August 29, 2007

• Jesus at Nazareth

  I listened to a short series of talks on by John MacArthur yesterday on Jesus preaching in the temple at Nazareth.  The scripture is from Luke 4.

  14Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.  Traditionally, it took 10 men to establish a synagogue, and they could take turns preaching.  All synagogues were built facing Jerusalem, so that when the people went out, they would be going in the direction of Jerusalem.  When Christ went out, he would be facing the direction of Calvary.

  16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:  18"The Spirit of the Lord is on 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,  19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."  Jesus was reading from Isaiah 61, which was clearly a Messianic passage.  The Messiah would preach to the poor in spirit, beggars held out one hand for alms while hiding their race in shame with the other, those who knew that there was nothing within themselves with which they could earn God's favor.  The Messiah would free the prisoners of sin from the debt that they owed God but which they could not repay.  They would be forgiven their debt and given salvation.  The Messiah would make the truth plain to those who had no power to understand it on their own.  The Messiah would lighten the loads of those oppressed by all of the burdensome laws made by the Pharisees.  The people could not possibly keep the law themselves.  The Messiah would give them a new law written in their hearts, and would give them the Holy Spirit to help them keep it.

  20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."  Here Jesus declares Himself to be this very Messiah, and begins to expound on the meaning of passage further.  Everyone in the synagogue must have drawn a bit closer to see what this "local boy" had to say.

  22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.  23Jesus said to them, "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.' "  He knew that they might be expecting a magic show, but He also knew that a magic show was not what they needed.  Seeing magic has nothing to do with salvation.  He knew what they really needed was to humble themselves and admit that they were impoverished, blind prisoners to sin.  He gave them a couple of examples.

  24"I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed - only Naaman the Syrian."   He gave two examples of hated Gentiles that God had blessed because of their humble obedience.  These stories were not popular in the Jewish circles.  Jesus implied that unless they were willing to humble themselves as these Gentiles did, that even though they considered themselves the superior chosen people, they had no part in the Kingdom of God.  This idea infuriated them. 

  28All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

  Christ's audience went from rapt attention to rabid anger.  What went wrong?  The message that we are no better than beggars is not an easy one to swallow.  Before we can receive salvation, we must first admit that we are sinners in need of forgiveness for the evil that we have committed.  The message that we are not all right or as good as we think ourselves to be is offensive.  Offensive as it may be, it is nonetheless true.  We who deserve hell must acknowledge the fact and see ourselves as we really appear in God's eyes before we can realize our need for salvation and become humble enough to receive it.  How God loves us, and how He humbled Himself to reach down to us in love that brought about His own death.  Should it really be so very hard for us to throw down our pride?

  • 22:09
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