"WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?”
Luke 4:18,19
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are downtrodden;
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
The first 30 or so years of Jesus’ earthly life seems to have been pretty positive. Luke tells us in chapter 2 verse 52 that Jesus continued from His youth to grow in stature, and in favor with God and men.
Then comes His baptism in the Jordan by John, and His temptation in the wilderness by Satan. Now I suppose that could be seen as a not so positive part, depending on how you look at trials and testings. It certainly ended on a positive note.
But so far as the people are concerned, Jesus is a pretty popular guy. He comes back from the wilderness and when he enters Galilee people start spreading the news. We’re not really told why. We can only guess that the things John said about Him at His baptism and the day after have got their curiosity going.
In Mark 6 there is some indication that He might have done a miracle or two, and here in Luke 4:24 Jesus Himself refers to things He did in Capernaum that must have been “Six o’clock news” worthy.
And it says in verse 15 of our text chapter that He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
So Jesus, at this point in His life, is making the speaking circuit, much in demand, quickly becoming a Galilean household name.
If He had waited until about 1973 to be born, by now He’d be selling tapes and books, Christian musicians would be scrambling for gigs opening His seminars, Larry King would be sending Him invitations to be interviewed on his show.
“Who is this Jesus?” “What do we make of this new guy on the scene, who has very suddenly just appeared, seemingly from nowhere, and started healing people and telling them stuff that’s really making them feel good?”
People would be driving from all over the country, and flying in from different parts of the world to hear Him speak in person.
Maybe they’d even start wearing “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelets…
Jesus was a popular man.
So He comes home to Nazareth. Now Nazareth is usually portrayed as a very small village. Just a small cluster of small homes, where everyone knew everyone and everything there was to know about each other.
I couldn’t locate any information to confirm that it was small. Present day Nazareth has a population of over 50 thousand.
We do have the remark from the crowd in verse 22 of Luke 4 however, that would indicate that they all knew this was ‘Joseph’s son’, and would lead us to believe that it was a small village as opposed to a large community where many people would not be familiar with the carpenter’s family.
Anyway, Jesus has been away for a while, and during His absence stories have started trickling back into town. Jesus went down to see that baptist in Judea, and the baptizer called Him the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. Oh, c’mon! “No, really! There were a number of reliable witnesses standing close enough to hear every word, and that’s what he said!’ About Jesus? “Yes!”
Where is He now? “Dunno. He walked off on His own and no one has seen Him for more than a month.”
Then one Sabbath morning as the men gather in the Nazareth synagogue and the women gather at the door to listen from outside, someone says, “Hey, is that Jesus?”
And as those who are nearby turn and look where the person is indicating, there comes Jesus. He comes to the synagogue and walks in, approaches the attendant, and opens the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
Now I don’t know if this can be documented; but I read somewhere once that the tradition in the synagogues was to read through the Law, a portion at a time, and then a second reader would read from the prophets. Wherever the readers left off the week before, the readers the next week would pick up from there.
If this is true, then Jesus came to the Nazareth synagogue on the day that these verses from Isaiah were due to be read.
In any case, Jesus takes the scroll and reads these verses we have as our text today, and then He sits down, and it says all eyes are on Him, every ear tuned in, to hear what Nazareth’s favorite son has to say.
WHAT WOULD MESSIAH DO?
Just to be sure we’re clear on the setting; when the scriptures were read the reader would stand to do it, out of respect for God’s word. Then the reader would sit down and share his thoughts on what had just been read.
Now you or I, that is, a human preacher, would do something like what I’m doing today. We would take this passage from Isaiah, line by line, and talk about what it means and attempt to show its application to our lives.
In that setting, a mere man, having read those lines, would most likely begin to talk about what the Messiah would do when He comes. Because that was their understanding of the passage; that Isaiah was predicting the role of God’s Promised One when He came to His people.
I think, though, that their approach to Isaiah’s prophecy would be limited to the physical realm.
I say that, because as we study through the gospels we see indications that the Jews, including His own chosen apostles, expected that the Messiah would come as a conqueror, defeat Israel’s foes, and reign as King on the earth.
