As followers of the Way, we sometimes find it hard to think about Jesus as being human. We know he was a man, but he was a much better human than I am—I think it’s that whole “born of a woman, but knew no sin” thing. Still, here is an example of something completely human happening to Jesus. He goes home (they say you can never go home again), and people from his hometown don’t think too much of him. His miracles are discounted because they “know who he is.” The lack of faith of the people from his hometown changes his ability to perform miracles. That is the subject for a different sermon, how expectation of God’s miracles helps to bring to fruition God’s miracles. Still, what a very human experience.
Thankfully, (I think) we are not constrained to be who we were as children. Each of us grows and becomes an adult person with independent thoughts and feelings, different and sometimes vastly different from our parents. Still people’s expectations of us can get the better of us. The quoting of a common colloquial aphorism of the time in the text, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town,” seems to drive home that even Jesus is affected by others. However, do notice that it does not cause Jesus to stop being the merciful person Jesus is, he still heals people, just not as many, and he is amazed at their unbelief. (…rather than the crowd being amazed at his deeds).
Following this, the disciples are sent out, thus becoming apostles, from the Greek word apostolos, meaning “ones who are sent”. They are sent out in order to become like Jesus, just like we are. This experience of seeing Jesus being rejected is in many ways helpful both for us and for the disciples. We live in a world where everyone wants to be successful. And I don’t necessarily mean successful in the ways of the world either. Yes, we may want to have the nice house in the nice part of town, but even if you don’t, we want our good deeds to be looked on kindly. We too want to be known for our good deeds, or at least perhaps be recognized.
This human need for recognition, reminds me of the youth group in the church in which my kids grew up. Caty-corner from our church was the Catholic church that ran a soup kitchen every noon day meal. On Fridays, our youth participated in serving the clients. Every year the rector of our church had to talk to the teens about not expecting the homeless to be grateful. Not always, but often the clients’ human dignity was beat down and downcast. Still our cultural expectation is that when someone does something nice for another, the recipient is supposed to be grateful. That’s not why we are Christians though and not why we participate in Christian ministries. The gratitude of another is not why we do what we do. We are not responsible for how our Christian ministries are received. How we are received, whether someone says “thank you”, whether it changes the politics or world by our actions, none of these actually matter—- what matters is what is done as part of God’s mission.
This is not much different than the apostles spreading the name of Christ throughout the world. They learned from Jesus that sometimes it is received well, and other times not so well. They were given power and authority to proclaim Christ and heal. How this is received is not actually their responsibility. What they are responsible for is the action of doing it. Like the apostles, we are too called by God. What we are responsible for is our own faithfulness, in other words how we answer God’s call. With such assuredness, we can witness boldly and faithfully.
This work of spreading of the kingdom, we like to think this is something that we do, like the apostles. I know that many of you love the words attributed to St. Francis. “at all times preach the Gospel, when necessary use words.” But remember that the work that any of us do, is folded into the larger life of God. This preaching of the Gospel, this is God’s mission. Our successes or our failures are just that, one very, very small part of what God is up to. What matters is we have faith and do as we are called. Any fraction that is our doing— our sharing the Gospel, our inviting others to church, our inviting anyone to prayer, our helping the marginalized— is a drop in the proverbial bucket. Success or failure for us is not success or failure for God. God’s mission is much, much larger than what we can possibly imagine.
And in fact, whether we succeed or fail, we are sure to hit some bumps in the road. Just like Paul, on our journey of life and in our journey of faith, we will suffer, one and all; suffering one way or another is inevitable and is part of the human condition. Yet, neither are we called to just grin and bear our sufferings. There are times when some of our thorns can and should be tended to. What we know is that Jesus through the crucifixion turned something hideous into grace; he was raised up, and raises us up perfect, human vulnerability. It is this power that is made perfect in weakness by the world’s standards. Bold, faithful witness is grace-filled and powerful in its weakness.
So suffer we will from time to time, knowing that the God who raised the Crucified One will raise us too, sufferers all. And work we shall, testifying to the mission of God, apostles all. By our love, by our service, by our words (because sometimes we do actually need words) – and in all this, and above all, we give thanks, knowing that the result of the work depends finally on God. What God promises in Jesus Christ, God will not fail to accomplish.