The Cost

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, February 13, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 13:53-58.

            You know, we don’t often think about this, but Jesus was a small-town boy.  Nazareth, in Jesus’ time, is estimated to have had a population of around four hundred to five hundred people.  In other words, just a little bit bigger than Hoven.  

            That little town is where Jesus spent most of his life on earth.  He and his family returned there when Jesus was about two years old, after King Herod died and they were able to return from Egypt.  And he stayed there until he was about thirty, when he began his roughly three years of ministry.  Now, I’m sure he traveled once in a while.  We’re told of a time when Jesus and his family went to Jerusalem for the Passover, when Jesus was twelve.  It seems likely that they went to Jerusalem for the Passover in other years, too.  And even though travel was not all that easy back then, one would expect that they probably went to other towns once in a while.

            Still, Jesus spent most of his life in the little town of Nazareth.  And little towns back then had some things in common with little towns now.  For one thing, there were a lot of people in town who were related to each other.  It might be directly or it might be through marriage, but the chances were that if you lived in a town like Nazareth you had some cousins and uncles and aunts who lived there, too.  

Another thing a town like Nazareth had in common with our small towns today is that you really did not have a lot of privacy.  It was very hard to be anonymous in a town like Nazareth.  Everyone knew you.  Everyone knew your parents.  Everyone knew your brothers and sisters.  And everyone knew pretty much everything you did.  They knew if you liked to go to bed early or if you liked to stay up late.  They knew if you were a hard worker or if you were kind of lazy.  They knew if you were outgoing or quiet.  And that was especially true if you had a business where you had to deal with the public regularly.  Like, say, a carpentry business, which is what Jesus had.  

We don’t really know anything about Jesus’ life in Nazareth.  We don’t know if he was someone who stood out from the crowd, or if he tried to fit in.  He was not doing miracles then, of course.  We also don’t know what the people of Nazareth thought of Jesus.  We don’t know if they thought there was anything different, anything special, about him, or if he was just kind of one of the guys.

By the time of our reading for today, Jesus had been away from Nazareth for a while.  We don’t know how long.  He’d first gone to Capernaum, then started traveling all around Galilee.  He gathered up the disciples.  He did a lot of preaching.  He did a lot of healing, too.  He’d gotten into some arguments with the Pharisees.  He’d gotten a lot of notoriety.  Jesus was becoming famous by this time.

We’re not told, but you’d think news of what Jesus was doing must have spread to Nazareth.  We don’t know what the people of Nazareth thought about him.  We don’t know if maybe they asked Mary what this was all about, what her son was up to.  Maybe some of them were even proud of him.  You know, small town by makes good and all that.  Or maybe, hearing of his problems with the Pharisees and so forth, maybe they were a little embarrassed about him, like you would be if your town was known as the hometown of some fringe political activist or something.  We don’t know.

And now, Jesus is coming back home.  We’re not told why.  But how do you suppose he felt?  You’d think he was probably looking forward to seeing his mother, Mary.  And maybe other family members, too.  Maybe he was even looking forward to seeing some old friends.  He might even have been looking forward to showing the disciples around, showing them where he lived, where his carpenter shop was, all that sort of thing.  I mean, we don’t know, but it seems like a natural thing for him to have wanted to do.

He goes to the synagogue to teach.  Just like he’d done in the other places he’d gone.  And–the people were not happy with him.  They could not believe what they were hearing.  Who did Jesus think he was, anyway?  What made him think he could come back to Nazareth and start telling people about God and about how they should live?  He’s just an ordinary guy.  We saw him grow up.  We know his family.  We remember when he was starting his carpentry business and barely knew one end of the hammer from the other.  And now he’s acting like he’s some great rabbi or something?  What’s up with that?

Jesus had to be disappointed, don’t you think?  So, he made the famous statement that a prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.  He did not do much in the way of miracles, because of the lack of faith of the people there.  And he left, resuming his traveling and his ministry.

But as I’ve said before, the question is, what are we supposed to learn from this?  I mean, it’s an interesting story.  A little sidelight into the life of Jesus.  But everything that’s in the Bible is there for a reason.  We’re supposed to learn something from it.  So what can we learn from this?  Well, probably several things.  But there’s one I want to focus on today.

When Jesus started his three years of traveling ministry, he was doing what God the Father wanted him to do.  I’m sure Jesus knew that, and I’m sure he was willing to do it.  But it did not come without a cost.

The ultimate cost, of course, was when Jesus was killed on the cross.  But there were other costs along the way.  And one of those costs is highlighted in this story.

            As we said, Jesus had spent most of his earthly life in Nazareth.  And as most of us do, I assume he had gotten into a routine.  He got up at a certain time and went through his morning routine.  He got to the carpenter shop at a certain time.  He ate his meals at regular times.  He went to bed at a regular time.  He went through the sacrifices and routines that a Jewish man was expected to go through.  He lived, I assume, what was considered at that time to be a normal life.

            When Jesus started his ministry, he gave that up.  Once he started preaching, once he started healing, once he started letting people know who he was, there was no chance that he could ever live a normal life again.

            Maybe that does not sound like a big deal to you, but think about it.  Once he started his ministry, Jesus could never just walk down the street like a normal person.  He could never just go to a friend’s house for dinner.  He could never even just go home and relax in the evening.  Wherever he went, he was Jesus, The Divine Son of God.

            And wherever he went, people wanted things from him.  Teach us, Jesus.  Heal me, Jesus.  Feed me, Jesus.  Do a miracle for me, Jesus.  No one really wanted to get to know Jesus, the person.  No one wanted to know how he felt or what he was going through.  Even when they cheered him, they were really just cheering him for what they wanted him to do or who they wanted him to be.  Even his closest friends, the disciples, were always making demands of him or trying to tell him what to do.  I would think that had to be really hard on Jesus.  To know that no one, not even his closest friends, were all that interested in him as a person.  They were just interested in him for what he could do for them.  I would think Jesus had to feel very lonely sometimes.

            Most of us live our lives in some sort of routine, too.  We get up at a certain time and go through our morning routines.  If we have jobs or go to school we do that at a certain time.  We eat our meals at regular times.  We go to bed at a regular time.  We live what, for the most part, would be considered a normal life.

            And that’s not necessarily wrong.  But what if God called you to leave that normal life? What if God called you to leave your regular routines?  What if God called you to go somewhere different, or to do something different?  Would you do it?  Could you do it?

            It’s not easy.  It’s especially not easy if we like our normal life and our regular routines.  It would be a sacrifice.  There would be a cost to following the Lord.  But then, there’s always a cost to following the Lord.

            Maybe you think this does not apply to you.  Maybe you think you’re already where God wants you to be and are already doing what God wants you to do.  And that may very well be true.  But that does not mean that what we’ve talked about does not apply to you.  Just because God wants you to do what you’re doing now does not mean God will want you to do it forever.  Just because you’re where God wants you to be now does not mean God wants you to be there forever.

            And even if you are where God wants you to be, and are doing what God wants you to do, if you’re doing it right there’s still a cost involved.  There are still things you’re giving up to follow God.  Because there are always things we have to give up to follow God.  There is always a cost to following God.  It’s worth it–following God is always worth it.  But that does not make the cost less real.

            Jesus paid the cost.  Jesus gave up what he had to give up.  Jesus’ life is an example to us.  May we follow his example, and willingly pay the cost of following God.