Scarcity

(By Dave, 10 min)

Scripture

Luke 4: 14-30

Jesus Begins His Ministry

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“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.”

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.

Homecoming

Because of his ministry reputation, Jesus’s hometown neighbors are anxious to hear from him. When he proclaims good news to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind and release for those oppressed, they are delighted.

Even more exciting is that the courier of this good news is their guy. Joe’s son from down the block. When Jesus declares that the passage from Isaiah is fulfilled in their hearing, they find his words marvelous and gracious. What Jesus did in Capernaum would be doubly so in Nazareth because these people are his relations and friends.

Moreover, the people of Nazareth are tailor-made for the message Jesus conveyed. They are the poor in the broader Jewish community, and not just financially. They are left out and ignored. So much so that when Nathaniel learns Jesus came from there, he muses if anything good can come from Nazareth (John 1:46).

Then the tone of the Lord’s message changes as he declares the reason why the Nazarenes find his words gracious: “Physician heal yourself. What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” Jesus knows they are excited about him because they believe that he will bring Isaiah’s prophecy to fulfillment in greater measure with his old neighbors than elsewhere. To their surprise, Jesus evokes memories of Elijah and Elisha who chose non-Jewish, poor and leprous people for their miraculous/healing events.

The people of Nazareth got the message. No backslapping, hometown favors for them from the neighborhood boy. Their hope of being a special part of the fulfilled prophecy was dashed. But why does Jesus imply that the Jewish people of Nazareth are not the people described in the prophecy? Why do they not fit the bill when the entire Jewish community ignores and looks down on them?

Mindset of scarcity

I believe the Lord knows they will reject him because he knows they have the wrong mindset. Their perspective is illustrated in a story from my past as a teacher. I used to be an advisor for a student Christian group. One evening a freshman from this group (call him Tom) visited me after I attended one of their meetings. He was deeply troubled.

Tom became a Christian during his first semester at college. It took over his life, purging a host of behaviors he listed for me. He fit the definition of born again and truly seemed free of his past. But he was not free. His trip home illustrated this reality for him.

Effusive about his newfound faith, Tom returned to the neighborhood of his youth and was ridiculed by his family for religious silliness. He was unexpectedly offended by the drug and alcohol use of his friends even though just six months ago he was using the same substances. He found himself chagrined by the language they used, and their attitude toward women.

Tom was a different person, now separated from his lifelong friends by the very faith he was so excited to share. But he still wanted to share it. He still very much desired to be part of their community. When they attacked him bitterly, he returned to school feeling utterly alone.

Tom’s friends lived in a mindset of scarcity, a notion a friend of mine described recently. We should all be familiar with this. Just a few years ago during Covid, if you saw several people buying multiple packages of toilet paper, then there would be no toilet paper for you. Toilet paper was scarce. The people from Tom’s hometown believed his love was likewise limited. He could not love Jesus and at the same time love them. If Tom was pouring out love for Christ, who opposed the sin expressed in their lifestyles, then Tom could not love them.

But they were wrong about him. Tom continued to love them deeply even though he could no longer approve of the lifestyle he used to share with them. Tom lived from a mindset of abundant love. His Christian love was not scarce. It was broad enough to include the love of Jesus Christ, his Christian community at school, and his hometown community. The kind of love Jesus ushered into the world is an everlasting wellspring that does not go dry.

Like Tom’s community, the Nazarene people could not see the world this way because they lived in a mindset of scarcity. A perspective where God’s love was reserved for only one set of people. It used to be them, but now it was for the outcasts. They believed God’s love was so scarce that all of God’s promises to the Israeli people, and therefore to them, were forgotten. When Jesus said he was sent to extend God’s love to the least, they heard God’s love would be removed from them. They hated Jesus for it and sought to throw him from a cliff.

I believe Jesus didn’t overlook or exclude the Nazarene people in his fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. The prophecy merely extended God’s love to those outside of the Israeli nation. However, the Lord knew the Nazarenes could not hear this message before he walked into their town. Their mindset of scarcity would obscure his message of God’s abundant love for all and cause him to be rejected.

I suspect this is what Tom encountered as well. His message that he now loved God meant that he could not love his old neighbors and family. They believed Tom did not have abundant love, but rather a limited love. Love that could be either extended to Jesus Christ or to them, but not both. So, they rejected him.

Abundant love in the Christian life

What of us brothers and sisters? What mindset do we have? In the light of this Scripture, I wonder about the signature of a scarcity mindset in my own life. What if Jesus showed up in my Bible study group and told us:

“I have returned unexpectedly for a second missionary journey. But I didn’t come for you, ladies and gents. I came for the prisoners in the jail downtown. I came for the guy you want nothing to do with because you had an argument with him that cut too deep years ago. I came for your father who beat you growing up, and your mother who spent more time on her own life than yours. I came for the guy who made your life miserable in middle school or the husband who left you for another woman. I came for the drunk who killed your daughter on the highway and is now free on probation. I came to offer them a chance for redemption and acceptance by my Father in heaven.”

How would we respond? Would we celebrate that God’s love is being offered to those we understandably exclude? That the year of the Lord’s favor where debts are canceled is being extended to them? Or would we question Jesus: “How can you possibly be coming for them?” Do we believe God’s love is abundant or scarce? Offered to all, or reserved for the pious?

The answers to these questions have great ramifications on the peace we experience in this world. More importantly, those answers reveal if we are ready to join Jesus in his mission or want to throw him from the proverbial cliff even as we accept his grace.

Thanks so much for reading, and God’s blessings to you today and every day as we all strive to emulate our Savior and Lord.

Dave