One example that should be very familiar to all of us is in Luke 24:21, when the risen Jesus approaches two disciples on the road to Emmaus, asking them why they’re so downcast, and in their lamenting one of them says, “but we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel…”
Well, even in their error they were eventually going to get that wish. He had provided redemption for all who believe, and yet in the future is the day when He will indeed redeem Israel (Romans 11).
So as these citizens of Nazareth listened to Jesus read, they were picturing a Messiah who would be preaching good news of financial blessing and stability to those who had been made destitute by the demand of Roman tax and property seizure.
Freedom for political prisoners and those who had been wrongly accused and taken from their families.
More than that, the Messiah, being from God, would perform miracles. Giving sight to the blind is the only one mentioned. Do you wonder why?
We’re given the answer to that in chapter 9 of John’s gospel. Jesus heals a man blind from birth, and when the man is interrogated by the Pharisees he says, “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.” (John 9:32)
And the Pharisees didn’t argue with him.
You can read through the Old Testament and find prophets raising the dead, healing the sick and doing various other miracles, but you won’t find anyone giving sight to the blind.
But Isaiah says that a unique proof of God’s anointing on the One who comes, would be that He would give sight to the blind.
By Isaiah’s words they knew to look for a Messiah who would free them from oppression, and He would proclaim the day that had been watched and prayed for in every generation of God’s people. It would be the day when God comes to judge the earth and reign among His people. It is expressed in our text as “…the favorable year of the Lord”
So Jesus closes the scroll, sits down, and opens His mouth to speak.
But does He teach these things? Does he repeat these same things that all of them have heard from their youth and expected to hear now?
No. He simply states that they need wait no longer. This scripture is fulfilled, even in their hearing.
In other words, when others have read those words they have been quoting someone else. Jesus is telling them, ‘that’s Me talking’! You just got it straight from the source!
WHAT WOULD THE RELIGIOUS DO?
Now read verses 21 and 22 with me.
“And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, ‘Is this not Joseph’s son?’”
Now it seems to me that when I watch some movie like “Jesus of Nazareth”, or any other movie I’ve seen on the life of Christ where this incident is included, the people get all stirred up because Jesus claimed to be the Messiah and they see Him only as Joseph’s son, and they’re all upset that He took Isaiah’s words and applied them to Himself.
But if you look closer at the text, forget the movies you’ve seen or the bad sermons you’ve heard, you’ll notice that Jesus, at this point, is still a popular guy!
They wondered! The Amplified version says they ‘marveled at the words of grace’ coming out of His mouth. I like the NASB best for, ‘the gracious words which were falling from His lips’. Now the most accurate rendering is the word charis, which is Greek for ‘grace’, rather than gracious. So my choice of wording here, going for pleasure to the ear, would be “They marveled at the words of grace which were falling from His lips”.
Like cool, clean water bubbling over the pebbles in a small stream. Like a morning mist, drifting over the moors and falling gracefully and silently into a ravine then billowing back up the other side and gliding over the heather.
Ah, the sense of good will and favorable regard poured out toward the speaker of glad tidings and bright days ahead…
…isn’t this Joseph’s son? The carpenter? How eloquent are His words! He causes hope to rise up and fairly burst from our hearts!
That’s all it takes to be religious, folks. Jesus could have stopped there, healed a wart or two, and in a month he could have been pastor of the first mega-church.
The religious will always gravitate to that which promises health and wealth and freedom from trouble asking only adherence to a few rules and the commitment of a few dollars to pave the way. That’s the desire of the flesh, and religion appeals to the flesh. So carnal people flock to it.
Tell me a few nice things, give me some light work to do that will make me feel good about myself, to get me through another exhausting week in the work place and ease my conscience about the juggling of the numbers or the tryst on Saturday night.
But Jesus had a way of cutting through the fat and getting to the meat, didn’t He?
An acquaintance of mine years ago who was in his early thirties, had a medical emergency that required immediate surgery. He was a portly man, to put it gently.
