When we look at the life of Jesus, we have to
remember that Jesus was at the same time fully human and fully divine. We
don’t know exactly how that worked, but it’s something that comes up at various
points in Jesus’ life. And one of those points came up in our Bible
reading for today. Jesus, after having been on the road for some time,
comes back to his home town of Nazareth.
For the divine Jesus, of course, there was no such thing as
a home town on earth. The home of the divine Jesus was in heaven.
But for the human Jesus, Nazareth was his home. As far as we can
tell, he grew up there. He spent most of the first thirty years of his
life there.
Because there’s no evidence to the contrary, we assume that
Jesus lived a pretty ordinary life there during that time. He was a
carpenter. His earthly family was there--our Bible reading mentions his
mother Mary; four brothers, James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon; and some unnamed
sisters. Presumably he had friends there, too, some of whom he’d probably
known since he was a little kid.
Our best guess, as far as I could find out, is that about a
year and a half had passed since Jesus had started his traveling ministry.
Jesus had done a lot of things in that time. He had healed people.
He had worked miracles. He had preached to thousands of people.
And now, a year and a half later, after all that he had said and done,
Jesus was coming home.
I would think that thought would’ve made Jesus happy.
Seeing all these people he had not seen in quite a while. Finding
out what had happened to them. Getting to eat Mom’s home cooking.
And, of course, being able to go to the synagogue and teach and do the
things for his old friends and neighbors that he’d done for so many people in
so many other places.
Except, of course, it did not work out that way, did it?
We’re told that the people there were amazed by Jesus, but not in a good
way. They were resentful of him. This Jesus was not the same person
they had known. He’d changed. And the people of Nazareth did not
like this new Jesus. They were saying, what’s up with all this?
Here he is, up in the synagogue, teaching and working miracles. Who
does he think he is, anyway? He’s just an ordinary person like we are.
What does he think, that he’s better than the rest of us now? We’re
told that the people of Nazareth were actually offended at Jesus teaching in
the synagogue.
When we think about the sacrifice Jesus made for us, we
usually think of his death on the cross. And we should think about that.
That was incredibly important, for a lot of reasons. But that was
not the only sacrifice Jesus made for us. Jesus made lots of other
sacrifices for us, too.
One of them is simply being willing to come to earth at
all. I mean, think about it. Jesus was in heaven. The Divine
Son. God the Son. In heaven with God the Father and God the Holy
Spirit. The trinity. The three in one. All of them together
fully God and each of them fully God. And we don’t know quite how that
works, but just think about how awesome that would be for Jesus in heaven.
And Jesus willingly gives that up. He separates
himself from the other two members of the holy trinity. That’d be like
giving up a part of yourself. Can you even imagine that? I don’t
think I can. All the time he was on earth he’d have felt incomplete, like
a part of him was missing.
That was a tremendous sacrifice
Jesus made. It must have been a really terrible feeling for him, to feel
incomplete and separate in that way. Maybe that’s why Jesus would
sometimes go off by himself to pray. Maybe, when he did that, he could get
some measure of connection with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit and not
feel so incomplete, at least for a while.
And then, there was the sacrifice Jesus made by his
ministry on earth. Again, he had lived in Nazareth his whole life.
He had family there. He had friends there, old friends who’d known
him all his life. He had a business there. He had a home there.
He was living in the normal routines and rhythms of life that we all live
in.
When Jesus started his earthly ministry, he gave all that
up. He left his family behind. He left his old friends behind.
He left his business behind. He left his homes behind. He
left behind his entire way of life, the way of life he’d been living ever since
he was little. Think about what that
would be like, to leave behind the only life you’d ever known like that.
And think of what he left it behind for. A life of
wandering. No stability. No home life. No place to even call
home. As Jesus says, “Foxes have dens and
birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” A
life of people constantly demanding things from him. A life of people
constantly criticizing him, trying to tell him what to do. A life of
people trying to trick him and trap him. A life in which no one, not even
his closest associates, really understood him or what he was trying to do.
That’s a tremendous sacrifice that Jesus made, when you think about it.
Jesus did not just sacrifice his life when he died on the cross.
Jesus sacrificed his entire earthly life when he started his ministry.
Jesus knew what he was doing, of course.
When Jesus left home to start his ministry, he knew what that meant.
He knew it was what he had come to earth to do. Jesus knew he had
not come to earth to live a quiet life as a carpenter in Nazareth. He
knew he was the Savior, the Divine Son of God. He knew what he needed to
do, and he knew what was going to happen to him as a result. Maybe not
every last detail--we don’t know that--but he knew enough. He knew
everything he was giving up, both during his life and in his death. But
still, it was a sacrifice. And Jesus made that sacrifice. He made
it for us.
Why do you suppose, after a year and a
half on the road, Jesus came home? We’re not told. Maybe Jesus
never said. Maybe the disciples themselves did not know. It could
be that he wanted to check on Mary and his earthly siblings, to see how they
were doing. It could be that he just wanted to rest and get away from
things for a while. It could be all kinds of reasons.
But I wonder if, while Jesus was there, it
ever crossed his mind to wonder what his life would have been like if he’d
never left. We don’t know that he did, but again, while he was on earth
Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine. A lot of us, as humans,
look at our lives and wonder about what would’ve happened if we’d done things
differently. Maybe Jesus did, too.
Maybe the human Jesus wondered, what
would’ve happened if I’d just kept working in the carpenter shop? He
could’ve had a quiet, normal life. Maybe he’d even have gotten married
and raised a family. Things would’ve been so much easier. They’d
have been so much simpler. A nice house to come home to. People who
cared about him. No one constantly trying to trick him or trap him or
come up with a reason to throw him in prison. There could have been a
part of the human Jesus that thought that all sounded pretty good.
But of course, Jesus did leave home, and he
did start his ministry. Because Jesus knew he was the divine Son of God.
And he knew that he had come to earth for specific reasons. To
teach us. To heal us. To provide an example for us. To die,
so that our sins could be forgiven. Jesus knew that was why he had come
to earth. And he knew that he needed to do what he had been put on earth
to do. But still, he had to make that choice. And he had to make
the sacrifices necessary to do what he had been put on earth to do.
But here’s the thing. Jesus was not
the only person who was put on earth for specific reasons. You know who
else was? You. And me. Each one of us was put on earth for
specific reasons. No, none of us is the divine Son of God. But each
of us was put here to do certain things. We’re put here to love God.
We’re put here to serve God. We’re put here to love each other and
serve each other. We’re put here to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
And there will
be times when doing those things complicates our life, just as it complicated
Jesus’ life. And there may be times when we’d rather not do them.
There may be times when we realize how much easier our lives would be,
how much simpler our lives would be, if we did not do what God put us here to
do. And there are going to be times when, if we’re going to do what God
put us here to do, we’re going to have to give some things up. We’re
going to need to make some sacrifices. If we’re going to do the things
God put us here to do, we’re not always going to be able to do the things we
want to do.
And then we’re
going to have to make a choice, just as Jesus had to make a choice. Are
we going to do what God put us on earth to do? Are we going to love God
and serve God with everything we do? Are we going to love each other and
serve each other at all times? Are we going to go out and make disciples
of Jesus Christ? And are we going to do those things even when doing them
means we have to give some things up and make some sacrifices, sacrifices that
we might not really want to make? Are we willing to give up a quiet,
normal life, if that’s what’s necessary to do what God put us here to do?
Jesus was
willing to give up his entire earthly life so that he could do what he was put
on earth to do. Are you and I willing to do the same?
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