horrific suffering to God’s people in Israel. Those that did not experience it still had the trauma passed down to them. Now Jesus challenges their assumptions. He wants to broaden their vision and expand their worldview. But first, he needs to challenge a lie. The lie is that the good news is only for them—the lie that the hope, healing, deliverance from oppression, and forgiveness is only for one group—people like himself—from Jesus’ hometown.

We may have not been hosed down with ice-cold water. We may have not experienced direct loss or suffered violence from a certain people. But the fear and rage is still there. It’s passed from person to person, generation to generation. Jesus wants to break this cycle of violence. He reminds them of two stories. The first is the prophet Elijah who leaves the nation of Israel during a famine and saves his own life and the life of the widow of Sidon and her son. The second is the prophet Elisha who heals Naaman, a war general of the Syrian army who conquered them. The widow of Sidon and the war general from Syria give us a huge range of humanity—from the powerless to the powerful, from the marginalized to the invader, from the poor to the proud, and from the hopeless to the oppressor. Jesus may sound unpatriotic—even treasonous. He suggest that God’s love is as much for the heathen as it is for those of Jewish ancestry. It sounds heretical to say that God reaches out to unbelievers and outsiders with more grandeur than with his own. We want a savior who champions our causes. We want God who is for us not for them—whomever they may be. We want God to be on our side. But he isn’t just on our side. He is not just for us. His promise is for all people.

Jesus message is that God’s grace has no limits. His love has no bounds. God’s plan includes everyone no matter their gender, ethnicity, geography, or language. Jesus challenges us to expand our allegiance and serve the greater Kingdom of God. Jesus calls us to look beyond our hometown. This is not a mission to Nazareth but a mission to the entire world. Jesus comes for us all. No one is off his radar. No one will fall in between the cracks. No one will be excluded from his call of love. No one is too marginalized. No one is in too great a position of power. The good news is for everyone no matter who we are. In fact, Jesus himself will later tell us that he does not come for those who think of themselves as righteous but for the unrighteous and sinner. There is a miracle in this story of Jesus and the deadly mob from his hometown. Our Scripture says that Jesus “passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” Jesus passed through the mob of death. He passed through death to bring hope, healing, liberty, forgiveness, and the assurance of love. He passes through death to bring good news to all nations. He will pass through death again when the mobs will cry “Crucify! Crucify him!” He will pass through death again when he is on the cross and the mobs make fun of him and mock him.
He will pass through death again when they lay his Body in the freshly rock-hewn tomb. He will pass through death again when he rises from the dead. And from there he transforms our mobs, peoples, tribes, and nations into one people of God. And Jesus creates a public disturbance so that we all pass through death to life.