Behold the Jubilee

Series on Luke

III The Initiation

A The Announcement of His Ministry

Text: 4:14-30

Introduction

I have had the blessing of sitting in a synagogue in Nazareth but not he same one as Jesus was in. That is long gone, but there is a fairly ancient synagogue on that site today. The leader that day read from Luke 4. The greatest blessing was not walking where Jesus walked, but knowing that I understood the point Jesus was making and that the point He made and everything to do with why I, a Gentile, am now the seed of Abraham together with all my Christian brothers and sisters. The occasion in our Scripture starts out as very ordinary. Jesus customarily went to the synagogue, and we read in verses 14-16, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. It was also customary for male members of the synagogue to read from the scrolls in an assigned order. Jesus had been teaching in different synagogues. He purposely chooses Nazareth, His home town, on this day, and it is what he says that is far from customary. He makes an earth-shaking announcement that will define His ministry and God’s whole purpose for that generation. It is the Jubilee.

I The Jubilee Declared

The declaration is in verses 17-22, The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. Now it is highly probable that there were assigned readings throughout the year, just as some churches follow a church year in their Scripture readings today. So I think that this was a remarkable providence that Jesus stands to read from this place in the scroll of Isaiah. He reads from Isaiah 61. Isaiah 40-66 is all about the servant of the Lord. It actually begins with a prophecy of the ministry of John the Baptist. In this section there is described the work of the servant, his victory, and the subsequent blessings to the whole earth. All of this is intertwined with continual exhortations to repent and trust in the Lord. Chapter 53 is well known for describing the sufferings of the servant for the sins of His people. In Chapter 60 the future glory of Zion is envisioned with all nations coming to worship Yahweh. Finally in chapter 66 we have a description of the new heavens and earth. In chapter 61 the future is pictured in terms of the year of the Lord’s favor, which in the Old Testament was the year of Jubilee the 50th sabbath year. The important words in this portion are the utterance of Jesus who says the Jubilee has come in Him, this is good news, great news, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Everything the Jubilee symbolized in the Old Testament is now fulfilled in Jesus.

II The Jubilee Defined

Only a portion of the words of Isaiah 61 is reproduced in our text. The entire passage is Isaiah 61:1-3, 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, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. In Israel every seventh year was a sabbath and the land was not to be cultivated, but lay fallow. During that year God provided sufficient for His people. Then after a cycle of seven sevens or 49 years there came a Jubilee. During this fiftieth year the same rules applied, and that meant two years without cultivating, planting, and harvesting. God still provided enough. The Jubilee was the great sabbath symbolizing God’s blessings, compassionate provision, grace, mercy and love for His people. The regulations are found in Leviticus 25. In this year debts were forgiven, property restored to the original owners, slaves freed, and again, the people were fed without work. It is what all Sabbaths represent, a picture of paradise restored. This is what Jesus had come to do, and what he did through His atoning death and resurrection. So this is a great announcement that in His ministry He had come to bring mercy and forgiveness and to comfort His people. Something he does not mention in the synagogue in Luke’s account is the day of vengeance of God, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor “and the day of vengeance of our God.” Of course the day of vengeance is the day that Jesus mentioned so often in His prophetic pronouncements (Luke 21:5), the day of the destruction of Jerusalem when not one stone of the temple would be left upon another. But here Jesus omits that part because this is the commencement of His ministry of mercy and grace. Hypothetically, if He were not rejected by His people the judgment would have been averted, but as we know, that rejection was written and had to be fulfilled as Isaiah says in 53:3 and 4, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. It is by His atoning death and resurrection that he finally brings the great Jubilee, the return to Paradise.

III The Jubilee Disapproved

Unfortunately the rejection began that day in His own home town as we read in verses 23-30, 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.’” “I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. Here in this place where the Son of God had lived his early years He was disrespected. The reason was that He gave an interpretation that was unacceptable in Jewish synagogue, and in fact it was anathema to first century Jewry. Jesus realizes that they will not accept His words. He gives two illustrations of what the Jubilee means and they are both concerned with God’s mercy being shown to Gentiles. He mentions the Canaanite woman who was helped by Elijah in famine, and Naaman the Syrian General who was healed by God through Elijah. God had mercy on these Gentiles, In the first century the energy of Judaism was focused primarily on separation from Gentiles. They were considered no better than dogs. Even Jesus uses this terminology in Matthew 15 when he is approached by a Canaanite woman requesting that He deliver her daughter from a demon. We read in verses 25-28, The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Jesus’ use of the common derogatory term is purposeful. it serves to point out that although, like Paul, His gospel was to the Jew first and then to the Gentile, His mission is to help and save all. In His act of healing, Jesus is demonstrating that He does not agree with the common Jewish prejudice. The Jubilee is for all. The Jews of Nazareth were shocked at Jesus sympathy for all people, not just His own nation. They were going to kill Jesus because in the first century what He had said was tantamount to blasphemy. It was not His time and He escaped. Like most of Israel they had rejected the offer of salvation because it was not exclusively for them.