The Lutheran Hour
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"What You Don’t Want to Hear"
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Text: Luke 4:28
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. To a world which would conceal the Savior and cover up God’s grace, the Holy Spirit says, “Look.” Look into the manger of Bethlehem; look upon the cross upon Calvary’s crest; look into the empty tomb and see the living Lord who would save you from yourself; from your sin; from this world. Look upon the Lord and live. Amen.
The other day, my Administrative Assistant, Gaylene LaBore, called my office telephone. She was giggling. A sophisticated lady, who recently celebrated 50 years singing with the St. Louis Bach Society, Mrs. LaBore is not often given to giggling. She laughs readily, but she doesn’t giggle. Through her chuckles, Mrs. LaBore explained that she was only one of a series of people in the building who were giggling. The cause of the giggles? Someone had called in to Lutheran Hour headquarters and said she wanted to talk to “Kenny.” With a number of employees who have the name Kenny, the operator had to ask a number of questions so she could route the call to the proper Kenny. When the caller said, “I would like to talk to Kenny, The Lutheran Hour speaker,” the operator started giggling. She was still giggling when she patched the call through to Mrs. LaBore. When Mrs. LaBore heard the story, she started giggling, too. Eventually, and it took less time to happen than it does to tell, the caller was connected with my office. I picked up the phone and said, “Hi, mom. How are you?”
You see, at Lutheran Hour headquarters I am called a good many things. Some people call me Pastor Klaus, others call me Reverend Klaus, a few, when we’re in a very informal situation call me, Ken. But in the big wide world, I can think of only one person who with any kind of regularity calls me, Kenny; and that’s my mom. Years ago, when I first became a pastor, she tried to break herself of the habit. No matter how hard she tried, the name Kenny kept slipping in. Eventually, she just gave up and found peace in calling me Kenny. I don’t mind. When I was born, I weighed in at 9 lbs. 12 ozs. For no other reason than that alone, she’s earned the right to call me pretty much anything she wants. So, to my mom, my name is Kenny. And, after the message today, it will probably be Kenny to everyone else in the office building. That’s probably all right, too. It’s a small price to pay to make a lot of people giggle.
What I wanted to say is: Have you ever noticed how some people have a hard time getting past a mental image of who we are? For my mom, I will always be little Kenny. Although I’m well into my fifties and have a gray beard, I will continue to be her little boy. When she looks at me, she sees me sleeping in my crib, taking my first steps, going off to school, learning to play the trumpet, being dropped off to study to be a pastor, and getting married. No matter where I’ve been; no matter what I’ve done; no matter how many pounds I put on; I’m still her little Kenny.
Now, don’t think I’m picking on my mom here. I do the same thing. When I go back to some church which I left years ago, I often bump into a bunch of old friends. We pick up our relationship pretty much where we left off. But, when I go back to a previous parish, I also meet a lot of teen-agers, or young adults, or even middle aged adults. They come up to me and warmly say, “Hi, Pastor Klaus, do you remember me?” I don’t. I have to ask. When they tell me, I understand why I don’t remember them. Although they’re 30-ish now, the last time I saw them, they were five. My mind says they should still be five. But they’re not. They’ve changed. They’ve grown up. They’ve seen a lot of life; they’ve had a lot of experiences. Their growing up says that I’ve grown old. It’s really quite a shock to me that they’ve changed so very much.
Yes, it’s pretty hard getting past some of our mental images of other people. If you still don’t understand what I’m driving at, go to your high-school reunion. At a high-school reunion, the very first thing they’ll do is give you a badge… a badge that has your name, and a copy of your senior picture. The biggest difference between a 10th, 25th, and a 50th year class reunion is they make the lettering bigger on the badges so aging eyes can read them. They give us badges so we can identify the people whom we’re hugging, or whose hand we’re shaking. They do that so we can figure out who we’re talking to when we lyingly say, “Oh, you haven’t changed a bit.” A high-school reunion clearly, mercilessly, sometimes cruelly says we have changed. The fellow voted most likely to succeed, hasn’t; the couple most likely to stay together, didn’t; the school’s greatest athlete, isn’t; and the computer geek suddenly looks far more attractive since he managed to make his first $20 million. It’s hard to get past the mental image we have some of people, isn’t it?
That was certainly the situation Jesus encountered when He returned to Nazareth. No, he wasn’t there for a high school reunion; this was more the homecoming of a “local boy who had made good.” Since Jesus’ departure, stories had slowly filtered their way back to that unrespected hamlet. For example, they may have heard how, in previous weeks, Jesus had turned water into wine; had done miraculous signs in Jerusalem; had healed a nobleman’s son. Those are the kinds of accomplishments which should have had the town roll out the red carpet, had the school band lead a parade down main street, with the sirens of the fire trucks screeching, and the bells pealing a warm welcome. Jesus’ return should have been celebrated with the mayor making a speech and handing over to Jesus a gold-painted key to the city. On the main road, the city planners should have been busy putting up signs saying, “Nazareth. Come See Jesus’ Boyhood Home.”
