(Chp 15) Isn’t this Joseph’s son?

Sermon based on Chapter 15 of Scot McKnight's Jesus Creed

Title: Isn’t this Joseph’s son?
Passage: Luke 4:16-30

Outline:
Introduction
1. Who is Jesus?: the Anointed One (Messiah)
a. The Spirit of the Lord is on me: An allusion to the Trinitarian God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (v. 18a)
b. The chosen Messiah, the Anointed One who came to deliver the world from sin
c. Fulfillment of the prophecy
2. How did the Jews see him?
a. How did the townsfolk at Nazareth see Jesus?
i. Esteemed teacher of the law: Spoke well of him and were amazed at his words of grace (v. 22a)
ii. Son of a carpenter: Isn’t this Joseph’s son (v. 22b)
iii. Physician, heal yourself! (v. 23)
iv. no prophet is accepted in his hometown (v. 24)
b. The unbelief of the Jews vs. the faith of the Gentiles
i. For those who do not want to believe, no miracles will change their minds. For those who wants to believe, no miracle is necessary
ii. Prophet Elijah was sent only to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon during a severe famine for three years and six months (v. 26)
iii. Prophet Elisha was sent only to cleanse Naaman the Syrian during a period of leprosy in Israel (v. 27)
3. How should we see his mission? (v. 18-19)
a. Proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor: an allusion to the year of Jubilee, a year of universal release for person and property once every fifty years (Lev. 25:10)
b. Freedom from oppression
Conclusion: The Call for Kingdom Justice
• Love God and Love Others!
• As Christ’s disciples, we have a duty to bring restoration of humanity back to God and to others
• Restoration is the essence of Jesus’ mission as the Messiah!

Introduction
I have been in Jubilee since I was twelve and it has been my custom to worship here every Sunday for the last twenty years. I’m not sure what reputation you may have heard of me while I was serving at the Synod for the last three years. But I realized that I am in a very precarious situation today as our church is indeed, built on top of a hill. It is my prayer and my plea to you that you do not roll me down the “cliff” after hearing my sermon today. How uncomfortable it would be to leave church in this manner especially with the newly installed road-humps along the way. Back to our story!

Today’s passage, from the Gospel according to Luke 4:16-30, is an account of Jesus being rejected at his hometown. Prior to his return to Nazareth, v. 14-15 tells us that news of Jesus, the great Rabbi, had spread throughout the countryside of Galilee and everyone who had heard him taught in the synagogues, were full of praises for him.

It is obviously Luke’s intention to have placed the two contrasting stories together for our comparison. One was full of praises by people who did not know him, while the other were folks from his hometown who not only knew him but had wanted to kill him after hearing his sermon! What could have caused such uproar? This was to be a home-coming like no other. Isn’t this Joseph’s son?
There are three parts to my sermon today: 1) Who is Jesus? 2) How did the Jews see him? 3) How should we see his mission?

1. Who is Jesus? : the Anointed One (Messiah)
Before we can understand the mission of Jesus, we need to look at his identity first. How did Jesus see himself? What was his identity? Who is Jesus?
Some commentators have pointed out an interesting observation in v. 18, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me”. This is an allusion to the Trinitarian God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all in one. In Luke chapter 4, we read of Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days was tempted by the devil, and after which he returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. Jesus’ ministry is indeed, a Spirited-filled ministry.

When Jesus proclaimed that ““The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me” (v. 18), he is declaring himself to be the Anointed One, which in Hebrew, translates as “messiah”. Here, Jesus is claiming the identity of the long-awaited Messiah. But how is it possible for anyone listening to Jesus that day could have missed out on such a plain declaration? This is because the term “messiah” with a small “m” could refer to numerous “anointed” people in the OT, but there is one Messiah (with a capital “M”) whom all Jews, even until today, are still waiting for.
In proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor and announcing that “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (v. 21), Jesus takes on the role of a prophet as well. A prophet is a messenger of God. The message which Jesus delivered here is one of God’s grace. The Anointed One will bring about deliverance from poverty, from captivity, from blindness, from the oppressed, and from all debts (in the year of the Lord’s favor)!
Jesus is the chosen Messiah, the Anointed One who came to deliver the world from sin. In this manner, his arrival signifies the fulfillment of the prophecy.

