Confrontation in Nazareth (11)

 

 

In order to capture, or rather be captured by, Luke’s portrayal of Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth in 4:16 – 30 we need to read the passage again, and again, and again; ponder the passage, see ourselves in the passage, consider Jesus, consider the people (who he had grown up with), and think about the content of His message. It may be helpful to read different translations or paraphrases to refresh our minds, sometimes a different word or another way of expressing the same thought or sense of a passage can jar our minds with new beams of light. We want to assimilate this passage to the point that we could reenact it on stage if given the opportunity.

 

Why does the congregation react so violently to Jesus?

 

There are two elements to their reaction. The more obvious is that they think, “Who does He think He is?” The other is, “Who does He think we are?”

 

We tend to think that “Who does He think He is?” is focused on His claim to be the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1 – 2, but I think that is only part of what it means. It is better expressed, “Who does He think He is by telling us who He thinks we are?”

 

There is a similar passage to this in the Gospel of John which takes place in Jerusalem toward the conclusion of Jesus’ ministry, it is John 8:30 – 59. Due to space limitations I will not quote it in full, but I will refer to it and compare it with Luke 4:16 – 30.

The first thing to see about John 8:30 – 59 is the way it begins and the way it ends. “As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him…Therefore they (these same people!) picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple” (John 8:30 and 59).

 

In Luke 4 the hometown folks gave Him the book of Isaiah to read, no doubt with welcoming expectation, but the passage concludes with them being “filled with rage” and attempting to murder Him. “But passing through their midst, He went His way” (Luke 4:30).

 

What incites both groups, one in Nazareth and one in Jerusalem, to go from welcoming Jesus to attempted murder?

 

In both instances the people refused to acknowledge their need for God, but rested in their religious, national, and racial/ethnic identity. In John they tell Jesus, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?” (Jn. 8:33).

 

In Luke, the congregation rejects the notion that they are the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed of Isaiah 61. In other words, they not only reject the idea that Jesus is the Anointed One of Isaiah 61, but that they are the ones to whom He is sent.

 

I realize that many of us think the reason Jesus breaks off His public reading of Isaiah 61:2 in mid verse is that “The day of vengeance of our God” has not yet come, but I don’t think that is the case. I have two reasons for this.

 

The first is that to evoke a portion of a passage is to evoke the entire passage. To call up one verse is to call up the context of the verse, the flow of the passage in which the verse is embedded.  For example, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” evokes the entirely of Psalm 22, the narrative of abandonment, suffering, mockery, death, resurrection, a grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying and bringing forth much fruit, of God completing and perfecting His work.

 

In Isaiah 61, “The day of vengeance” is in the context of the theme of comfort, salvation, and restoration, what begins in 61:1 – 2a continues in 61:3 – 7. That is, 61:2b is not an abrupt stop in the passage, if anything it is an interjection that during the time of salvation and restoration that there is concurrently judgment.

 

As Jesus reads Isaiah 61 in the synagogue, He is offering His hearers salvation and restoration, if they will not accept this offer, they will face judgment, Isaiah 61:2b is implied in Jesus’ reading, just as is Isaiah 61:3 – 7. The people of His hometown synagogue can either choose to see themselves as the poor, the captive, the prisoners, the blind, or in rejecting Jesus they can experience the day of judgment and vengeance.

 

We see this in John 9:39, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Also, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains” (John 9:41).

 

In John Chapter 9, while the man born blind sees Jesus, both through physical healing and spiritual healing; the religious leaders who claim to see continue in both their blindness and in the judgment of God, “For judgment I came into this world.” That is, the “day of vengeance” of Isaiah 61:2b is not held in abeyance but rather played out in Messiah’s ministry on earth. For sure, all of Isaiah 61 has an “already -not yet” dimension, it is fulfilled, it is being fulfilled, and it will be fulfilled in greater fulness.

 

As we read Luke 4, John 8, and John 9, can we see that the Cross brings us to the end of ourselves? Jesus will not allow us to trust in our self-righteousness, He will destroy all elements of self-reliance and self-righteousness, He will leave nothing for us to boast in, other than in Him and His Cross (1 Cor. 1:30 – 31; Gal. 6:14).

 

We get angry and want to murder when the basis for our identity and righteousness is attacked, when it is suggested that our religious or ethnic or national identity is as filthy rags before our holy God. When it is suggested that we are blind and enslaved and poor and that we need healing and deliverance and to be set free from our prisons, we want to attack and hurt others and defend ourselves – why we even want to kill Jesus…will we admit this?

 

Let us make no mistake, not only will Jesus not let our attitudes slide, He will bring them to front and center, hence He reminds His hearers of the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian (Luke 4:25 – 27). Why couldn’t He leave well enough alone? Why pour gasoline on a fire already burning hot? He knew it would cause a violent explosion – yet He purposely threw accelerate on His message.

