Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
When you think of living your life with purpose, what comes to your mind? Maybe it’s getting out of debt, or building your vocational career or getting a degree or having a happy family and home? Today is day twenty of our 40 day journey with Jesus to His world changing Easter weekend. Several times Jesus made it clear He was living His life with great purpose and today let’s look at one of those great defining moments which shook an entire town, His hometown!
Dr. Luke gives us the story in Luke 4:14-30. “Jesus went to Nazareth, where He has been raised, and on the Sabbath day He went into the Synagogue, as was His custom. He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet was given to Him…” Hometowns are usually special places aren’t they? You feel welcome there, and safe. Hometown is where you belong and often where your identity is rooted. Hometowns are often the places which launch us into our life mission. So for Jesus, going back to Nazareth was special… it was His earthly hometown. But what happened that day suddenly changed everything… for Jesus, for His family and for Nazareth!
Did you notice Luke tells us Jesus went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath as was His custom. That means whenever He was in Nazareth He made sure He participated in Sabbath services in His hometown synagogue. It also means this was the Synagogue where Jesus as a boy studied the Torah and other Old Testament Scriptures with the local Rabbi, along with all the other boys in Nazareth. Perhaps Jesus had been away in His travels, and we can assume word was spreading around Nazareth about the amazing things Jesus was saying and the miracles He was doing. Perhaps some of the older folks puffed their chests a bit and said things like “yes, that’s our hometown boy, and we sure are proud of him.” But then… everything changed that Sabbath day in Nazareth.
Dr. Luke records it like this: “Jesus unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me…” (Luke 4:17,18) Look around the synagogue. I’m sure it’s packed wall to wall with every man and old enough boy in town. They’re smiling and nodding their heads. Yes, that wonderful Isaiah 61 passage is one of their favorites! The Rabbi has read it often and told them that one day God will send His Messiah and those words will be true of that great man. Oh won’t that be a wonderful day far in the future? Perhaps the Messiah will even visit little Nazareth, the men thought.
Jesus continued reading… “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor…” Look around now as the men are nodding, smiling, even elbowing each other a bit… oh that will be a wonderful day. But suddenly everything changed. Luke describes it this way: “Then Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the Synagogue were fastened on Jesus and He began His teaching by saying to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Suddenly it was as if the air was sucked out of the room. Time stood still, people were frozen in place. Smiles began to turn to frowns, heads jerked back, foreheads furrowed. All eyes stared at Jesus. What had He just said? What did He mean by what He said? Some asked each other “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
Jesus spoke again and shocked them even further: “Surely you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum. I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for 3 1/2 years and there was a severe famine in the land. Yet Elijah was not sent by God to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon..”
Oh my, can you feel the tension rising in the Synagogue? Eyes are darting around, rumbling and whispers are growing to a low roar. It is unmistakable what Jesus is saying to His hometown. He is declaring Himself to be a God sent prophet like Elijah! He’s declaring God will send Him to do great things in other places even though there is great need here. Men are rising to their feet now. Voices are shouting, tempers are rising quickly. Jesus moves toward the door of the Synagogue. And like an explosion the men rush toward Him. Luke describes this sudden violence like this: “All the people in the Synagogue were furious…they got up, drove Jesus out of town, taking Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, intending to throw Him down the cliff! But Jesus walked right through the crowd and went on His way.” (Luke 4:28)
For Jesus, this day became a defining moment. He read from Isaiah 61 a clear declaration of WHO He was, a prophet of God, sent by God to the people of Israel in that day. He declared that His life mission was to live to the fullest the 700 year old prophecy of Isaiah 61:1-3. The people had run Jesus out of His hometown, and thus His life mission was lived out in other places throughout Israel. He preached His greatest messages in other towns and cities, not in Nazareth. Jesus healed vast numbers of people in other places, not in Nazareth.
Over and over through the next several months Jesus was going to repeat His mission, His earthly purpose…
First… To proclaim and explain God’s truth, for then as now so many people wanted to distort or discount God and His truth.
Second… To bring God’s miraculous power to bear on some of the terrible effects of sin in our world, as seen in human suffering. Jesus would heal the lame, give sight to the blind, bind and cast out demons and even raise dead people to life. Each time it was for the glory of God and to demonstrate God’s power in the face of Satan’s evil.
Third... To clearly explain the way of deliverance for any believing person, from hell bound sin bondage to heaven bound spiritual freedom, available only through God’s forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to living in wonderful relationship with Holy God.
As Jesus walked down the road away from Nazareth that day there was both sadness in His heart, that His own hometown had rejected Him, but also excitement for what was ahead for Him, and our world, as Jesus would accomplish Isaiah 61, His life purpose. I think a smile may have crossed His face as Jesus, the Son of God, then looked down the time corridor even further to our time and people like you and me, redeemed and transformed by Jesus, empowered by His Holy Spirit… living Isaiah 61 as our life purpose in the year 2022!
Yes friends, we too can claim those words for we, God’s people, can proclaim the good news of Jesus and bind up the broken hearted, and proclaim that Jesus can set free any captive! Yes my friends, isn’t it amazing to think you and I can live the very same life purpose that Jesus lived, as we live Isaiah 61:1!!
Now here’s a song done in the Hebrew style, that celebrates the wonderful truth of Isaiah 61. . .
Today’s Scripture is Luke 4:14-30.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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