And He Was Such A Nice Boy - Conclusion

 

“That was it…he was gone…booked out of tow…didn’t take his tools…and I didn’t hear anything from him or about him for a couple of months…then…then…some strange reports started filtering into Nazareth…seems there was someone else now preaching and teaching besides John the Baptist…and this someone else was healing people and casting out evil spirits…someone had taken the things John the Baptist was doing to another level…I couldn’t believe it at first…it was Jesus…my friend…my coworker…why he was over in Capernaum doing these things…until…two weeks ago…he shows up back here in Nazareth…shows up to insult us…to offend us…I don’t know what go into him…

            “And to think that he was such a nice boy.

            “It was the Sabbath…two weeks ago…like I said…I’m not big on religious stuff…I go to synagogue because that’s what folks do…and I’m content with that…well Jesus, he always goes to the synagogue too…and he often reads the scrolls aloud to us and teaches a bit here and there…he has a nice way about himself…that is…until two weeks ago.

            “Things are moving along quite well during the Sabbath service, and I figure we’ll get out in time for me to have a nice long nap before dinner, when Jesus stands up to read…he’s given the scroll of Isaiah the prophet to read from…unscrolls it…and reads a section about the coming Messiah…God’s anointed…he rewinds the scroll…gives it back to the attendant…sits down…and says, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,”?

            “What is this?  What’s going on?  What’s he saying?  Isaiah is talking about the Messiah, but this is Joseph’s son?  What’s the deal?  Has he lost his mind?  This is Joseph's son.

            “Well, let’s see him prove it.  Let’s see him do in Nazareth the kind of things we’ve heard he’s been doing in Capernaum.  Let’s just see about this Jesus, this local boy gone loco.

            “But before we can challenge him he says, “No prophet is accepted in his own country.”  And then he goes too far…too too far…he crosses the line…he compares us…his own hometown…to ancient Israel in the time of Elijah and Elisha…a time when God went beyond the boundaries of our own people and provided for and healed foreigners, people who were not Israelites…the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian.  This is too much…too much…first he says he’s the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy…then he implies that God is going to go outside of the people of Israel with His blessings…too much…too much…he deserves to die…you understand don’t you?  He deserves to die!!!  And how he escaped from us…I’ll never know.”

            “And to think…he was such a nice boy.”

 

END OF NARRATIVE

 

            The Book, the paper, the ink, the cover, the binding…words spoken and written centuries…millennia ago…spoken out of eternity…through the heart and minds and spirits of men…translated into hundred of languages and dialects…carried across oceans…mountains…deserts…through rainforests…

            Jesus Christ…promised through one prophet after another…born of the virgin Mary…announced to the shepherds…adored and worshipped by the wise men…his death sought by Herod the king…his birth unrecognized by the religious leaders…and if that were it…the entire story…just the birth account…then we’d have no attempted murder in Nazareth…

            But the Word was made flesh that the Word might be fulfilled…that the Word might be translated into fulfillment in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ…for a book with only a preface is no book…

            And while the Scriptures may be translated into hundreds and thousands of languages and dialects…and while they may be carried across oceans, mountains, deserts and through rainforests…and while they may be read over radio and television waves…until they are translated into our lives…we have a preface but not a book.

            It has been said that the greatest distance is the 18 inches between the mind and heart…for until the Scriptures are translated from the mind and made alive in the heart…we have a preface but not a book.

            God calls us to turn the page…and the next page…and the next page…He calls us to allow His purposes to unfold in our lives…to be people of destiny…people who say, “Yes Lord, let this Scripture not only be fulfilled in our ears, but in our lives.”

            Our life in Christ ought to be the greatest adventure story we’ll ever read…the most exciting book, movie or theater…for God is the author and finisher…the scroll is here…we have only to open ourselves to it and allow the Holy Spirit to marry our hearts and minds with the Word…and we will find that the Word will be made flesh…and live among us…live within us…for His name is Immanuel, God with us, revealed in us.