 

O dear friends, I hope you will ponder Luke 4:14 – 30 and John 8:30 – 59, considering the dynamics, both 2,000 years ago and in our own time and lives. John Chapter 9 also has a role to play in our reflections.

 

Had I been in the congregation in Nazareth (Luke 4) or in the crowd in Jerusalem (John 8), or in the synagogue of the blind man (John 9), how would I have responded to Jesus?

 

How am I responding to Him today?

 

We will return to these passages in the next post in this series, the Lord willing.

 

 

 

Joseph - Reflections (6)

 

 

“The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples, and set him free. He made him lord of his house and ruler over all his possessions, to imprison his princes at will, that he might teach his elders wisdom” (Psalm 105:20 – 22).

 

2 Corinthians, 1 Peter, and Revelation are three New Testament letters that especially focus on suffering for Christ and others. As Peter moves to his conclusion he writes:

 

“But resist him [the devil], firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you” (1 Pt. 5:9 – 10).

 

Paul writes that we suffer with Christ, “so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:17 – 18).

 

As an element of Joseph’s exaltation was to rule in judgment, so does Christ Jesus in His exaltation judge the world; Joseph is a picture of Christ. As members of the Body of Christ we participate with Christ in judging the world.

 

“Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? …  Do you not know that we will judge angels?” (1 Cor. 6:2 – 3).

 

God’s People, the Church, the Israel of God is to have, “The high praises of God in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written; this is an honor for all His godly ones. Hallelujah!” (Psalm 149:6 – 9).

 

Jesus says, “He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father” (Rev. 2:26 – 27; see also Psalm 2:8).

 

Whatever all of this means, it is beyond me. Whenever that Day comes in which these things are fulfilled, I will look to Jesus and brothers and sisters far greater than I am to teach me the Way I should go. There may be a measure of this happening today, there may have always been a measure of this throughout history, for certainly God gives words of judgment to His saints to speak into the world. Sometimes these words are public, sometimes private. Sometimes people claim to speak God’s Word of judgment, but rather than it being a Word from God it is a word of their own imagination, a word of their own emotional and mental confusion. Let us remember that all of God’s Word is Christocentric.

 

My sense is that it is generally presumptuous to declare God’s specific purposes in world events, the reasons for disasters – man made or otherwise. We may discern our sin and foolishness, we may see (to one degree or another) things in the realm of the Spirit, we may have insight granted to us as individuals or groups to help us through seasons of life; but I think until our exaltation in Christ is fulfilled that we continue to “see through a glass darkly.”

 

I think that when we have a sense of judgment or warning, that more times than not it is for our own instruction and for those immediately around us. When we hear grand pronouncements, sweeping in scope, from Christian “leaders,” they are typically an embarrassment to those with eyes to see and ears to hear, flowing from speculation.

 

This is not to say that we don’t need prophetic messages calling us back to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ – and perhaps herein we may find the validation of true prophetic messages, that which points us to Jesus Christ and His Cross is likely to be valid, that which does not is to be suspect. Messages of judgment ought to come from broken hearts, Jesus lamented over Jerusalem, as did Jeremiah, Abraham interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah, Moses pleaded with God to judge him rather than blot out Israel, Daniel bore the sins of his people in intercessory prayer. Haughtiness and pride have no place in a message of judgment.

 

I touch on this image of judgment because it is in our text, “to imprison his princes at will,” but let’s note that the story of Jospeh in Genesis provides no example of Jospeh disciplining the princes of Egypt. This isn’t to say that Joseph didn’t do this, but it is to say that the Biblical narrative focuses on other things.

 

We will pick this back up in our next reflection in this series, the Lord willing.

 

The Missing Persons of Noah's Ark

 

 

Have you ever been saved from doing or saying something stupid? Have you ever stopped yourself from doing something really dumb?

 

“Where are the people with Noah’s Ark?” I asked.

 

“I don’t know,” Vickie replied.

 

We both looked through the room in which the Ark was displayed but could not find the wooden figures of Noah, his family, and the two-by-two set of animals. We had seen the two small daughters of our friends playing with the figurines, where could they have put them?

 

Prior to our friends coming for dinner, Noah and company had been in their usual place, on a shelf outside the Ark in our sunroom; the same place they had occupied for years. Now they were gone.

 

Surely the girls did not take them home with them. Surely not.

 

We looked in the living room, which was adjacent to the sunroom, no Noah.

 

We looked in the office adjacent to the living room, no Noah.

 

We looked in the hallway adjacent to the living room,  no animals.

 

We looked in the bedroom off the hallway, no figurines.

 

We looked all over the sunroom again, we looked in cabinets, pulled drawers open, looked under furniture – no Noah, no Mrs. Noah, no two-by-two animals.

 

What to do?

