(Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls)
Hannah was spending the night with her grandparents. At bath-time Hannah asked her grandmother if they were going to church the next morning. When Grandma said yes, Hannah turned up her nose and said, “I don’t like Sunday school.”
“But Hannah,” Grandma replied, “we should learn all we can about God.”
“I learned all about that when we lived in Illinois.”
“Well, I’ve been going to church all my life and I haven’t learned everything about God,” Grandma said.
“Maybe you weren’t paying attention.”
Today we are going to read the story of someone who went to church all his life, only in his day they didn’t call it church. They called it the synagogue. And some say this guy did know everything about God—just like Hannah claimed—only he really did.
How would you like to be in church, or synagogue, the day that guy came to preach? Well, here’s our chance to be like flies on the wall. Listen for God’s word to you from Luke 4:14-21…
Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.
He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read,and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read,and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
These verses begin a new, third section of Luke’s Gospel that runs from here to the end of chapter 9. This section is focused on the Galilean ministry of Jesus. The section that follows this will focus on Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.
In these verses, Luke shows us at least four things about Jesus…
1. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.
The word “spirit” is used 34 times by Luke in his Gospel, 16 of these occurrences refer to the Holy Spirit. The word “spirit” appears 69 times in Luke’s second volume called Acts; that’s more than in any other book of the New Testament. 58 of these occurrences refer to the Holy Spirit. So, do you get it? The work of the Holy Spirit is a major theme in Luke’s two-volume work. The Holy Spirit is talked about 103 times in his writings—that’s more than in all the letters of Paul where he talks about the Holy Spirit 94 times. So, in a way, we owe our knowledge of the person and work of the Holy Spirit more to the writings of Luke than to those of Paul.
Luke says that Jesus returned to Galilee in the power, the δυνάμει, of the Spirit. That Greek word for “power” is the same word from which we get our English word “dynamite”. There was an explosive power in which Jesus walked and we still see traces of it today in the New Testament. Have you ever thought about how appropriate those initials are that designate the New Testament: TNT?
Do you remember Jimmie Walker who played J.J. Evans on the TV show “Good Times”? Do you remember the way he pronounced that word? Dyn-O-mite! Jesus walked in the dyn-O-mite of the Spirit. And Luke is going to show us what that looked like, not only in this little story, but in the rest of his Gospel.
And thankfully, the story doesn’t end there. Because, if the Gospel is true, then we too can walk in the dyn-O-mite power of the Holy Spirit.
In Luke 11:13 Jesus says,
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
All we have to do is ask, and our heavenly Father will give us the same Holy Spirit that Jesus walked in the power of.
What does that look like?
The interesting thing is that where the other Gospels show Jesus doing miracles, that is not the first thing that Luke shows us. For Luke, the work of the Spirit is always tied to the Word. So, the first thing we see Jesus doing, as he walks in the power of the Spirit, is that he teaches the Word in the synagogue.
So that’s the second thing Luke shows us here about Jesus…
2. Jesus taught in their Synagogues.
Howard Marshall has said, “The present passage [in Luke] is the oldest known account of a synagogue service”. Isn’t that amazing? For the best look at what worship looked like in the synagogue in its earliest days, we must look to the Gospel of Luke, not to some exclusively Jewish text.
