Matthew 4:12-23
Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

"Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

In Matthew’s face-paced version of events, immediately following Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan River, Jesus’ next adventure took place in the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days and was tempted by the devil. Three times, Jesus rejected the offer of power and privilege which the devil presented. Three times, Jesus declared his faith in God alone. Matthew states that the devil left him and angels attached themselves to Jesus.

Following his dramatic baptism and victory over the devil, Jesus sets about to begin his public ministry. And he picks a strange place to start. He starts his ministry in the land of “Zebulun and Naphtali.” It’s a strange place to start because the land of Zebulun and Naphtali is conquered land. It’s people are oppressed. Colloquially, we could call it “Loser-ville.” I think it is safe to say everyone in Jesus’ day knew it as “Loser-ville.”

You see, Loser-ville was once a land of great promise. More accurately, it was once a land of God’s promise. It was land that God had sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had shown to Moses. It was Canaanite land that God pledged to the Hebrew tribes of Jospeh’s sons, Zebulun and Naphtali.

However, 700 years before Jesus first steps foot on the land, the land fell under foreign occupation by the Assyrians. The current residents of the area of Zebulun and Naphtali were occupied and oppressed. The people resided in a land that was promised them; however, it was a land they could not possess. After 700 years of living under occupation, most residents had long since given up on many of God’s promises.

And it is here, in Loser-ville, where Jesus chooses to make his inaugural address, stating, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

The Biblical notion of repentance means “to turn around 180 degrees.” When Jesus speaks to the residents of Loser-ville who have lived through hundreds of generations of oppression, he is calling on them to make a complete change of behavior, attitude, and faith – to turn in the completely opposite direction, to turn their downcast gaze towards the God whose promises are still valid and soon to be realized.

The call for repentance was a call to expectation. Hey losers, expect to be healed. Expect to be free. Expect redemption. Hey losers, expect equality. Expect justice. Expect good news. Expect God’s love. Expect salvation.

Jesus beginning his ministry in Loser-ville does more than symbolize the truth of God’s promises; his ministry actually makes God’s promises come true.

All this makes me wonder where our “Loser-villes” are today. Where are the places in our world where people have lived under oppression for so long that they no longer know where to look to receive God’s promises? Where are the places where people no longer even expect justice, equality, love, and good news? Where are the places where people have been told over generations that they don’t deserve any of that?

Certainly we are called to go and announce God’s promises to places of such as Fondwa, Haiti, where opportunities for hope, opportunity, and safety are limited. Likewise, I recall the racially-divided slums of South Africa as places of political oppression in desperate need of good news.

But we don’t have to hop on an airplane to find places where people have lived under oppression for so long that they no longer know where to look to receive God’s promises. What about the part of Indianapolis that the Indianapolis Police refer to as “The Swamp” (that name's actually worse than “Loserville”). I see it in our local school where it is clear some kids have no one to read to them at home – kindergarten students who are already set up for a life of educational failure and limited opportunities. I see it in the people who turn to opioids abuse or meth to numb their boredom or emotional distress. I see it in the people who treat other ethnic, socioeconomic, or racial groups with outright hatred or casual indifference. And I see it in the lives of those who have physical or mental disabilities–people who need champions for their rights and their dignity.

There is no place on Earth where God’s promise is invalid. There is no inch of soil anywhere on this planet where God’s promises cannot take root and grow into something beautiful and transformative. The seeds have already been planted. Our attitude and actions make a huge difference in whether these seeds will grow.

Jesus’ ministry in inaugurated in Loser-ville and is full of acts of healing “that repair imperial damage and enact God’s life-giving empire in restoring people’s lives. They anticipate the completion of God’s working that creates a world, envisioned by Isaiah, in which all people [regardless of race or nationality] enjoy abundant good food and physical wholeness, where ‘the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.’”

There is hope for the losers in the world. And I thank God for that fact that I am a loser. If I had everything together. If I was confident; if I was self-sufficient; if I had no need of forgiveness; if I was blind to the painful injustices of our world…then I would have no need for a Savior.

But I am a loser. And it is in this very identity of imperfection where Jesus comes to me, calls me to repentance, offers a healing touch, and sends me out to do the same for others.

I don’t tell you this enough, but you are a loser, too. And that is wonderful news because a loser is exactly the type of person Jesus is drawn to.

So embrace your fear, your imperfection, your feelings of inadequacy, your need of healing. Embrace these things and repent – turn around and gaze into the healing presence of a God who is in control, whose promises are eternal, and who will always have a word of hope for us losers.

Amen.

Luke 18:9-14

[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Several years ago, some of you may remember, that I changed the sign out front, by the road, to read, “Jesus is For Losers.” I got the idea from my favorite seminary professor, Mark Allen Powell, who told a story about having seen that at the mall one day, printed on a high school kids’ t-shirt. “Jesus is For Losers.” Shortly after the sign went up, I got a phone call, from someone who lives nearby, complaining about how inappropriate and offensive the sign was for them. And they asked me to take it down.