2. How did the Jews see him?
How did the townsfolk at Nazareth see him? Firstly, he was seen as an esteemed teacher of the law. Jesus came with an excellent reputation for his teaching and preaching ministry throughout the countryside of Galilee. Please note that most translations (including NIV) did not translate “gracious words” in v. 22 accurately. Instead, a better translation for the Greek word “charistos” (GK: ÷Üñéôïò) would be, “words of grace”, specifically, a message “about the grace of God”. It was a message of grace which Jesus was preaching on that day. This grace has been made available to all, Jews and Gentiles. But it was the Jews who have rejected this grace. What was a gift of grace became a rejection of God.

Secondly, Jesus was seen also as the son of a carpenter (v. 22b). “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” What they wanted to know was how could the son of their local carpenter been able to speak so well? This is when the events that day started to turn bad. In their mind, they only saw him, at most, a rabbi well-trained in the Jewish law. They did not have the concept of Jesus as the chosen Messiah. They did not truly understand the significance of Jesus’ earlier declaration as the Anointed One. If indeed the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled in their hearing today, they wanted Jesus to proof it to them.

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.’” Jesus spoke on their behalf what was on their mind all along. They wanted him to perform the miracles that they have heard him performed in Capernaum. Throughout his later ministry, Jesus would often be challenged to do miraculous signs (e.g. Luke 11:16, 29) to prove his claims as the Messiah. Even at the cross, Jesus was asked to save himself if he is indeed the Christ of God, the Chosen One (Luke 23:35).
For those who do not want to believe, no miracles will change their mind. For those who believe, no miracle is necessary. A leap of faith is what separates the believers from the unbelievers.
24 “I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. Like Elijah and Elisha, prophets are often not accepted by the very people whom they minister to. Elijah was commanded by God to go to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon and to bring life back to her son who had just died in his presence (1 Kings 17:7-24). When the widow saw what Elijah did, she said, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.” (1 Kings 17:24)
As for Elisha, he was the successor and disciple of Elijah, and was known to be a worker of miracles. The story about Naaman’s cleansing was to be found in 2 Kings 5:1-19. Naaman was a Gentile army commander to the king of Aram. Yet, God commanded Elisha to go to him and cleanse him from leprosy.
10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” (2 Kings 5:10)
When Naaman obeyed and was cleansed, he responded by declaring that, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.” (2 Kings 5:15a)

How did these two Gentiles respond after they were ministered to by the prophets? The widow recognized the true identity of Elijah as a man of God while Naaman declared that the God of Israel is the only true God. Such display of faith and belief by the Gentiles! Israel has seen more miracles in their entire history than they need and yet they are still a nation of unbelief. Even though the Messiah was presented right in front of them, they could not see him. Alas, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. How true!

3. How should we see his mission? (v. 18-19)

Let’s now take a look at the Mission of Jesus as the Servant of the Lord. There are five missions which the Anointed One must fulfill according to the prophecy.
i. Preach good news to the poor
ii. Proclaim freedom for the prisoners (captives)
iii. Bring recovery of sight to the blind
iv. Release the oppressed
v. Proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
There are plenty of examples throughout the NT which talks about the first three missions. One such evidence can be found in Matt 4:23-25.
23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.

But it is not clear how Jesus released the oppressed and what did he do to justify the proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favour? This is why I want to look specifically at the fourth and fifth mission: releasing the oppressed and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor, and understand what some of its implication are for us today.

Let’s take a look at the original text which Jesus was reading from, Isaiah 61:1-2 and only a small part from Isaiah 58:6, “to set the oppressed free”.
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,a
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God, (Isaiah 61:1-2)
And if we compare these verses with what was written in Luke, we will notice that Jesus had intentionally left out “the day of vengeance of our God” from Isaiah 61:2. Why so? It is likely that Jesus’ message for them that day was one of God’s promise and blessing, and not of God’s vengeance and punishment. Instead, Jesus ended his reading on a rather hopeful note, proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.

The year of the Lord’s favor is also commonly known as the year of Jubilee. The year of Jubilee is every fiftieth year occurring at the end of seven Sabbatical cycles of seven years each, in which all land was returned to its ancestral owners and all Israelite slaves were freed. The Jubilee is described in Leviticus and Numbers (Lev. 25:8-17, 23-55; 27:16-25; and Num. 36:4). It was proclaimed with the blowing of the shophar on the Day of Atonement. The shophar is a trumpet made from a ram’s horn, in Hebrew yobel is the original word which translates as “Jubilee”). It is a time of rejoicing, rest, and liberty for Israel. All debts were erased! If you were born a slave in Israel, you know that you will never be a slave for life because of the Jubilee Year.