As his wife waited in the hallway, praying and wringing her hands, the doctor came out to give her the news. His approach may not have been apprised as good bed-side manner. In controlled anger he said, “Your husband is going to be fine. But if the emergency had been any more pressing time wise, he might be dead.” Her eyebrows curled in confusion and he went on. “It took me the first 20 minutes just to cut through all that fat, and get down to where I could address the problem!”
Jesus was good at going straight through the blubber and getting to the heart of the matter. The matter of people’s hearts. He had many opportunities to just bask in the glow of adoration and praise for His healings and the happy things He had to say about the Kingdom of God. But He didn’t take them, because that would have been to avoid saying the things that really mattered; that often cut and hurt, not as an attacker but as a skilled surgeon, bringing help and healing if only it would be accepted and applied.
So right in the midst of their ‘oo’-ing and ‘ah’-ing, He exposes the hypocrisy lying just under the surface like a varicose vein.
“No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your home town as well’.”
Y’know what? At times in the past I’ve been accused of being harsh. Imagine that. Yep, even other pastors have said that they agreed with a point I made in the pulpit, but they wouldn’t have said it as harshly as I did.
I wish I knew the source of this story I’m about to tell. I remember my father telling it when I was a boy and since he’s in Heaven now I can’t ask him where he got it.
He told of a pastor who was retiring after 25 years of ministry in one church, and the congregation wanted to present him with a plaque expressing their appreciation. They invited some famous preacher to come and be the key speaker and then present the plaque.
As this famous preacher sat on the platform, waiting his turn, he heard one testimony after another from the deacons and some of the laymen, all gushing over this aging pastor and boasting that he had managed to pastor for 25 years without ever offending anyone or losing anyone from the church because of any ill-chosen words.
When it was time for the guest to speak, he stood up behind the pulpit next to the retiring pastor, placed an arm over his shoulder and bid the congregation bow their heads in prayer.
When all heads were bowed and eyes closed, the preacher prayed, “Lord, please forgive a man who, entrusted with the souls of a large congregation of people, never once in 25 years stepped on any toes”. He then walked out of the church, leaving the people’s mouths agape in shock, and the award un-presented.
Now I am more aware than some folks believe I am, that there are men out there more capable than I of sweetening the medicine and having it received well to do its work.
And I try. I really do try. If you could have heard me preach during my Bible school days you would have wondered if the Holy Spirit could really live in a vessel that rough.
But I do believe in erring on the side of caution, my people. And to avoid the slight chance that someone may not catch the meaning of words that could possibly change their hearts, I’d rather take a chance on making you upset with me, than staying in your favor and being guilty of handing you a way to sidestep the issue.
Jesus was in the presence of religious people, and He brought the religious spirit to the surface and forced it to show its ugly head.
In verses 25-27 of our text chapter, He is exposing the religious elitism that would shut out from salvation or acceptance with God, anyone who was not like them.
There were plenty of widows in Israel in the time of Elijah who could have been helped in the time of famine. But it was a gentile widow who showed faith and received a miracle.
There was no shortage of lepers in Israel during Elisha’s ministry, but the Syrian was cleansed because he came looking for God’s man for the answer.
“And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things…”
Did you hear? Verse 22 “And all were speaking well of Him…”
Verse 28 “And all …were filled with rage…”
My, how quickly they turn! And Christians, I will guarantee you that I could stand in the pulpit of a great many churches across our great land, preaching the good news and preaching healing and forgiveness and freedom and redemption in the name of Jesus, and the place would be virtually aglow with the warmth and good cheer radiating from the congregation’s grateful breasts.
And in five minutes time of warning them against a religious spirit that seeks favor with God by works, and shuts out the dirty or the poor or the sinful or the homeless or anyone else that doesn’t think, dress, eat, smell and sing just like them, they’d be ready to fire the pastor for inviting me to preach!
At least, a large percentage of them would.
The rest would be silently thanking God that I’m not talking about them.
WHAT WOULD CHRISTIANS DO?
So what would be the correct response to Jesus?
