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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends around the world. The weekend is here… and I wonder what the highlight will be for you by the time you put your head on the pillow on Sunday night?
In recent months the world has experienced many things before unknown, at least in our generations, especially things related to the Coronavirus pandemic. Where I live, this month of September has been unlike any in history, with schools all across America delayed in their opening, and millions of children still at home, attempting some version of ‘online’ learning. Universities are struggling to adjust their academic life, their social life and their sports life, to the demands of this virus. Stadiums normally packed with over 100,000 people on Saturdays for fall football, sit empty. Major league sports are attempting to continue without fans present. And even this fall political season, with a presidential election, is in turmoil, as they try to develop a safe plan for millions of people to vote.
But for me, the single greatest challenge has been the closure of churches all around our world! Hundreds of millions of people have been prevented from gathering together for that unique experience of corporate worship and fellowship. While we thank God for technology, oh my it sure hasn’t been the same, has it? Only God knows what the residual effects of prolonged absence of this vital weekly gathering of God’s people will have on our society and families.
Will you travel with me… back in time, to a town that you can visit today… Nazareth, Israel. Step with me into their synagogue, on one particular Sabbath which changed everything for Jesus. Amazingly, many of the same societal issues which we face, were present then as now. Racial injustice was rampant as the iron fist of Rome had little care for anyone other than purebred Roman citizens. Jews had disdain for Samaritans. Black skinned folks, who made their way north from Africa, were often enslaved all across the Empire. The wealthy took advantage of the vulnerable, in their business dealings. Any opinion expressed in opposition to either Roman or Religious authority was met with brutal force.
It was into this world that Jesus came and grew up through childhood into being an adult, Jewish man. Wherever Jesus was, His weekends ALWAYS included a trip to the local Synagogue on the Sabbath. The Synagogue, at least for the Jews, held their society together, and gave them hope that somehow God was still Sovereign above the chaos.
We can safely presume that once old enough as a boy, Jesus was present every Sabbath in that Nazareth Synagogue, learning as He watched the men who gathered so faithfully, and listening carefully to all that was discussed. Of course to the men, Jesus was one of the boys in town, son of Joseph the carpenter, brother to James, Joses, Jude and Simon, (Mark 6:3) but nothing more. Certainly nothing stood out as unusual about Jesus of Nazareth… until that day!
Look with me at Luke’s record of ‘that day’ in chapter 4. Jesus had come back to His hometown Nazareth. He’d been away several months, traveling as a young adult man, pursuing His personal life calling, the mission for which God had sent Him to earth. Some weeks before, Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist, many miles away from Nazareth, in the Jordan river. Then, He’d gone into the desert for a prolonged fast & prayer season of 40 days. He needed to meet with Almighty God, His heavenly Father, to clarify how to launch His God given, earthly, life mission. During those days, Jesus had been attacked by Satan, with profound temptation. Both Matthew & Luke tell us about that, in their 4th chapters.
From that powerful 40 days, Jesus began His early ministry walking from town to town, visiting the Synagogues on the weekends and beginning to share His truth about God. In Luke 4:16 Jesus finally arrives back in Nazareth, His hometown. It’s not difficult for me to imagine a wonderful family reunion and time with friends that week. No one knew anything about His baptism or the 40 day fast and spiritual battle. And then Saturday, the Sabbath came. Jesus went to Synagogue, of course, I presume with His brothers and most all the men of the town. The Torah Scroll was handed to Him that day, perhaps because He’d been away a while, and He intentionally looked for one particular passage. With all eyes glued on Him Jesus read the Hebrew text, but this time with a different tone in His voice. Jesus was owning what He was reading…
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He, the Sovereign LORD, has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor…” (Luke 4:18,19)
Luke describes what happened next 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 Him, and Jesus began by saying to them, ‘Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
None of us can imagine the feeling every man in the room suddenly had. It was like the air was sucked out of the room. Gasps, confusion, men turning to others, especially to the oldest men in the room with startled looks on their faces. What could Jesus have possibly meant by what He just said. What He read was one of their favorite Jewish Messianic prophecies. It assured them that God had not forgotten or abandoned them. That one day God would send His anointed one, the Messiah, to do miraculous things among them, to save them from the horrific, abusive society in which they lived. But certainly that could not be today and absolutely their hometown boy Jesus could have nothing at all to do with this 600 year old prophecy from Isaiah the revered prophet. . . could HE?
You’ll see in the next verses Jesus explained it even further by explaining that Jewish history shows there had been times in the past when God brought His people help, but they didn’t recognize what God was doing, and they disregarded God’s HOPE and HELP, so God took His hope and help to others, who would receive it, even to Samaritans and even Gentiles!
That was it… Jesus had crossed the line. It was blasphemy. Even though a hometown boy, a friend to most everyone in the building… what He was suggesting about Himself being linked to Isaiah’s prophecy simply could not be tolerated. In an uproar, all the men rose up and grabbed Jesus, hauled Him out of the Synagogue, and dragged Him through town shouting, screaming, throwing dirt and small stones at Him. They were headed to the cliff on the outside of town, intending to silence Him by throwing Jesus over the cliff to His death. And then… something unexplainable happened. Luke writes: “But Jesus walked right through the crowd and went on His way. He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people there.” (Luke 4:30,31)
We know Jesus was now empowered by the Holy Spirit who had come upon Him in His baptism, and by His 40 day fast encounter with Almighty God, His Father. It appears Jesus did something to mesmerize or confuse or temporarily blind the crowd. Whatever it was, Jesus walked right through the crowd and left His hometown, never to return home again. His mission was launched. He headed to Capernaum on Lake Galilee and began doing exactly what He had just read in Isaiah….preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom to people enslaved by all types of things, restoring sight to the blind, and much more.
Now this weekend, I’d like to invite you to do two things, my friends. Read the rest of Luke 4 and see what Jesus did in Capernaum. Then read Isaiah 61:1-3, which is the Torah Scroll portion He had read in the Synagogue. And ask yourself this simple question… what about today, in the place where you live. Does God desire that this happen in your town, your region of the world? If so how? That is what I’d like to unpack for you the rest of this next week… it will be a powerful journey, for this is one of the most powerful 3 verses in the Bible, and God has a plan for how HE wants it to happen where you live NOW! We’ll discover it together, everyday, this next week. . . Now I invite you to go ahead and read those Scriptures.
Lord Jesus Christ, I invite YOU please to speak into the lives of my dear friends this weekend. And then all this next week as we meet everyday, trying to dig deeply into these three, powerful verses, asking You to help us understand, dear Jesus. How do you want it to come alive in our day?
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: Luke 4:18-44; Isaiah 61:1-3. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
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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