Fickleness, Thy Name Is Human

Sunday's gospel reading is one of many that's very illustrative of human nature.  First the crowds love Jesus and flock to Him; just a short time later, they want to kill Him.  (Read the readings here) 

Although it's not surprising that a group of people would change their minds, the situation in Luke 4:16-30 makes more sense when we flesh some things out.  Specifically, Matthew, Mark, and John all have details leading up to this situation in the beginning of their gospels.  Huge crowds followed Jesus (Matt 7:28-29) for three main reasons.

1) He taught with authority.  Jesus was undoubtedly a dynamic speaker; not always in a showy way, but in an enthralling way.  There are many gospel stories of Jesus being surrounded by crowds.  And there was good reason!  "And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes."  (Matt 7:28-29)

2) One passage from Mark's Gospel: "Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, 'the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." (1:14-15)  A little imagination would aid us here.  These would have been heavy, heavy words for a first century Jew.  Those Jews no doubt had prayed the psalm many times throughout their lives: "How long, O LORD?  Will You hide Yourself forever?" (Ps 89:46)  And now Jesus is talking about the coming of the kingdom of God!  Could this one truly be the Messiah?  Imagine the expectation!  Nearly a millennium away from David and Solomon... after being conquered many times... centuries and centuries of celebrating the Passover and the other Jewish feasts.  This would have been more than enough to arouse at least the curiosity of people in the area.

3) Take everything from #1 and #2 and add miracles.  Luke 4 references miracles that Jesus had done but it doesn't list them.  Mark 1:21-27 shows Jesus healing a man with an unclean spirit; John 4:46-54 has Jesus in Capernaum, and He heals the son of an official.  For the first century Jew, this is now a serious thing.  Later in the chronicle of the Gospels, John the Baptist sends a messenger to Jesus to inquire about who He is.  I really believe John the Baptist's question was the same one that was on everyone else's minds: "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?" (Matthew 11:3)

There are many images we could use to describe the situation in Luke 4, with the background details filled in.  Like a crescendo in a symphony... the start of a thunderstorm... make no mistake, this is a huge deal.  The Jews in the synagogue in Luke 4 had heard so much about this potential messiah.  They'd probably even gone out to see Jesus themselves!  Just as quickly as they praised Him, however, doubt crept in.  Isn't this the son of Joseph?  In other words, who does He think He is???  The crowd likely wanted Him dead for blasphemy.

Part of me thinks that if I was alive at the time, I wouldn't be so foolish as to not recognize Jesus.  Pretty obvious, right?  Although that might be comforting, it's also vain.  And stupid.

Whenever we hold on to sin, we throw Jesus out of our hearts just as that crowd threw Jesus out of the synagogue.  Just like the Jews on that day, we distort the question "Who is He?" into "Who does He think He is?"  And just like He did that day, Jesus won't force it.  He very well could have called down thunder and lightning and performed sign after sign until they all believed.  Nope.  He taught the crowd and He revealed who He was in the synagogue.  He leaves the response completely to us, for good or ill.