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DAVID'S EMAIL BIBLE STUDY:
A.
BACKGROUND...
Jesus started his ministry with what business calls "a soft opening". He gets baptized, affirmed by God, and goes on a spiritual retreat in the wilderness where he is challenged by the Devil. Then, it gets serious. He starts by going to his hometown synagogue where he is the guest teacher. Explaining the Prophet Isaiah's teachings, he is received favorably before the crowd turns against him. He escapes and takes his ministry of physical and spiritual healing to the countryside with great success.
C. SUMMARY:
Jewish worship was centered on sacrifices made at the Temple in Jerusalem. By Jesus' time the idea had spread of having a synagogue in every town for teaching, not sacrifice. Each Sabbath there would be prayer, scripture reading, and discussion of the scripture. When Jesus visited his hometown Nazareth he was given the honor of reading Isaiah 61:1-2. It offers a job description of the Messiah that transforms the lives of the poor, needy, and oppressed.
He told the congregation that the promises of the verses "have been fulfilled" that very day. Jesus anticipates the crowd's skeptic, citing Old Testament examples where the faith of Israelites was weak compared to that of foreigners. Then the crowd turns against him.
1.
SOCIAL JUSTICE. In some religious circles this phrase is a bad word. A few years ago, Glen Beck went on a month's long crusade against "social justice", preachers, churches, Christians, even asserting they weren't Christian. With my own ears I heard him tell his listeners that if they were in a "social justice" church they should quit; and report the pastor to their superiors. But Jesus and John the Baptist called for justice in society. John's message was the "baptism of repentance", a changed life. When pressed for practical examples he told soldiers to stop oppressing the citizens, government workers, to stop extorting and squeezing people, and everybody to share the excesses we have with those who don't have. In today's scripture Jesus self-identifies with Isaiah's promise that the Messiah would bring "good news to the
poor, freedom for
prisoners, sight for the
blind, freedom for the
oppressed, and the year of
Jubilee (the Lord's favor)." It's hard to miss the "social justice" component in either Jesus or John. They want a just society, and that is accomplished by changed people. Changed behavior, changed attitudes, changed society.
2.
TALL ORDER. It's Jesus' job description, but if we are "Christlike" we sign on for the same work, a tall order. We can divide it into two categories: literal and broader. By broader I mean that there are people blinded by racism, imprisoned by addictions, in poverty (lack) or opportunity or hope or meaning, etc. We can take all those specific descriptions of need and broaden their meaning to ways we can affect. I can't raise the dead or give sight to the blind. But you and I can raise spirits and open eyes in many ways. Yet, Jesus is also specific here and elsewhere (feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the lonely, forgive 70x7, go the extra mile, turn the other cheek). So, we should at least attempt such things. Rick Fernandes, in our Advent Devotional, reminds us of three W's: wealth, work, and wisdom. We all have one, two, or all three to put to use in fulfilling Jesus' job description, his and ours.
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