None of those things happened. What did happen was this: as was His custom, Jesus went to church, to synagogue. There He was asked to read from the Old Testament, more specifically, from the book of Isaiah. These are the words He read to His old friends that day: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” After Jesus was done reading, He rolled up the prophetic scroll and sat down. In those days it was the custom of preachers to sit down as they spoke. So, sitting down, Jesus said, “Those words that I’ve just read to you; the prophecies made by Isaiah, today they are fulfilled.” Luke recorded the people were impressed. They were impressed by what Jesus said; they were impressed by the way He said it.
They were so impressed that they found themselves asking each other, “Isn’t this Joseph the carpenter’s son?” Some of them apparently had a hard time thinking of Jesus as anyone other than the boy who had grown up in the carpenter’s home, the kid from down the street who played in front of their house. Just like I’m always going to be “little Kenny” to my mother; Jesus was always going to be “Joseph the carpenter’s little son, Jesus.” Although Scripture doesn’t say it, some might have been almost shocked to see Jesus in this new light; to hear the words that He spoke with such authority. “After all,” they may have thought to themselves, “we weren’t all that impressed with Him before. As Mary’s oldest son, Jesus should have become the family breadwinner when Joseph passed out of the picture. He didn’t do that. No, He just up and left town. He left here as a solitary carpenter’s apprentice and He comes back with a whole bunch of disciples calling Him Rabbi. Sure, He sounds good and all; but I’d like to see Him do some of the things here that He’s done elsewhere. After all, I think He kind of owes us. We’re the ones who gave Him His start. Let Jesus do some healings here; and until He does, I think He’s just spoutin’ some fine sounding, highfalutin’ words. We want Jesus to do some miracles. He owes us. Let Him do some healing miracles here, and it’ll put Nazareth on the map. We can build hotels, restaurants to take care of the patients, shops for them to visit while they’re waiting for their appointment. The sky’s the limit.” Now I don’t know that they thought all or any of those things. I do know they thought Jesus ought to do some miracles in His hometown.
Because they were thinking that, Jesus said some things they didn’t like. He said: Probably not here. I’m going to do miracles, all right, but probably not here. He reminded His old friends that God, not they, were in control. He reminded them of some Old Testament accounts where God had worked some powerful wonders, but He had done them outside the ranks of the chosen people. Jesus probably would have reminded them that God loved the entire world; that He had come to offer Himself as the sacrifice which would save all of humanity from its sins. Jesus probably would have said a lot of things, but He didn’t get the chance. After His first few sentences, His old friends, His old neighbors and playmates, had become so angry, so irate, so infuriated that He wasn’t grateful to them, or wasn’t going to perform for them, or wasn’t going to be the little boy that they remembered, they shut Him off; shut Him down; and they tried to shove Him off a cliff. What happened that day in Nazareth says it’s pretty hard for people to see Jesus for who He really is.
You know, when Jesus walked this earth, humanity’s spiritual nearsightedness, its inability to see Him for who He really was, was a great problem. It still is. Think about it. When Jesus was but a bit of a baby boy, King Herod could only see the Christ Child as a rival, a contender, a pretender to his throne. Herod was never able to figure out that Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world. Amazingly, Herod was only the first in a long list of rulers and regimes who have, over the centuries, thought Jesus was dangerous to them. Herod was only the first of a multitude of monarchs who have tried to banish the baby, shut down the Savior, exile and eliminate the Lord from the hearts of humanity.
People have a hard time seeing Jesus for who He is. The Priests and Jewish Supreme Court looked upon the Him as a fake, a fraud, a phony who was, with His claims to be the Son of God, leading the people down the slippery slope of ignorance and spiritual dependency. Those ancient spiritual leaders also have their direct descendants in our present age. The college professor, possessing countless degrees proudly displayed behind his name, sneers at the Savior, and with a wave of his hand, tries to dismiss the life, suffering, sacrifice, and crucifixion of our Lord. Sophisticated scholars and modern day preachers smirk as they think upon Jesus’ resurrection. They try to explain away the greatest, hell-shaking, heaven-opening event in the world’s history as being nothing more than a foolish fable, the result of overactive imaginations, an apostolic fiction told to baffle and befuddle those who are unsophisticated, who believe the true Words of Scripture with a simple, childlike faith.
