Not What We Expected
Worship service in Jesus day
Temple vs. Synagogue
Temple about Sacrifice - Holy Days - Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, Atonement, Hanukkah
Synagogue about Scripture - prayers - psalms - scripture reading - early sermons / commentary
Nearly 500 synagogues in Jerusalem
Factions - Pharisees, Zealots, Essenes, Sadducees - most people didn't fit in well in any group
But they showed up - they sang the songs - They said the prayers -
They mourned their condition, they hoped. Maybe this year!
The writings of Isaiah were becoming favorites.
Israel restored to former glory
Messiah reign over the nations
Peaceable Kingdom - Wolf and Lamb
Last weeks sermon? - now known as Is. 60
ISA 60:17 Instead of bronze I will bring you gold, and silver in place of iron.
Instead of wood I will bring you bronze, and iron in place of stones.
I will make peace your governor and righteousness your ruler.
18 No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders,
but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.
19 The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
20 Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more;
the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.
21 Then will all your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever.
They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor.
22 The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the LORD; in its time I will do this swiftly."
Jesus enters the Synagogue of his home town
He worshipped there for over 30 years
Everyone knew him, well liked, showed some promise
If you think that the teachers in the Temple were the only ones amazed at His insight at the age of 12 - you need to think again.
They recite the Shema
DT 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
LK 4:16 He 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. 17 The 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,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
20 Then 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, 21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.
23 Jesus 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.' "
24 "I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I 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. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And 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."
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They 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. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
They sing a psalms Psalm 126 A song of ascents.
PS 126:1 When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.
2 Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."
3 The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.
4 Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev.
5 Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.
6 He who goes out weeping carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.
Jesus approached the altar - he was handed the scroll - he held it high, kissed it, unrolled it - read from it while standing, rolled it back up again, kissed it and handed it back to the attendant.
Then he sat down. - And preached the shortest sermon on earth
"Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
Murmurs of amazement - hope springs anew
This is the people’s choice award of Bible verses - Messiah - anointed one GOOD NEWS!
Poor? Good news - prosperity Prisoner? You are Free
Blind? Here is your sight back Oppressed? - Jubilee!!!!
Jubilee - (Lev. 25) " `Count off seven sabbaths of years--seven times seven years--so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.
Slaves - set them free - lost your ancestral home to debt - return! Tired of planting crops - Feast
You may ask, "What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?" 21 I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years.
And the image of the rams horn sounding on a thousand hills - trumpeting the news - this is the year of Jubilee
It was a celebration the likes of which Israel never actually saw. Sin had corrupted them so that by the time the first 50 years had passed and they were scheduled to celebrate their very 1st Jubilee, they skipped it, and the next - and the 20 or so Jubilees that were designed to have happened since the days of Moses.
But now - in a time of Roman occupation - a low point of Jewish history - shines a bright hope
But Jesus stopped quoting Isaiah mid sentence - He left out the words
and the day of vengeance of our God,
He ignored their comments (great sermon preach) - could care less they were amazed at His gracious words - Amazed that the hometown boy shows promise
Instead - Jesus prepares them for what He is about to say
Physician Heal yourself (show us the $)
But - No prophet is accepted in his hometown
Then Jesus preaches His real sermon
This is not a time of vengeance - of settling scores, of payback.
God’s Jubilee is for all - Including Gentiles!
Now He went too far.
All were furious - drove Him out of town (Ford Fury?) Drag Him to the cliff -
But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
And they didn't take up an Offering - but we will
Next Step - Dare me to be like Jesus
Jesus connects His ministry with Messiah - Hope of the Hebrew Nation Isaiah 61 and Jubilee
How did this get him in the doghouse?
Jesus extended the promises of God to the whole earth - Just like God promised Abraham, through your seed all the nations on the earth will be blessed. Jesus point out God’s care for Gentiles in the past. But he was preaching to racists - bigots - those with the worst kind of religion. God belongs to me! I don't read scripture like that do I? Am I bigoted, homophobic or racist? Are there people I would hate to see saved by this Good News? How do I like to read scripture?
