Luke 4

There's alot here, but I want to spend some serious time talking about the middle section here: Jesus teaching in the synagogue at Nazareth. First, what is a synagogue? It's something that the Jewish people brought back with them from the exile. When the Temple was destroyed in 586 BC, there could be no more proper sacrifices. This caused a religious crisis among those who wanted to remain distinctively Jewish. What binds them as a people if there is not a Temple with a sacrifice system. So they came together in groups and built buildings like community centers. Their primary function was religious convocation (Sabbaths and Holy Days), but they were also used in education, juciary, and "town hall" functions. Even when the temple was rebuilt by Zerubbabel, the synagogues continued to be meeting places for worship ("prayer"--remember?). By Jesus' time, the synagogues probably followed a lectionary, which means that there would be a prescribed reading from Torah as well as from the Prophets and Writings established long in advance. There would also be a list of those who would be reading the passages (and then might comment on them) long ahead of time. So apparently Jesus is on the list in the synagogue in Nazareth. Well, what about Nazareth? The people that lived here are the ones who took the idea of synagogue very seriously--they were passionate and charismatic in worship and this caused the Judeans to look down on them somewhat. But they were proud of their heritage. Most scholars believe that Nazareth is related to the word netzer meaning "shoot" or "branch" (check Isaiah 11:1-3). They were related to the tribe of Judah even though they were geographically located in Galilee, and they believed themselves to be the Lord's people even to the extent that they believed the Messiah would come from among them. Even though they weren't doing weird things, they were thought of almost as cultish by other Jews (check the number of times someone says, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?!"). Now let's go to the text: Luke 4:14-15 -- Jesus is doing amazing things and word is getting around and then (:16) He goes to Nazareth, where He was raised. Picture growing up in a small town where someone, one of "your own" becomes a major league baseball player and eventually the MVP for the team that wins the World Series. And then he makes a stop back at this small ville where he grew up. Multiply the emotions in that picture by about 20 and you have something like the feel for Jesus returning to Nazareth. And it's His turn to read (by the way, notice that He STANDS to read the Words of God (:16) and after He reads, he SITS DOWN (:20) to teach). And the scripture portion for the day turns out to be about Him! That right there is pretty cool in itself, that God would orchestrate those things to communicate to His people. But back to the story: they are hanging on His every word and He says, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." And the crowd goes wild! I'm telling you that this is exactly what they wanted to hear! They're ecstatic! But Jesus isn't done. Jesus talks a bit about Elijah, and apparently this crowd that was so excited a few minutes ago is ready to kill him (:29). Why the big change? The answer, I think, is in rabbinic tradition. This tradition talks about Elijah. The rabbis said that the reason Elijah didn't do any miracles in Israel was because the Israelites thought they had it made simply because they were descendants of Abraham. There was no passionate faith. No intense persistence after God's will. No true repentance. No path-walking. So when Jesus brings Elijah into the picture, He's calling the Nazarenes out. He's telling them not to rely merely on who they are for their salvation. He's saying that you'd better get out there and live like God wants you to--repent and walk the path. And because those people had so much pride in who they were, they missed out on the Kingdom. It is interesting to note that Jesus never goes back to Nazareth after this incident. So what about us? Are we relying heavily on the fact that we grew up with Godly parents or in a Christian school? These are certainly things to be thankful for, but we can't enter the Kingdom of Heaven riding on our parents' coat tails. Are we taking our faith seriously? Is there true repentence? Is there a return to the path?