Let’s just pretend for a moment, that you are in that crowd. Maybe you are John or his brother, James. John the baptist pointed Jesus out to you the day after His baptism, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
And you followed Him around for a day or two, then the Holy Spirit drove Him out into the wilderness, and you haven’t seen Him for almost 6 weeks. So you had the idea of coming to Nazareth in case He came home, and sure enough, here He is today.
Now you’ve heard His words, and everything seems to jive with what the baptist said, and then Jesus’ words get kind of harsh.
You thought He was here to raise up an army and drive the Romans back to spaghetti land, and instead He’s dissing the neighbors He grew up with!
(Yes, I actually said ‘dissing’)
Now they’re all on their feet, and they’re trying to force Him out to the edge of the nearby cliff to throw Him off as a heretic. So you’re forced into a sort of decision here. Are you going to help them? Are you going to try to help Him? Well that could be kinda dangerous, huh?
But His words are still swimming in your head. Not the rebuke, but the claim.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are downtrodden;
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
And as far as the rebuke is concerned, well, aren’t the other folks from the synagogue now proving that His assessment of them was right?
Jeremiah nailed it when he said, “…Thou art near to their lips but far from their mind.” (Jer 12:2c)
Suddenly the decision is made for you, as it seems that Jesus has somehow eluded the grasp of the mob and they can’t find Him. They just mill around, dumbfounded.
But the words He claimed from Isaiah continue to occupy your thinking. The next day you find Him on the road to Capernaum, and you follow.
Over the next three years you watch Him doing all those things that Isaiah talked about, and your heart grows freer, your faith stronger, your hope greater.
Then the day comes that He delivers Himself up to evil men, who treat Him unjustly, crucify Him illegally, then go off and fill their bellies with a Passover lamb.
Then Sunday comes, and with it the news of an empty tomb and a risen Lord.
You see Him, you touch Him, you hear His final words of challenge, command and comfort, as He tells you that you are now to go about doing the things He did. Then he bodily ascends into the heavens before your very eyes, and now you have more purpose in life than you ever dreamed a mere man could have.
Christians, the day you came to the Savior, however it was you came, at whatever point in life, at whatever age, in whatever condition, with whatever baggage…
On that day you were healed. You were cleansed. You were placed on level ground with every saint of the ages, complete in Him, filled with His Spirit, and commissioned to the same work. To do what Jesus did.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you, because He has anointed you and sent you to tell the good news to those who are poor in spirit and without God in the world.
He has sent you to proclaim freedom from bondage to sin and Satan.
He has called you ‘light’, and given you charge of bringing His light to those in spiritual blindness, so they might finally say with joy, ‘all I know is, I was blind and now I see’.
He has empowered you to walk in the strength of His might and bring healing and release to those bound by addiction and helplessness as you introduce them to the Great Physician.
And He has given you the great joy and pleasure of announcing that what God planned in ages past has finally come down to them; that being, the opportunity for them to appropriate to themselves forgiveness for sin, eternal life, resurrection power.
Do you see the difference between the religious person and the Christian?
The religious will wear the bracelet. No, not necessarily in a literal sense; but they’ll consider what Jesus would do concerning situational ethics, so they can continue to look like pious, God-fearing, clean-cut pillars of the church.
But the calling and the blessings of God will go out to the very ones they would scorn and reject in their religious hypocricy.
The Christian will do what Jesus did. Because he has the Holy Spirit in him, pointing him to Jesus, conforming him to his Lord’s image, empowering him for service, using him to build the Kingdom as he proclaims everywhere the favorable year of the Lord.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.” (John 14:12)
What can be greater than giving fish and bread to the poor? Making him rich in Christ.
What can be greater than delivering him from demons? Delivering him from sin and death.
What can be greater than giving a blind man eyes? Giving him spiritual sight to see spiritual truth.
What can be greater than freeing from addiction and depression and oppression from without? Telling him of an eternal acceptance with God through Christ, and sending his heart forward in joy and triumph; yes, even in this world!
Would you ask what Jesus would do, Christian? Read Luke 4:18,19 and know that by His Holy Spirit He has both commissioned and empowered you to do the same.