When did worship in the synagogue begin? Joseph Fitzmyer has said, “The origin of the Jewish synagogue is usually traced to the Babylonian Captivity, when Jews separated from their homeland and the Temple and, anxious to preserve their religious traditions, congregated on the Sabbath for prayer, reading of the Torah, and instruction. On their return to Palestine, and even after the rebuilding of the Temple, the custom of meetings continued in local communities and even in Jerusalem itself. ‘Synagogue’ came to denote not only the congregation, but even the place of Jewish religious assembly…”
Now, there were three parts to a synagogue service, two of which we see in this passage in Luke:
1. The prayers. “After private prayer on entry to the building by the worshippers there was a public confession of the Jewish faith in the Shema (Dt. 6:4-9; 11:13-21), followed by [more] prayers…” (Marshall)
2. The reading of the Scriptures.This was the center of the worship. “A passage from the Pentateuch was read, according to a fixed scheme of lections, by several members of the congregation in turn, with an Aramaic paraphrase. There was also a lesson from the prophets; in later times this too was according to a fixed lectionary, but it is a matter of dispute whether this system existed in the first century, and, if so, what form it took… It is safest to assume that there was at least some freedom of choice of prophetic reading in the first century.” (Marshall)
3. The teaching: “In the synagogue there was no professional ministry nor any one person to give the address; the president would invite any distinguished person present to speak and discussion and talk would follow. That is how Jesus got his chance. The synagogue and its platform were open to him at this stage.” (Barclay) “Following the readings was a prayer, and then came a sermon, if there was somebody competent present to give one (Acts 13:15). Finally, the Qaddish prayer was recited. The readers for the day were appointed before the service began.” (Marshall) “The service was concluded by a blessing uttered by the president and the priestly blessing of Num 6:24-26.” (Fitzmyer)
3 Jesus Read Scripture (Isaiah 61:1-2).
The passage that Jesus read from Isaiah “alludes to the year of jubilee when once every 50 years slaves were freed, debts were canceled, and ancestral property was returned to the original family. Isaiah predicted primarily the liberation of Israel from the future Babylonian captivity, but Jesus proclaimed liberation from sin and all its consequences.” (NIV Study Bible)
This text from Isaiah was popular at Qumran and was used with reference to the work of the Teacher of Righteousness. Again, Joseph Fitzmyer has said, “The Isaiah Scroll A from Qumran Cave 1, which is complete and dated paleographically ca. 100 B.C., would be a good example of the sort of scroll that might have been used in a synagogue.” If you go to the Digital Dead Sea Scrolls web site online you can view a photo of the Isaiah Scroll and actually, that is digitally, unroll it. In other words, you can see almost exactly what Jesus would have been looking at when he read from Isaiah.
Now, it should be noted that: “The quotation from [what scholars call] Second Isaiah is actually a conflation of 61:1a,b,d; 58:6d; 61:2a. Two phrases are omitted: 61:1c, ‘to heal the broken-hearted’ (at the end of v. 18); and 61:2b, ‘the day of vengeance of our God’ (at the end of v. 19). The omission of the former is of little consequence; but the latter is a deliberate suppression of a negative aspect of the Deutero-Isaian message. The ‘today’ of v. 21 is not to be identified with a day of divine vengeance.” (Fitzmyer) In other words, Jesus emphasized the positive aspect of Isaiah’s prophecy.
Tony Campolo explains in a sermon the idea of “jubilee” that forms the background to Isaiah 61:
In the fiftieth year these are the things that are supposed to happen:
All debts are cancelled. You look like the kind of group that would think that was good news.
All prisoners are set free. I know some of you get nervous at that point. You say, “I don’t mind the debt thing. Maybe that’s a good thing. But prisoners set free? Murderers, rapists on the streets? That scares me.” Don’t get nervous. I have read the Old Testament. The only thing they put you in jail for in those days was debt. Everything else, they killed you. That’s right. Have you ever talked back to your mother or father? In biblical times if you talked back to your parents, you would have been stoned. I knew there would be somebody here that would say, “Stoned? Whoa.” No, in those days getting stoned meant having rocks thrown at you.
All land is given back to those who originally possessed it.A redistribution of the land. All of this, of course, was good news for the poor. The Jubilee was a new start for poor people. For those who had lost out in life’s race, it was a chance to get a new beginning, a point of hope. The Year of the Jubilee.
Even though Moses commanded that the Jubilee be observed, never once did the Jews observe a Jubilee. It was commanded, but they never did it. Why? Sometimes religious institutions may be controlled by rich people. In any event, it never happened. But Isaiah 61 says when the Messiah comes, the Messiah will declare the Jubilee. You will know he is the Messiah by virtue of the fact that he does declare the Jubilee.[1]
4. Jesus said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
This leads to the final thing we see Jesus doing in this passage and that is preaching. Jesus’ statement (“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”) shows us that Jesus was consciously aware of the influence of the Spirit on him.