            God in me, for all to see, the Son of God, from eternity.  Immanuel, Immanuel, Immanuel in you, Immanuel in me, Immanuel in us…allow Him to open His book within you, to open Himself within you…for as Paul writes to the Colossians…the goal of the Gospel is…Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And He Was Such A Nice Boy - Part 1

I really enjoyed "seeing" and sharing this message years ago, I can still "see" it. Of course we don't know if this is the actual way things happened, but I think we can be assured that Jesus' boyhood friends and neighbors were pretty surprised at Him, and we know from our passage in Luke that they didn't take kindly to the One who had been, after all, "Such a nice boy."

I hope there is something here for you.

Love Bob

And he was such a nice boy

Luke 4:14 – 30. January 2001.

Robert Withers, Becket, MA

            Our passage this morning takes place within the province of Galilee, north of Jerusalem.  This is a region known for its insurrection, its rebellious ways; a region watched closely by the Roman authorities.  It would not have been improbable that after the disturbance recorded in our passage…that an investigating committee might have arrived to look into the matter…concerned that it might represent the seeds of yet another Jewish rebellion.  With that as our background…………………….

 

 

FIRST PERSON NARRATIVE

“Oh, hi.  You finally got here from Caesarea Phillip, did you?  It took you long enough.  I didn’t realize they’d send so many…so many to investigate our little local disturbance.  After all, it’s not like we actually killed him…and since when does an attempted execution warrant such an investigation?

            “Yes, that’s right, I said execution, not attempted murder, after all, he really deserved to die…or at least let’s say he pushed the envelope.

            “And to think, he was such a good boy…I wonder whatever happened to him to cause him to act like this?

            “Do I know him?  Well, I thought I knew him pretty well.  After all, we grew up together, played together, worked together.

            “Yes, yes…there have always been rumors surrounding him…they’ve come and gone and come again.  The circumstances surrounding his birth are mentioned in hushed whispers from time to time…you know he wasn’t born here at home in Nazareth…born in his ancestral city of Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem.  It was census time.  After the birth the family was back here for a few months, but not for long…now that whole episode was peculiar.

            “Of all things they left Nazareth and traveled to Egypt and lived there for a couple of years…Egypt of all places.  Why would anyone in his right mind go to Egypt?  Too many Romans there, too many Greeks…we think we’ve got it bad…why even our fellow Jews in Egypt have so gone off the deep end that they speak Greek more often than they speak Aramaic and Hebrew.  And why would they go to Egypt?  Why would Joseph leave his carpentry business?  Leave his customers?  Why would they leave their house?

            “And what did they do in Egypt?  How did they live?  Did Joseph work?  Did Mary work?  None of us have ever gotten anything out of them about that trip, try as we might.

            “And of course, there’s the whole story of those strangers arriving in Nazareth shortly after the family returned from Bethlehem…talk about bizarre…that was bizarre.  What would a group of strange looking dudes from the East want with a Jewish family here in Nazareth?  It was only days after those strange people left that Joseph, Mary and Jesus left for Egypt.  Who knows?  Maybe the strangers were going to come back and do something harmful to the family…maybe that’s why Joseph took his family to Egypt.  There again, neither Joseph nor Mary has ever opened up about those strange dudes, and if Jesus knows anything about it from his parents he ain’t talking.

            “That was about the time that the cruel king Herod went nuts and had all those baby boys killed around Bethlehem and Jerusalem.  Am I glad I was born up here north of Jerusalem in Nazareth…or I probably wouldn’t be talking with you right now!  My parents told me that king Herod had his cavalry riding around these northern towns asking questions…at least they kept their swords in their sheaths up here.

            “Yes…Jesus and I worked construction alongside our fathers.  What kind of work did he do?  You mean quality?  Oh man, that guy was never out of plumb or out of square in anything he did.  What an eye he had for precision!  I used to joke with him that he only used a plumb line and a square to make the rest of us feel good.  You see, I had this funny sense that he really didn’t need that stuff but that he could eyeball anything to perfection, can’t explain it…just had this feeling.

