Jesus on The Fringe
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And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
It is important to see how many times Luke is going to mention the special activity of the Holy Spirit. In a moment, quoting from the prophet Isaiah, he is going to talk about the Holy Spirits’ movement in his life.
Is it any wonder, because so far the Holy Spirit has been repeatedly mentioned by Luke in a variety of ways. Remember Luke 1.35
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
Or look at Luke 3.22
and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Or remember the Holy Spirit’s presence in the temptation he endured at the start of this chapter in Luke 4.1
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
This is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Luke.
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
This happened in Nazareth, where Jesus was brought up.
Jesus went to synagogue. What was that like?
The service opened with a prayer for God’s blessing. They then would recite the Hebrew confession of faith.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you. “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
Another prayer.
Readings from the Law and the Prophets.
A Sermon from a man in the congregation or a visiting rabbi.
A benediction and everyone went home.
Jesus is asked to read the scripture and give the sermon.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Here, Luke is quoting Isaiah 61. Spoiler alert.... you have to read the 21st verse....(This day this scripture is fulfilled in your sight/hearing.)
There are 2 things going on here.
Jesus is, in one sense, the neighborhood kid reading scripture in church. Right? No big deal.
But on the other hand, Jesus is going to say that Isaiah 61 is all about him. And they are going to be okay with that until he unpacks that for them… but we aren’t going to unpack that until next week.
Spoiler alert: When he unpacks it, they are going to want to literally throw him off of a cliff. But you will ahve to wait for that.
So, on one hand Jesus is the kid reading in church. On the other, He’s something far greater … in fact the greatest.... and it’s going to be a bit difficult for some to swallow.
Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing....(verse 21)...... Jesus is saying of Himself:
He is the bearer of the spirit.
He is the long awaited prophet.... proclaiming good news.
He is the one to bring relief to those oppressed (Messiah).
This is the “software” to Jesus’ ministry.... it is what makes the decisive or determining factors as to what He does and how He does it. In the Power of the Spirit, Jesus will minister to the high and mighty and the low and weak, he will go to the ins and outs and the ups and downs, Jesus will serve even those who the religious elite would shut the door on....
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
This is synagogue etiquette. The reader reads the text, then hands it back to the attendant who had the sacred religious duty of handling the valued and beloved scroll, placing it back in its cabinet or ark. The reader would then sit down to hear instruction on the given reading with the rest of the congregation.
AND ALL OF THE EYES IN THE SYNAGOGUE WERE FIXED ON HIM.
Fixed.... what does that word mean? It is a verb, present tense, active, participle, plural, nominative, masculine, periphrastic participle. All of that to say they were “STARING” at Jesus.
And they were staring, not because they were impressed.... Oh no, something is terribly wrong with this picture. They were intently staring with their eyes firmly fixed upon Jesus. They were intesely attentive and ultimately hostile.
And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke uses a term in this passage only 2 times in his entire gospel. It is the term, “fulfilled”. There is intense importance to this fact.
First, fulfilled… what does it mean and why does Luke use it here?
Fulfilled means to satisfy to the fullest concerning the requirements or expectations of a contract or promise, understood to be “completely” and totally full.
In this passage, you should note that the quotation from Isaiah actually omits a line about God’s wrath… it only quotes the grace of God. In Isaiah 61:2, which Jesus quotes here.... Isaiah says the following:
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
You will notice that Jesus leaves out the vengeance part. That is because His current ministry is one of grace fully, in the absolute. Vengeance and judgment are coming later.
Note that, in the mind of most Jews, the Gentiles- in particular those who had oppressed them- were going to really get it from God when His judgment came. So when Jesus omits the judgment, he is saying that the incredible benefits of the grace of God will be extended to everyone… the poor, the oppressed, the down and out the up and ins and certainly to the Gentiles.
But remember that Luke only uses the term “fulfilled” in 2 places. Here it means that the fulness of God’s grace promised will be found in Jesus Christ. What a monumental but simple fact.
The second place “fulfilled” is on the Road to Emmaus… After Jesus appears to the two disciples, he expounds about the Messiah (Himself) and says the following in Luke 24.44
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
Note this is at the beginning and end of his ministry. It is an emphasis, an exclamation point that tells us the “fulfillment” of God’s eternal purpose is best seen in the minsitry of Christ.
And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus preaches the shortest sermon ever. Because that is it- verse 21. Jesus is saying, watch my life and you will hear my message.
Go back to the sermon text and take it a piece at a time.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The Lord is upon me, He anointed me
I will proclaim good news to the poor.
I will proclaim liberty to the captive.
I will give sight to the blind (and health to the sick and legs to the lame)
I will free the oppressed.
I will proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (year of Jubilee).
Did Jesus do all of that in His ministry?
Certainly! And next week, in part 2 of this message, I will show you particular instances of it… but we can agree He did do all of that in his ministry.
So what’s the bottom line today?
What Jesus Did Should Inform What We Do
What Jesus Did Should Inform What We Do
There’s real meaning in the question, “What Would Jesus Do?”
And that meaning, the heart of God, should direct the church’s ministry.
So if the question was, “What Would Jesus Do?”, the reason it was asked is so we can know what we should do.
God’s Heart Is Found In Christ’s Life.
God’s Heart Is Found In Christ’s Life.
If Jesus were here today, I believe He would tell most of the churches the following words:
Do What I do, not what you say.
What Did Jesus Do.
I will proclaim good news to the poor.
I will proclaim liberty to the captive.
I will give sight to the blind (and health to the sick and legs to the lame)
I will free the oppressed.
I will proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (year of Jubilee).
Jesus went to the marginalized, the outcast, the leftover, the down and out, the least of not just these but the least of all.
For the people in the synagogue in Jesus’ day, this was a threat. Because, as you will see clearly next week, change never comes to people well… even if it is God’s change.
Restate the previous statement. :
Jesus went to the marginalized, the outcast, the leftover, the down and out, the least of not just these but the least of all.
If You Want To Do What Pleases God- Do What Jesus Did.
If You Want To Do What Pleases God- Do What Jesus Did.
Go to the people no one else will go to. Go to the displaced, the disoriented, the disdaineda and the disenfranchised.
Welcome the stranger. Embrace the change. Celebrate the Diverse; Heal the Divides.
All of this sounds good, but implementation is what I’m talking about , church.
Whitney Young, civil rights leader said, “Liberalism tends to grow with one’s distance from the issue.” In other words, our words of support are far greater when the problem is in our neighbors back yard and not our own.
We could watch the nightly news and see the problems in other people’s neighborhoods and say how bad it is, until it happened in our own neighborhood. Then we get off the couch.
For the people of Jesus’ day in the synagogue, they were all for what he said- because they had said such things… the difference was that Jesus meant it. And there, it got sticky. It got difficult.
And it will for us too.
When the weak are down- we need to stand with the weak.
When the oppressed are oppressed, we need to bring them freedom.
When the poor are deafened to the good news because of their social status, we need to focus on their spiritual state.
When people are held captive by any sin, we need to free them with the forgiveness of God.
This is only done with a relationship with Jesu Christ.
God’s Heart is Found In Christ’s Life.
God’s Heart is Found In Christ’s Life.
Christ’s Heart Is Found In His Death.