Also note, Luke talks about Jesus sitting down. Men would stand to read Scripture in the synagogue, but they would sit down to teach. So, the line “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” is the first line of Jesus’ sermon.
However, sermons in the synagogues in those days did not consist of one-way communication. Rather, it was two-way. People would respond and ask questions. Next Sunday, we will look at the interaction that took place during Jesus’ sermon.
For now, let’s focus on what Jesus has just done. Tony Campolo explains the significance:
Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth. The synagogue is full. Mary undoubtedly has rounded up the crowd. You know how mothers are. “My son is going to be down at the central synagogue tonight. He’s really a spellbinder. You won’t want to miss it.” The place is packed. Jesus stands up. He asks for the Scriptures. He takes the scrolls. He opens the Bible to Isaiah 61. Have you got the setting? Every Jew knows the Scripture. They know that whoever declares the Jubilee is simultaneously declaring himself to be the Messiah. You can imagine the drama as Jesus reads…
Shock. They know what he’s just done. He sits down. The Scripture says the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were upon him. You bet they were. He had declared the Jubilee, and the Messiah was supposed to do that. Jesus then says, “This day this Scripture is fulfilled in your eyes.” Whoa. It’s as though he’s saying, “In case you didn’t get it folks, I’m it.”[2]
Read the text and give the sense. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since the first time I stood up to preach at age 16. That’s what every preacher is supposed to do. It involves the dangerous step called: interpretation. And that’s what Jesus did too. Only there is this difference between Jesus and me, between Jesus and every other preacher who has ever lived. Jesus interpreted this text, Isaiah 61, as having to do with him. He said it was about him.
And here is the ultimate question: if you had been in that synagogue in Nazareth 2000 years ago, how would you have responded?
Well, guess what? You are there. I am there. The God we serve is not bound by time. Jesus addresses us today and says, “This Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
In other words, there is release and recoveryfor us if we accept Jesus into our lives.
Have I told you the story of the guy I met at a gas station in Los Angeles?
I was driving across L.A. at 4 o’clock in the morning to catch an early flight back home. But I had to drop my rental car off first, and I had to fill the tank with gas before I did that. So, I got off the freeway to look for a gas station. I found one. There was no attendant but the lights were on so I figured I could buy gas with my credit card.
But as I drove into the station there was this huge black guy standing near the pump. Now, I’m not prejudiced. I would have been just as scared if there was a huge white guy standing there, seemingly for no reason, with no other car around. Still, something inside of me said, “Just get your gas here. Trust me.”
So, I did. I pulled up to the pump. Got out of the car and the guy says to me, “Sir, can you help me out?” I said, “Yes, just a minute. Let me fill up my car and then I’ll give you something.”
So, I filled up the tank. I got back in the car and started the engine. I rolled down the window and I handed the guy a twenty-dollar bill.
I wasn’t expecting what happened next. The guy thanked me and then he started weeping. He said, “I can’t believe you gave me twenty dollars. Are you a Christian?”
I said, “Yes.”
And he said, “I just got out of prison. I don’t really have any place to go. But I know I need to receive Jesus.”
So, I got out of the car and I prayed with that man to receive Jesus. And I gave him a copy of my book about my father that I happened to have with me.
I haven’t heard from that man since. But here’s the thing. I wonder: how many of us are asking for a handout when we could be asking for so much more?
Thankfully, that guy in the gas station didn’t stop with asking for a handout. He asked Jesus to come into his life. And when Jesus comes into our lives, he gives us release and recovery.
Isaiah and Jesus both talk about release to the captives. What is imprisoning you that you would like release from? What is holding you captive that you want to be set free from. Jesus can give that release to you.
Isaiah and Jesus both talk about recovery—recovery of sight for the blind. We know the many stories of Jesus healing blind people. We may not be blind, but all of us need healing in some way. All of us have lost something that we would like recovered. What recovery are you in need of today? What healing do you long for? Jesus can give it to you.
All you have to do is ask Jesus—ask him—and he will fill you with the dynamite power of the Holy Spirit that can give you release and recovery.
Let’s pray…
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