At first, my professor was offended that day at the mall, too. Not surprised really, but somewhat offended, I think. It seemed like this kid was going out of his way to be cynical and to put down the faith so many of us hold dear by declaring, on a t-shirt: “Jesus is For Losers.” But then Dr. Powell noticed what our not-so-happy neighbor didn’t see on our sign – a Bible book, chapter and verse, just beneath its bold statement – and Dr. Powell realized the shirt was actually a Christian proclamation, witnessing to the Gospel somehow. “Jesus is for losers.”

Of course! “Jesus is FOR losers.” “Jesus IS for losers.” “Jesus is for LOSERS!” No matter how you say it, it is – plain and simple – the message of God’s grace for the sake of the world.

Jesus IS for losers, not against them. Jesus came into the world to dine with outcasts and misfits and sinners; to proclaim the good news to the oppressed, the disadvantaged and the abused; to love the unloveable, the unwanted, the unlucky and the lost. “Jesus is FOR losers.” It is the Gospel in four simple words.

Still, no matter how many times we hear it… no matter how much we preach and teach and worship and learn… this notion of grace is as hard to comprehend as it is to accept and live into as followers of Jesus Christ. And apparently, we’re not much further along enough of the time than the people who listened to Jesus that day so long ago.

See, the prelude to this morning’s parable, as the Bible tells us, is that Jesus was speaking to “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.” It means he was speaking to people who were pretty confident that they were on the straight and narrow and who took it upon themselves to judge others who they believed were not. So he tells them this story about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

What we’re supposed to know is that Pharisees and Tax Collectors existed on opposite sides of the social spectrum in Jesus’ day, which is precisely why Jesus casts them as players in this particular parable. Pharisees were religious, righteous and “right” about most things when it came to issues of faith and theology – at least as far as most people, and they themselves, were concerned. They followed all the rules. They made all the right sacrifices. They read scripture, gave their offering, showed up for worship – and everyone knew it.

Tax Collectors, on the other hand, weren’t the most popular, well-liked people in town. A Jewish tax collector was seen as a puppet of the occupying Roman authority who often took advantage of the power he had to swindle his fellow Jews out of money – some of which he paid to the Romans, and some of which he kept to line his own pockets.

So it would have captured anyone’s imagination to see these two strolling toward the temple together to pray. The Pharisee, right and righteous as he was, toots his own horn and thanks God for just how good it is to be a Pharisee. “God, I thank you that I am not like other people:” he says, “thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” And the Tax Collector, standing somewhere off in the distance, prays the opposite. Unable even to raise his eyes toward heaven, beating his breast with shame, guilt and remorse, he begs simply for forgiveness, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

And I don’t think how or what these two prayed would have been much of a surprise to Jesus’ listeners. Everyone knew Pharisees did what they were supposed to do – that they followed the rules and towed the line. And everyone knew, too, that Tax Collectors were sinners and they were probably thrilled to hear of a tax collector who felt the weight and shame and guilt of his sins. But what would have surprised any of Jesus’ listeners – and what I hope surprises us still – is what Jesus has to say about it all:

Jesus promises that the Tax Collector went home justified, forgiven, redeemed, in spite of his sins, and that “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Or, to say it another way, “Jesus is for losers.”

What the grace of God does in this parable, as ever, is it levels the playing field on which the Pharisee and the Tax Collector stand. Not only does it bring down the high and mighty, but it raises up the down and out. It exposes the sinfulness of both men and lets the love of God do the rest. And, since you and I don’t come across Pharisees and Tax Collectors in the same way that we might have back in Jesus’ day, we’re invited to fill their places in this parable with names and faces that might be a little more familiar and meaningful for where we live.

Like, maybe we need to see the Democrat and the Republican; or the Christian and the Muslim; or the Lutheran and the Catholic. Maybe we need to imagine the jock and the geek; the starting quarterback and the bench warmer; the kid who aced the test and the one who failed or never even made it to class in the first place. I don’t have to tell you in which shoes to place these “opposites” in, in Jesus’ story – that might be different for each of us. And the point of it is that it doesn’t matter one bit. Jesus is for losers because we’re all losers in more ways than we’d like to admit or can even see too much of the time.

The Bible verse on that t-shirt my professor saw – and on the sign when I posted it – was 1st Timothy, chapter 1, verse 15. Could you all pull out a Bible from one of the chairs in front of you and look up 1st Timothy 1:15 (it’s on p. 963, near the back)? So-and-So would you mind standing and reading the verse out loud for us? And So-and-So, would you stand and read it, too? How about you? And, could you give it a go, too?

“The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the foremost.”

Grace does not mean God chooses us even though we are sinners. Grace means God chooses us precisely because we are sinners – even the very best and brightest among us. Jesus is for you. Jesus is for me. Jesus is for us. Jesus is for “them.” Jesus is for losers. And because of that, we know none of us is lost for good.

Amen

"Only Losers Need A Savior" – Matthew 4:12-23

Jesus is for Losers – Luke 18:9-14