Before we knew Christ, were we not once slaves? We were slaves to sin, and the wages of sin is death. When we sin against God, it can also be said that we owe God, a life debt. The word for sin and debt are used interchangeably. That is why we have different translations in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our sins” and “Forgive us our debts”. In proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favour, Jesus is ultimately saying that all our sins and all our life debts are no more! We are released from the oppression of death. “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Is it possible for us to practice the year of Jubilee today? The Sabbath and the Year of Jubilee are part of the whole Sabbatical rest cycle. Even God had observed the Sabbath in the Creation Story. What is the purpose of this Sabbath? Matt 2:27 says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” The Sabbath was made for us; it is to be a day of rest and worship. The Jubilee Year gives us an opportunity to start our lives afresh. We are no longer bound to the work every day of the week. We are to rest on one day of the week (Sunday for us), on the seventh year, and also on the fiftieth year. But how should we observe the Jubilee Year in our modern society?

Maybe, we ought to retire at 50-years old and return a year later from retirement to work for another 49 more years? How I wish our home loan could be extended to 50 years, and hope that our bank is the Bank of Israel and they still practice the year of Jubilee? But seriously, maybe we need to think about the significance of the Jubilee year in our lives, especially when we are all members of Jubilee Church? Are there some debts which are not settled? Would it be possible for you to erase them? Are there some people whom you have not forgiven?

What about “freedom from oppression”? Do we have a duty to speak up against oppression in our society? Where do we stand on the grounds of social injustice? In a recent article I read that many foreign helpers (i.e. maids) in Singapore are not even given a day of rest. I find it rather perturbed to find out that Singapore had to pass legislation for a “Compulsory Day Off In New Maid Contracts” and I was even more shocked when I realize that this compulsory day off is just one day in one month! Singaporeans tell their maids that even they do not get one day off in a week, why should their maids get one? What should our response be?

Conclusion: The Call for Kingdom Justice
As Christians, it is important that we stand together with Jesus on his mission for social justice. Jesus wants to establish justice in our society. Jesus wants to release and deliver the oppressed from oppression. It is our Christian duty to pursue justice. If we believe in a just God, there is no reason why we should not pursue justice in the society we live in today. But the word justice brings up many different understanding to it. When someone is the victim of a heinous crime, we sometimes hear someone say, “I want justice.” What they often mean is the death penalty. Robin Hood and his Sherwood Forest brothers have their own system of justice – dismantling systemic exploitation and redistributing money and power.

When justice is seen in this light, it brings about a sense of negativity. It often means recrimination, retribution, and punishment. The justice which Jesus brings is one of kingdom justice; it is justice that is deeper than retribution. For Jesus, kingdom justice is about restoring people and society to the love of God and love of others.

In the Bible, justice is described as “making something right,” and for something to be “right,” there has to be a standard. For the Jews, the standard is God’s will as revealed in the Torah. The standard of justice for Jesus is the two commandments which he has given to us: to love God and to love others.

In the Scriptural passage today, what Jesus promises is a kingdom justice that is prompted by the love for God and others. To the poor he promises “good news,” and to the imprisoned, “freedom.” To the blind he promises “sight,” and to the oppressed, “release.” Jesus is concerned with restoring humans so that things are just plain right. Each of us has a role to play in bringing social justice to this world, not according to our terms, but according to the kingdom’s perspective. This perspective is of the restoration of humanity to God. It is repentance in its true meaning, of humans turning back to be reconciled with God.

Sometimes, when we pursue justice as how the world pursues it, the emotional needs of the victims, which are most important, are often ignored or marginalized. Currently, we ask who did it and how we can punish them. But it makes more sense to ask who was hurt and how we can restore them. I’m not suggesting that finding out who is responsible for the crimes is not important. I’m saying that sometimes we pay more attention to the one who committed the crime than to the victims. And when sometimes, the victims are no longer with us, we ought to speak out on their behalf.
Forgiving others is one of the most difficult things to do in the world. “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” Can we really forgive someone when injustice knocks on our doors? How about adultery? An elder in our church told me recently that 10/10 wives said that they will not forgive their husbands if ever they cheated on them. What if this situation was reversed? Husbands, would you forgive your wives if they cheat on you?

How can we claim the forgiveness of our sins if we do not forgive others who sin against us? Let us be reminded by the Prayer that our Lord taught us: Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors. As Christ’s disciples, we have a duty to bring restoration of humanity back to God and to others. After all, Jesus came to restore Man to God! Jesus came to establish Kingdom Justice in this world. Restoration is the essence of Jesus’ mission as the Messiah!