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?

A Relationship And A Destiny - Part 2

 

And so…for me…my first prolonged exposure to the church was a rigid system of dos and don’ts.  The church had a culture that based acceptance and righteousness on performance, performing for God and performing for the church.  Since a young person with a beard was out of character with that particular church culture, Mattie asked me to give her a call.  What did that have to do with Jesus?  What did that have to do with a relationship and a destiny?

               I’m looking forward to reading Yancey’s book because I can truly say that I survived the church – as the word is commonly understood – and came to know Jesus. Which is why I love to say that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about a religion but a relationship.

               Now during the past 2 – 3 weeks we’ve been looking at some areas of Biblical prophecy, we’ve looked at a few patterns of history and of prophecy and we’ve spent some time in Revelation chapters 13 and 14.  All too often when Christians look at history, contemporary events, or Biblical prophecy, they look through negative lenses, defeatist lenses.  They live life with a defeatist attitude, or at best, with what I call a maintenance attitude.  In other words, they just try to keep things no worse than they already are.

               Yesterday I was watching a college football game, the University of Florida was playing Louisiana State University and the game was being played at Louisiana State.  Now I love to watch the Florida Gators because their coach, Steve Spurrier, has a wide-open offense and when he steps onto the field he is there to win.  LSU has a fine football team, but as the first half ended the score was Florida 27 – LSU 9.  The LSU coach was being interviewed at halftime and his comment was, “We’ve got to change our attitude.  We can’t win this game unless we change our attitude.”

               The LSU team was not displaying an aggressive attitude on the football field.  They were capable of better play, but better play was only going to come from better attitude.  If they thought they were going to lose then they were going to lose, the Florida Gators were going to have them for lunch.  And in fact they had them for breakfast, lunch and dinner - the final score was 44 – 15 and it would have been worse had not the starting quarterback for Florida sat out the 4^th quarter.

               God has got better things for His people than losing the game of life.  God has got better things for us as a church than a maintenance mentality.  He has better things for you than a maintenance mentality.  He has better things for you than a defeatist mentality.  A person who isn’t going forwards is going backwards, a church that isn’t going forwards is going backwards. 

God doesn’t go backwards, there is no imagery in the Bible that indicates that God goes backwards or that a relationship with Jesus Christ has a reverse gear to it.  God hasn’t called His people to live life in reverse or in neutral, but to have the gearshift engaged and the wheels going forward.  God has called us individually and collectively into a relationship and a destiny.

               God is not interested in what it takes to just “get by.”  God doesn’t just “get by.”  God doesn’t want us to just “get by.”  Do you want your children to just “get by” in school?  Do you want your adult children to just “get by” on their jobs?  What kind of parent has the attitude, “I hope my little Johnny fails at that project,” or “I hope my Susie never gets a job promotion,” or “I hope my son Ted forgets his lines in the school play”?  What kind of parent is like that?  Yet, we seem to think that God is like that…that He just wants us to “get by” in life, to just make it by the skin of our teeth.

               We think God is like a billionaire that requires his children to eat out of restaurant garbage cans in city alleys.  We think God wants us walking around life being proverbial bag men and women, scrounging for whatever we need to just “get by” on a daily basis.  We pat ourselves and each other on the back if we can make the same church budget this year as we did last year.  We pat ourselves on the back if we don’t lose anything in life, we don’t even think about winning anything.  God however…when He called us into a relationship with Jesus Christ…also called us to a destiny in that relationship.

               A football team that goes on the field with the goal not of winning, but of simply not losing, will lose just about every time…in fact…they might as well not show up…because if they have lost the game in their hearts and minds they have lost the game on the field.

               There are people who are afraid of losing…and there are people who are afraid of winning.  There are those who are afraid of success, afraid of accomplishing their goals, afraid of accomplishing God’s purpose for their lives.  And those people make sure that at some point in the football game of life that they throw an interception or fumble the ball – to ensure that they won’t win.  For every person who doesn’t do something because of the fear of failure there’s a person who doesn’t do something because of the fear of success.

to be continued...