People have a hard time seeing Jesus for who He is. The great crowds which once swarmed around Jesus, believing they could put Him in their debt if they gave Him a golden crown and proclaimed Him their king, have their contemporaries in those multitudes today who think they have, through some offering made to a money motivated ministry, obligated God to give them whatever their longing, craving, yearning hearts can think of. How sad so many people, in whatever generation they might live, do not see Jesus clearly. They do not see that God, the Creator of all that is and ever will be, doesn’t need their gifts. In the book of Psalms, (Psalm 50 excerpts) the Lord says, “I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are Mine… Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving… call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” No, God doesn’t need our gifts to jump-start His grace, His unmerited love. Scripture is clear, God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son. God didn’t invest His only Son; in His great grace He gave His Son so that all who believe on the Christ as their substitute, their sacrifice, their Savior, will not perish but have everlasting life. “Now, if God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us all that we need?” (Romans 8:32). Because of God’s promise; because of God’s Son; we are given everything to survive in this world, to celebrate in the next.
In Jesus Christ, through His fulfillment of God’s commandments; through His carrying of our sins; through His defeat of death, believers are given all they need, all that is necessary. Even so, many people have a hard time seeing the Savior for who He really is. Pontius Pilate, the judge who condemned to death a man whom he knew to be innocent, never saw Jesus clearly. Almost 2,000 years ago, Pilate stood face-to-face with the Savior who is the only way to heaven; the only truth this world has ever seen; the only Savior who can conquer death, offer forgiveness, and guarantee eternal life. Face-to-face with God’s Son, Pilate found himself scornfully asking, “What is truth?” Pilate is not alone. Look around. How many people do you know who endlessly echo the hollow words of the procurator? How many people think they can, by sheer force of will and wish, turn illusion into reality by endlessly repeating the unsure, uncertain mantra: “If you believe hard enough, every road leads to God, and every path leads to heaven”? How many people, praying to an anonymous divinity, hold fast to the false and foolish feeling which says, “Every faith is true, if you cling to it long enough”? How many are investing their souls’ eternity on the devil’s deceptive and deceiving declaration: “You are master of your fate; You are the captain of your soul”?
How many? Far too many! Even one who believes such tripe and trash is too many. Far better to see Jesus for who He is: God’s Son, your Savior. See Him for who He is: the heaven-sent sacrifice for the sins of humankind. See Him for who He is: the Lord who suffered so you might be saved; who was rejected so you might be accepted; who was declared guilty, so you might, on Judgment Day, be found innocent of all wrong doing. See Jesus for who He is. See Him as the rebuilder of the bridge between earth and heaven that we have torn down through defiance and disobedience, through sin and transgression. See Him for who He is: the One who loves you no matter what you have done; who washes clean any repentant heart, no matter how blackened it might have become from dark deeds and terrible disobedience. See Jesus for who He is: Your Savior, your Redeemer, your brother, your friend. See Him.
In 1957, a group of Buddhist monks found themselves facing a difficult challenge. The government was building a highway, and the monks were being forced to move. The challenge for the monks was not in moving themselves; that was easily done. A task not so easily completed was moving the large, clay statue of Buddha from the old monastery to their new home. The monks thought they had found a solution when they brought in a great crane to lift the giant Buddha from its base where it had been sitting for centuries. The crane lifted and the monks heard a crack. The statue was cracking. The monks panicked as matters were made worse when an unexpected rain began to fall.
In desperation, the monks had the crane slowly, gently set the statue down. Then, to minimize rain damage, the monks covered the Buddha with a great tarp. Hours later they checked the statue to see if it was staying dry. Using a flashlight they looked under the cover. They were surprised to see something shining back. The tarp was removed and the monks came closer. Was there something underneath the clay? Using a chisel and hammer, they chipped away the smallest piece possible. The gleam became brighter. The chipping began in earnest. Hours later, the monks stood before a solid-gold statue. Further investigation explained the riddle. Centuries before, as the army of Burma was about to invade Thailand, the forefathers of these monks covered their gold statue with clay. It was a good disguise, made all the more complete when the Burmese slaughtered the monks who took the secret to their graves. It took hundreds of years for the statue to be seen for the precious object that it was.
Today I encourage you to see the value of a Savior and not a statue; to appreciate the grace of God more than you might cold gold. My friends, not a single one of you listening to this broadcast has been given hundreds of years to see Jesus, to believe in Him as your sacrificing substitute. You dare not wait until the Day of Judgment to look upon the Lord of life and learn to appreciate His value. You do not have endless tomorrows before you can, by some strange accident, some coincidental happenstance, get a glimpse of His great love.
