The people I am sending you to are obstinate and stubborn.

There is a big company out there called RCA. It is famous for lots of reasons, and they had and still have a very famous logo. It is a picture of a little dog, a black and white dog with head cocked quizzically listening to an old Victrola record player. You may know the name of picture-”His Master’s Voice” But have you ever wondered why the dog looks confused? I read the reason the dog is confused is because the dog and the Victrola are sitting on a casket. It sounds ghastly but that’s the way the original picture was painted. The dog’s master was dead, but his voice lived on, via a record. Now I don’t know if that is true or not but I do know that when I was away at seminary our little dog, Maggie, was really confused when I left and couldn’t understand why I didn’t come home like I always did. Ruth reported when she would put on a video that had my voice in it - Maggie would come running from the bedroom looking all around for me. She knew my voice but couldn’t find me. She was confused and perplexed. How often do we find ourselves confused and perplexed upon hearing our Master’s Voice?

Of course the Master’s Voice that I am describing is Jesus’ voice, and if one were to listen to Jesus then one would be listening to God, for after all that is who Jesus was- God in flesh appearing. You would think the people would be overjoyed but they weren’t. In our Gospel lesson the people seem to harden themselves against the message. Why is that? To answer that question maybe we need to look back at our Old Testament lesson, interesting enough there are some surprising similarities.

God in speaking to Ezekiel said through the Holy Spirit, Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against Me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them. ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’ And whether they listen or fail to listen –for they are a rebellious house-they will know that a prophet has been among them. There we have it; they were a rebellious lot- obstinate and stubborn. Who do you know in your life that is obstinate…stubborn…who do you know that is obstinate or stubborn when it comes to the things of God? How many of us are rebellious against God?

Where does all this rebellion and hard headedness come from? Scripture declares: Every inclination of a man’s heart is evil from childhood. Genesis 8.21. The Psalmist writes, I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (Ps 51.5) St Paul writes to the Romans: The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. (Rm 8.7) All this hostility comes from sin. Sin sets us against God and things of God. Sin would create in us a desire to be like God, to dethrone the one true God. This desire to be like God seems to be an inherited thing, for all have sinned and been in rebellion towards God. (Rms 3.23) It is to a rebellious people, a people that think they know best for themselves despite what God says, that Ezekiel is sent. And the people’s hearts and minds are hard. Ezekiel is called to speak the Word of God- like it or not… they didn’t like it, but it didn’t change God’s truth.

Now let us fast forward to our Gospel lesson. Jesus has come home to Nazareth. You can almost picture the headlines…if they had had newspapers back then: “Home Town Boy Makes Good” “Miracle Worker Is Our Jesus” When the Sabbath came Jesus went to the synagogue and He began to teach. It says in our Gospel lesson that many who heard Him were amazed. Mark doesn’t record exactly what amazed them, but in other places we know the people were amazed for He taught with power and authority and not as their teachers of the Law. (Mt 7.29) He taught as one who must have written the Scriptures. And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself. (road to Emmaus, Lk 24.27) 

BUT something begins to change not in Jesus but in the people’s reaction to Him. Some begin to take offense at Him. They began to look for reasons to deny Him: isn’t this Mary’s son? Wait a minute, how could He be the one the prophet Isaiah had written about, the one who would be the Messiah - wasn’t he just a carpenter, Joseph’s boy? Where does He get off laying claim to the words of the prophet Isaiah that would declare Him to be the Messiah: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me… to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.( Is 61.1,2). ….And they took offense at Him.

They were tolerant of this Jesus to a point. They liked Him when He did miracles and healed the hurting, and I surmise they liked Him when He spoke against the sins of others- the likes of “them” but when the preaching hit close to home, when He spoke against that which they didn’t think of as sin or sins that they saw as a necessary evil then the tide began to turn.

If Jesus were among us today we would like it if He healed those that are sick and hurting. How many of us would ourselves line up or have someone we know that we’d like to see healed? I venture to say, “We’d like that.” And if Jesus began to speak against the likes of “them”- those really bad sinners out there, we’d like that, too, we would cheer. But what could Jesus say that might cause us to take offense at Him? But what sins might Jesus speak against that would turn our cheers to jeers? What if He told us our sins are just as offensive to God as those of those really bad sinners out there? Would you be offended if I told you that the unforgiveness we often harbor in our hearts- even that unforgiveness that we think we are entitled to- is sinful? How many of us would take offense if we were told, “Despite our outward appearances God knows that we have often been indifferent, not only, to needs of others but the things of God; that we often confess Christ with our lips but our hearts are often far from Him” might these declarations begin to grind and grate on us, after all, we are church goers…aren’t we like the ones whom Jesus taught in the synagogue?.... His teachings and declarations are often offensive to the sinful and rebellious people that we are. But His teachings after all are the teachings of God.

Because of all this they shouted at Him and sought to discredit Him. Do we not do the same when we don’t like His teachings or declarations to us? “And Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith.”

When I was in Bangladesh, Sabrina took me shopping for material. We went to a shop and looked at bolt after bolt of material. Once we decided on a pattern then we would have to unroll several yards and check it for defects and flaws. If it had flaws that material was put aside. Well, Jesus could have done the same with us- for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, BUT in his great mercy Jesus did not cast us aside. Even when our sins were wholly offensive to Him, even when we were about the business of rejecting Him, He did not reject or forsake us.

There is another teaching of Jesus that is very offensive, maybe more offensive than declaring much of what we say and do as sin, that teaching is the cross. The cross is God’s declaration that we cannot save ourselves- no amount of good works nor good intentions nor sincerity can save us from our sins., not even being Abraham’s descendents could save us. But, even though your sins be red as scarlet, though they leave us stained and flawed, they will be white as snow. (Isaiah 1.18a) That is where the cross comes in. By His wounds we were healed (Is 53.5) by His wounds we’re declared perfect, by those wounds the offense of all our sins is forgiven, by those wounds were we are included. He gives that forgiveness and inclusion to us by His Word and Sacraments.

Many things can offend us in this life. A lie can be offensive and so can the truth. Jesus came teaching what many declared to be a lie. Others clamored it was and is the truth. Only by the working of the Holy Spirit can we know who is right. So what is your vote on this Jesus? Do you hope that He will stay and teach us, knowing that He will remake who we are and what we cherish or do you hope He’ll leave so you can serve some other god? The voices were clamoring back and forth then, and they are clamoring now!... So, what say you about this Jesus?

Amen.