            “I’ve never worked with anyone so upbeat, who had so much fun and enjoyed what he was doing.  You could hear his laugh all over the job-site.  The guy enjoyed work.

“Then there was that strange day…it was about four months ago… lunchtime…and Ehud the man with the snack pack camel had pulled onto the job-site…Jesus and I purchased some fruit off Ehud…and Ehud happened to mention that he’d been over to the Jordan river a couple of days before.  There was a wild man preaching to people out there in the wilderness surrounding the Jordan…John is his name…they are calling him John the Baptist because he is calling on people to be immersed in the Jordan river as a sign of turning away from their evil ways and a sign of their commitment to God.  Ehud said that great crowds were coming to see John…that even Pharisees (those religious folk) and priests from Jerusalem were coming to hear John…and…believe it or not…some Roman soldiers had even been baptized!!!

            “I asked Ehud what John was preaching…and he replied that in addition to talking about living for God and turning from our self-centered lives…that John was preaching that someone else was on his way…that someone was coming after him…that even though this someone was coming after him that he was before him (now there’s a riddle to figure out), and that this person would also baptize…but not with water…but with the Holy Spirit and fire…and that he would judge.

            “How are the people reacting?  I asked Ehud.  He replied that it was a mind blower.  Apparently a lot of these people had thought that John the Baptist was the Messiah, the Christ, the One promised by God from the beginning to redeem Israel.  So this idea that someone greater than John is on his way knocked people flat…it caused a lot of questions.

            “I noticed, as Ehud and I were talking…that Jesus didn’t say anything…he just listened.  He listened so intently that he didn’t eat, not the lunch he’d brought from home or the fruit he’d purchased from Ehud.  Then there were his eyes, the eyes of Jesus…one minute they’d been bright and glistening with laughter as we approached Ehud and his camel…but as the conversation unfolded…it was as if I was looking into a well without a bottom when I looked into the eyes of Jesus…it was as if…well…as if I was peering into eternity.

            “We went back to work after lunch…and while Jesus did his usual excellent work…I could tell there was something different…there was laughter…but not quite the same…it was as if he was preoccupied.

            “I recall kidding him, Hey friend, what’s on your mind?  You’re not thinking about going out to the Jordan to see that crazy man are you?  I got all the religion I want right here in Nazareth, that’s what synagogues are for…what’s with these crazy people that are looking for something more?  Every year since I was a boy I’ve heard people talk about Messiah coming…that’s for people who need a crutch…people who are weak…people who are messed up.

            “But he just looked at me, smiled and said, ‘Simeon, God loves you and He has a purpose for your life.’”

            “That next week was something else, the job we were on was supposed to take another three weeks, but Jesus…who could outwork any man on the job to begin with…man…I didn’t know that even he could work like he did that week.  He got to work early, left late, and hardly ever took a break.  When I asked him what was going on he told me that he needed to finish the job because he had another one to do…and he couldn’t wait three weeks to get going on the next job.  He wouldn’t leave our job until the work was done…he never left any job undone…and so he was working extra.

            “Well, where’s the next job? I asked.  This was the first time I’d heard about a new job…and it wasn’t like him not to tell me when he found work…because we usually all worked together as a team…so I was kind of hurt that he hadn’t told me before then.

            “Jesus told me that I’d have to wait and see.  That’s all he would say about it, that I’d have to wait and see.

            “That next Monday when I stopped to pick him up so that we could head out to wherever this new job was…he wasn’t home.  Mary and Joseph were there, his brothers and sisters were there…but no Jesus.  There was a box Jesus had left for me…within it were some of his tools…his plumb line and square…and a note for me…it read, ‘Simeon, my friend, allow God’s Word to be your plumb line and square.  And remember, God loves you and has a plan for your life.  I love you, my friend.  Jesus.’

to be continued...