Today, the Holy Spirit calls you to see Jesus clearly. He wants you to see underneath the mud of abuse, the dirt of disregard with which the world tries to cover the Savior; to see the salvation His death and resurrection have won. The Holy Spirit wants you to look past the lies of Satan who does his best to cover the Christ, disguise Him, deny Him and hide Him. Today the Holy Spirit wishes to chip away at the disrespect that doubters and deniers and detractors have smeared over your Lord. Today, is the day the Holy Spirit says see the Savior for who He is. See Him and believe. See Him clearly, so the Father, on Judgment Day, may see you differently. See the Savior, and if you wish, allow us to help. Call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for January 21, 2007
TOPIC: What is a Hyperactive Conscience?ANNOUNCER: Now Pastor Ken Klaus answers questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer. A listener writes, “Dear Pastor Klaus, each week you preach about our need for repentance. Well, after I sin, I am inconsolable with guilt for weeks at a time.” What would you say to a Christian person who feels such devastating remorse?
KLAUS: The first thing I would say is, “Congratulations.”
ANNOUNCER: Congratulations? May I ask, “Why?”
KLAUS: Here’s why. Mark, we live in an age where most people are absolutely convinced that they are absolutely right in everything they do. It never even occurs to them that they could possibly be wrong. And, if by some small chance they do happen to be wrong, it’s because they’ve been misunderstood.
I recall a politician recently who made a remark that many took as an insult to the troops in Iraq. He seemed surprised at the outcry it caused. When he apologized, he didn’t say he was wrong; he said he was sorry that he had been misunderstood. He wasn’t admitting his error; he was saying that his listeners were wrong to misunderstand him. That’s the way the world operates. If I’m wrong, well, it’s your fault.
ANNOUNCER: And it’s a rare day when someone, without qualification, says yes, they goofed, or even sinned.
KLAUS: Even so, that is exactly what the Lord wants His people to do. It is one of the purposes of the Moral Law which He has written in the hearts of all people. The Law brings us to the realization that we are sinners who have fallen short of God’s expectations.
ANNOUNCER: And what happens, then, when we admit we can’t do anything to fix the situation?
KLAUS: When we admit our sin and shortcomings, that is exactly when the Lord gives us the Gospel, His Good News that says, “Even though you have fallen short of what God wants, Jesus hasn’t.” That’s when God says, “It was for this that Jesus fulfilled all the laws you’ve broken. It’s the reason He has taken upon Himself the punishment you deserved. This is the redemption Jesus lived, died, and rose to give us. It’s God’s Good News that says, “You are forgiven.”
Of course, the devil doesn’t want anyone to hear or believe God’s Good News. To stop it from getting through to us, he has developed two main types of attack.ANNOUNCER: Two types of attack. What would they be?
KLAUS: Well, the first one we have already discussed… that is where the devil tells people they aren’t sinners, and they certainly don’t have anything of which to repent. The first way works great on unbelievers; the second way is more subtle, and the devil uses it on God’s people.
ANNOUNCER: On Christians.
KLAUS: Right. In this method of operation, Satan tries to short-circuit God’s Good News. To Christians, the devil says, “Yes, you’re forgiven, but…” He finishes that sentence a number of ways: “You’re forgiven, but not really;” or “You’re forgiven, but this really is a very big sin;” or “You’re forgiven, but you’re doing that sin again and again. You call yourself a Christian? I think you’re a hypocrite.”
ANNOUNCER: So really, the devil through all of these different ploys is trying to rob people of their assurance and of their joy in Jesus.
KLAUS: Right. He’s trying to tell people that their sin is somehow greater than God’s forgiveness. When that happens, like our questioner, they feel unforgiven.
ANNOUNCER: And how would you respond to our questioner who feels inconsolable with guilt for weeks at a time?
KLAUS: I would say this: When Christ forgives you, you are forgiven. Period. There are no “ifs,” there are no “ands,” there are no “buts.” When Satan comes accusing you, let him know that this matter, as far as God is concerned, is closed. And, if God has closed that chapter, you have to do the same. That sin simply no longer exists.
ANNOUNCER: Because the Lord has put that sin away and has promised not to remember it again.
KLAUS: Right, and if God doesn’t remember our sin…
ANNOUNCER: Well, then, we shouldn’t continue to trouble ourselves with it. Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Songs of Thankfulness and Praise” arranged by Henry Gerike. Used by permission
“Allegro from Concerto in b minor” by J.G. Walther. From Richard Heschke at the Hradetzky in Red Bank by Richard Heschke (© 1993 Arkay Records)
“The Savior Calls, Let Every Ear” arranged by Chris Loemker. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC