Grace Made Perfect: Luke 4:14-21 - Third Sunday after Epiphany

¹⁴Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
  ¹⁶When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
 ¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
  because he has anointed me
   to bring good news to the poor.
 He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
  and recovery of sight to the blind,
   to let the oppressed go free,
 ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
²⁰And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

What you see is not always what you get…

fresh strawberries @ mahabaleshwar by chirag_jog.  Creative Commons image on flickr

I recently re-learned this lesson the thousandth time… 

Strawberries are my absolute favorite fruit.  So I thought it a miracle when my eyes beheld the fresh and pristine-looking berries for sale at the supermarket.  I didn’t even flinch to pay $5 a pound for them…

But my excitement turned to disgust when I got home and realized that what I bought was better suited for compost, as opposed to human consumption.

It was then I realized that I fell for some of the oldest tricks in the grocery industry: special halogen lighting brings out the color of produce.  Misting makes it appear fresh.  But what you see is not always what you get…

The fast food industry is notorious for this.  Has anyone ever ordered a hamburger that comes out looking like this?  Probably not—even if you ordered it at a fancy restaurant.  This burger was assembled by a food stylist.  The condiments are glue with food coloring in it.  The cheese is sprayed with chemicals to preserve its texture.  So it looks perfect—and yet, it’s perfectly inedible…  An illusion of good taste…

That’s the problem with perfection: for as hard as we try to be perfect people living perfect lives, it’s all an illusion; the most perfect of lies.  But that certainly doesn’t stop us from trying!

The way I see it, the moral and spiritual recession happening in today’s society is largely due to the fact that we are regularly sacrificing ourselves to the god of our own perfection. 

24-hour fitness centers are popping up all over the place.  No one has to look old anymore thanks to Botox and plastic surgery.  The economy is in recession, but we’re spending money like never before on fashion, furnishings, home improvements, vehicles, vacations, dining out; you name it… 

Parents feel this pressure of perfection more than anyone.  “Good moms” need to be able to keep up with the likes of Martha Stewart and the Super Nanny.  They need to keep a clean house with hot, nutritious, full-course meals on the table by dinnertime.  They need to raise children who are well-groomed and well-behaved.

Nowadays, good grades aren’t enough to make it in the global economy.  Today’s children need to be “well-rounded,” so that they can earn scholarships, because college has become ridiculously expensive.  Sadly, we’re teaching our children that they need to be perfect in order to be happy and successful in life.

For as much as we sacrifice ourselves at the altar of our own perfection, we sacrifice others just as often.  We measure our perfection by others’ imperfections.  We value people only in terms of what we can get from them.  If they’re not with us, they’re against us. 

But what happens when the relentless pursuit of perfection breaks down on the side of the road?

For as much as we try to convince ourselves otherwise, there is no perfect “you”—and there is no perfect life.  We can no more achieve perfection than we can turn water into wine.  But as long as we believe the lie, several things will happen: we’ll drive ourselves mad with shame about our failures and self-pity about our misfortunes.  We’ll isolate ourselves from others, because perfect people never need help, and are always above criticism. 

But the worst part—is that there are people who can’t dress themselves in perfection.  These are the ones who can’t conceal their sins from the public eye.  These are the poor and hungry; the sick and the aged.  These are the ones have nothing—and society blames them for that: because they’re weak; they’re immoral; they’re no good… 

In the end, the pursuit of perfection leads not to happiness, but to hell.

Yet Jesus steps into an imperfect world to become the savior of imperfect people.  Today, he announces:

“that the Spirit of the Lord is upon [him] to bring good news to the poor; to proclaim release to the captives; to give sight to the blind; to free the oppressed; and to proclaim the age of the Lord’s favor.”

You see, the Gospel forces us to be realistic about ourselves and about our world.  Beneath the facades we can or cannot create, we’re broken; we’re weak; we’re all perfect sinners.  Yet our miserable condition is met immediately by Jesus’ perfect grace. 

When God forgives sin, God isn’t seeing it anymore.  As far as God is concerned, it’s gone.  Your past is washed away.  Nothing that people say or do can change that. God loves all the people he created. 

Furthermore, God’s perfect grace eliminates the need to worry and stress incessantly about our future.  Your hurts and needs matter to Jesus.  He’s not going to abandon you.  His grace will be made perfect in weaknesses.

Finally, God’s faithfulness turns us away from the endless, acerbic self-absorption of perfectionism.  God’s love is made perfect in community.  We who are the members of the body of Christ are blessed with diverse but equally-beautiful gifts through which God acts for our mutual redemption.  These are gifts of preaching, teaching, serving, helping, leading, welcoming…  Through us, God draws out all who dwell in the shadows of fear, shame, and sorrow so that we can live in the light of his love. 

Come what may, we rejoice together; we suffer together; we overcome together…

Perfectionism is the most needless and most preventable source of stress in our lives.  Perfection is found only in God; at the cross of Jesus Christ.  Thankfully, Jesus has come to make God’s perfect grace a reality in our world.  It’s not in what we have or what we get, but rather in what we receive and what we give.  It’s not in competing and outdoing, but in belonging.  It’s not in striving ourselves to death, but in trusting and obeying.