A Relationship And A Destiny - Conclusion

 

Our passage this morning tells us that God has brought us into not a religion but a relationship.  We are no longer debtors to the old way of life, the way of life without God in Christ…and that old way of life has only one end result…death.  Our passage tells us:

               “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship.  When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…”

               Now that word that’s translated “sonship” in our pew Bibles is better translated “adoption” and that term would have a particular meaning to the first century Christians reading this letter from Paul.  And the phrase “fellow heirs with Christ” would have more precisely meant “joint heirs with Christ.”

               In the ancient world, particularly in the Roman world, adoption meant much more than it does today.  Today we think of adoption as simply bringing someone into a family by making them a son or daughter.  But in the Roman world adoption was a form of what we call Estate Planning.   Adoption was the means used to ensure the perpetuation of one’s family name and it was used to ensure who would receive the primary inheritance from the family patriarch.  A father’s inheritance was not split evenly between surviving children, the bulk of the inheritance went to either the firstborn son or it went to a son who was adopted with this special purpose in mind…that purpose being the perpetuation of the family name and the reception of the inheritance.  The adopted person was called into a relationship with a destiny.

               There are many instances of fathers adopting sons in the ancient world, usually as adult males, males that they trusted, in order to pass the family name and wealth on to them.  The bulk of the estate went to the adopted son…other siblings would never share equally…they would usually receive only token amounts.

               But Paul by the Holy Spirit tells us that we are not only adopted, we have not only received the Spirit of sonship, the Spirit of relationship, of Father – daughter and Father – son relationship…BUT…we are fellow heirs with Christ…or more literally…we are joint heirs with Christ.  Christ is, of course, the firstborn Son, and the first century Christian would expect Him to receive the bulk of the inheritance…BUT…God says, “I’ve made you a joint heir with my firstborn Son Jesus Christ.”  God says, “I’ve predestined you to share equally with my firstborn in all the treasures of a relationship with Me and in all the treasures of heaven.”

               Does that sound like a maintenance mentality?  Does that sound like a billionaire father who requires his children to eat out of restaurant garbage bags?  Does that sound like a father who wants his children to lose the game of life?  Does that sound like a father who wants his children to be afraid?  Afraid of failure?  Afraid of winning?  Afraid of growing?  Afraid of relationship with Him and with each other?

               We haven’t received the spirit of slavery, or the spirit of bondage, again to fear, but we’ve received the Spirit of relationship, the Spirit of Father – daughter relationship, the Spirit of Father – son relationship - and we cry out, Daddy! Father!

               The word “religion” has the ancient idea behind it of “binding oneself to God.”  The idea was (and is) that you get back to God and bind yourself to Him by binding yourself to rules and regulations that are supposed to make you righteous and acceptable to God.  The irony is that the reason God gave us the law of Moses in what we call the Old Testament is to prove to us that we couldn’t bind ourselves to Him by what we do or don’t do – in other words – God gave us religion to prove to us that religion doesn’t work but that relationship is what He is all about.

               Galatians 4:1 – 7, page 178 in our pew Bibles:

               “I mean the heir, as long as he is a child, is no better than a slave, though he is the owner of all the estate; but he is under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father.  So with us; when we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe.  But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son than an heir.”

               Are we living like sons and daughters of the living God or like slaves living in fear?  Are we on the playing field of life just trying to “get by,” trying not to lose, trying not to win?  Jesus says to us in John 15 that the Father is glorified when we bear much fruit – are we doing our best not to bear fruit because we are afraid of something?  Afraid of the unknown?  Afraid of what people will say?  Afraid we’ll break the negative images we have of ourselves, afraid we’ll break the negative images others have of us, afraid of the unfamiliar?

               Our passage says:

               “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God…the creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the glorious liberty of the children of God…the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now…”

               God has a destiny of liberty for you to live in – for you to live in every day of your life.

               What are you afraid of this morning?  Do you have a fear of failure?  Do you have a fear of winning…of accomplishing goals in your life?   God your Father has called you to liberty, to freedom, to spread your wings and fly.  God has called you to a relationship and a destiny.

               Are you fulfilling that destiny?  Are we as a church fulfilling our collective destiny?  Are we just surviving…or are we thriving in Jesus Christ?