 

Should we call our friends and ask them to ask their girls if they know where Noah and the animals are?

 

Surely not.

 

What to do?

 

Have you ever been saved from doing or saying something stupid? Have you ever stopped yourself from doing something really dumb?

 

We knew that calling our friends would not be the best thing to do.

 

When you are accustomed to seeing something in a certain place and then it’s gone, it can feel strange – the place is suddenly empty. The Ark looked isolated, alone, abandoned. No Noah, no Mrs. Noah, no animals standing two-by-two. No elephants, no giraffes, no cows, no hippos.

 

“If they don’t turn up, maybe we can find replacements,” I said.

 

I am, as many of you know, not the brightest. Sometimes it takes a while for me to catch on, and when I do catch on it isn’t so much that I’ve figured it out, but rather the result of perseverance, of turning all the pieces of the puzzle over and trying each one to see what fits.

 

An hour or two after our search for the missing people a thought mercifully came to me, an impulse more than a thought. I went into the sunroom and over to the Ark. I lifted the roof of the Ark and looked inside…and there were the missing persons with their animals.

 

When the girls had finished playing with the figurines, they put them where they belonged – not outside the Ark, but inside it.

 

What might we learn from this?

 

For sure this is a reminder of how children can teach us if we will only pay attention to them. They can convict us, challenge us, encourage us, and call us back to the simplicity, awe, and wonder that God created us to enjoy. Chesterton wrote that all he really needed to know, he learned in the nursery – as a child. Right and wrong, good and evil, grandeur, the numinous, love and kindness, our high calling, joy, love. 

The world of adults educates the image of God out of us, it is an olive press – crushing the life out of us, forming us into the image of things, power, pleasure, making idolaters of us – whether we are “Christian” or non-Christian.

 

Finding Noah within the Ark is also a reminder that “we have died and our lives are hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). We belong to Jesus and we live in Him, we can’t really see who we are, not really. On the one hand we couldn’t stand to see sin and our hearts outside of Christ as they truly are, on the other hand the glory which God has placed within us in Christ is reserved for the fulness of eternity – when all things are made new; this is a glory that will take our breath away. 

As Lewis wrote, if we could see the true nature of the person beside us, we would be tempted to fall down and worship the person as a god – so great is the glory which our Father has placed within us in Christ.

 

Why do we treat each other so poorly?

 

If we wouldn’t (let us hope) desecrate Leonardo’s Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s David, why do we desecrate the image of God both in ourselves and in others?

 

Another thing we can learn is hiding in plain sight, do you see it?

 

People belong in the Ark, but we can be so accustomed to seeing them outside the Ark that we think nothing of it, in fact, we expect to see them outside the Ark.  Whether our family, our neighbors, our coworkers, fellow students, partners in civic endeavors; we can become so used to seeing them outside the Ark that we think nothing of it.

 

Jesus commands us to “make disciples.” This goes beyond talking about church, it goes beyond sharing our thoughts about right and wrong, it is far beyond mentioning God now and then, and it even goes beyond talking about Jesus…as vital as that is. To make disciples requires engagement, commitment, and service.

 

To make disciples requires that we bring people into the Ark; the door must be open, the welcome ramp must be extended, and we must both invite and guide. Our Father is the God of hospitality and we ought to be the most hospitable people on earth. Our destiny is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb – let there be no empty places at the Table.

 

There was once a highly successful family-owned regional grocery store chain based in Richmond, VA named Ukrops. Ukrops was a national leader in terms of market share in their highly competitive industry. Eventually the family sold the business to a large company that assimilated it into their multi-state grocery business. 

The new corporate owner promptly destroyed the level of service and profitability of the stores it purchased; it was a textbook example of how to take the best and make it the worst. For those of us who enjoyed the Ukrops experience, it was disgusting. The new owners so damaged their reputation in Richmond that they had to either close or sell the stores and leave the market.

 

If you were in a Ukrops store and asked an employee where you could find an item, the employee would not tell you where the item was, he would not give you directions to the item, instead he or she would escort you to the item, even if it was on the other side of the store. That was but one difference between Ukrops and its competitors – personal service, personal touch, personal care.

 

We invite and guide by serving and loving, by asking and listening and praying, by affirming our Father’s love and care and His desire for deep relationship, by being the Presence of Jesus Christ, by portraying hope. We encourage others to shop for healthy foods, not food with additives of sin and spiritual and moral poison in them. 

We point out the difference between food and drink which nourish, and that which deadens the senses and makes us less than who our Father created us to be. We do not lead people into a diet with cancer-causing agents, but rather to eat the Bread of Life which is Jesus Christ.

 

Are there people in my life outside the Ark? Have I grown so used to seeing them outside the Ark that I no longer think about them as being outside rather than inside? Does it no longer bother me that should (or when!) the Flood come that they will perish?

 

What about you?