But what is Luke doing having Jesus bring this seemingly unprovoked verbal assault on his neighbors? We are at a critical place in Luke's Gospel. Jesus is announcing a theme here, a theme that will run throughout the Gospel of Luke and throughout the Acts of the Apostles as well. Jesus is announcing that he is the prophetic Messiah come to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is here, now: the kingdom is "today" and is open to all ("Today, this scripture....") The Gospel writer Luke is utilizing the townspeople as his foil. Here at the beginning of Jesus' ministry during Jesus' inaugural sermon, this theme of an open, inclusive kingdom is embodied, is made central to Jesus' prophetic message.

This is not what his hometown, or any Jewish community wanted to hear from their Messiah. So they chase Jesus out of town and try to "hurl" him off the cliff. Imagine sitting there, being told by someone from your hometown that you have known since childhood, imagine him telling you the prophesies you have been waiting to be fulfilled have just been fulfilled, and then you are told this fulfillment is not only for you, as you had expected and wanted, this fulfillment is for all, not just a select few or only one group. Jesus is striking at a basic human desire to be special, to be insular and set apart. Jesus is saying look at life another way

Openness and inclusivity: we emulate that openness and inclusiveness here in this place. Everyone is invited to this Eucharistic banquet we are about to celebrate. Everyone. We emulate that openness and inclusiveness by the radical hospitality we show the newcomer and each other. But Luke takes this message a step further. Jesus escapes the mob that drove him to the cliff's edge by passing "through the midst of them and went on his way." Our translation here is not doing us any favors as this is a critical piece of this passage. A more accurate translation would be "But passing through the middle of them he was going on". But that doesn't even do the verb meaning "to go, to proceed" justice. This word in Greek is in an untranslatable tense, but the usage of this word means that it is a continuous action, something that keeps going on, and on, and on. This was not a one time action by Jesus as our translation implies ("went on his way"). The Greek word gives a more nuanced understanding of what Jesus was doing. Jesus is moving to the future, ("going on"), leaving the past behind: looking ahead not backwards. Luke has Jesus looking ahead towards Jerusalem, the Cross, and beyond that to his resurrection. Jesus is going on and on and on.

The Gospel of Luke is telling us in this passage to emulate that continuous action, that "going on", that continuous movement and looking forward, implementing and living in the Kingdom of God, here, now, "today". What does that mean for us?