Who Is Jesus? part 4: Forgiveness over Fame, Mercy over Might

 

Please read Luke 4:1 through 5:26. Or you can just read the shorter passages before each section.

It's not about self-serving power 4:1-13

The first thing I notice about this passage is that Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit, and led by by Him into the wilderness. Everything Jesus did was apparently under the direction of the other two Members of the Godhead. In chapter five of John's Gospel, Jesus asserted that everything He did was under the direction of the Father. He is God, but, as Paul tells us, He did not insist on using the power of God for Himself (Philippians 2:6-7). 

• He refused to use His powers for His own needs. Although he would provide bread on at least two occasions for the crowds, He refused to use His power to feed Himself. 
• He refused to make a deal with the devil in order to control the world. God's method for bringing us back into His kingdom is not by force or coercion. He wants to restore the cosmos to Himself through mercy and love. Since He is the Root of Jesse and the Lion of Judah, He has the right to rule. However, instead of taking the world by force like a lion, He conquers it by demonstrating His love for us as the slain Lamb (Revelation 5). 
• He refused to use His power as a way to impress people. Later in this blog post, we will see that the use of His power was not a way to gain a following, but a way to show God's forgiveness.

It's not about overcoming hometown prejudices 4:14-30

After the temptations, Jesus begins to travel around to the villages in the area. Again, Luke says the the Holy Spirit is involved. What He is doing involved the "power" of the Spirit. It would be easy to assume the "power" Luke is referring to has to do with the ability to do miracles, but that does not seem to be what is being emphasized. Luke would again reference the "power" of the Spirit when he quotes Jesus' words to His disciples after the resurrection: "... you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8) 

While the beginnings of Jesus' ministry did include miracles, the emphasis was always on His teaching. "I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent." (4:43) 

Jesus now returns to His hometown and gets up to speak in the synagogue. His scripture choice is Isaiah 61:1-2, and Luke gives us the passage from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the day. 

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (18-19 NIV)

But Jesus cut off the passage in mid sentence and rolls up the scroll. The next phrase is very significant: "...and the day of vengeance..."  The common belief of the Jews at this time was that the Messiah was going to bring vengeance upon the enemies of Israel. But Jesus had a different message. 

"The year of the Lord's favor" is a reference to the Old Testament Jubilee. It was a time when all debts were forgiven and land returned to the original owner. Again there is a reference to the Holy Spirit. Luke does not want us to miss it. The good news of the kingdom was about hope for the poor, the prisoner, the disabled, and the oppressed. In the first century, there was no hope for those Jesus would describe as "the least of these" in Luke 10. Those who were the unfortunate of society were looked down upon by a religious system that viewed them as less than worthy. Their circumstances were seen as evidence they were sinners, unworthy of being helped. But Jesus came to proclaim that they were forgiven; God is declaring that their debt is paid. 

At this point, the crowd is all for Jesus' message. They are "amazed at the gracious words." (vs. 22) But Jesus knew what they were saying amongst themselves. They were ready for the Messiah to bring in a time of Jubilee. But certainly the rumors going around that He could be the Messiah couldn't be true. We watched this kid grow up. He's just a carpenter's son.  

Despite the positive things the people of His hometown were saying, Jesus is about to incense the crowd... and I don't mean He was about to release a pleasant sent. He knows what they are looking for. They want to see the show. They had heard rumors about what He had done in Capernaum. They don't want to hear His message. They want to be entertained. If they can see a couple miracles, maybe then they could believe He has the power to get rid of the nasty foreigners around them. 

I have often wondered why Jesus quotes the proverb, "Physician, heal yourself!" The best answer I've seen on that is that even those who were starting to believe thought Jesus had a image problem. He needed to do something drastic to heal His reputation in that town. Show us something spectacular, and we'll get behind you. But Jesus had already rejected that route. His power was not for demonstrating how fabulous He was; it was for showing the people that God was offering them forgiveness. 

To emphasize His point, Jesus uses two examples from the Old Testament. One from the ministry of Elijah, and one from the ministry of of Elisha. These were the two prophets in the Old Testament most famous for doing miracles. The two examples of miracles performed were done for people outside Israel. The people of Nazareth got the point, and they were so angry they tried to throw Jesus off a cliff. But it wasn't His time; He just walked right through the crowd and went on His way. They did get their miracle, but in their anger, they missed it. Maybe even a few of them were thinking if they threw Him off the cliff and He just floated to the ground, they would have the spectacular feat they were looking for. But He would have none of it.

It's about demonstrating mercy and forgiveness 4:31-5:26

After Jesus leaves Nazareth, there is a dramatic change. The next few passages are filled with miracles. In between two accounts about people being released from demons, Simon's mother-in-law is healed from a fever. In chapter five, there is the miracle of the catch of fish, and other healings. But notice that the emphasis is still on teaching. The people keep begging Him to stay, but He insists on going on and spreading the good news of the kingdom to other towns. 

Note also that the healings and other miracles were not about spreading His reputation around. In chapter 4, Jesus commands the demons not to make Him known. The miracle of the catch of fish was not about showing off; it was about making it possible for four fishermen to be shown mercy and forgiveness. They are invited to follow Him, which means that they are being invited to be His disciples, a privilege usually reserved for scholars. Fishing was not a very profitable business under the Roman empire. The boats were probably rented, and the fish were taxed. The government usually took the best fish for themselves. The miraculous catch undoubtedly made it possible for them to pay off their debts, enabling them to leave. 

After the fish incident, Jesus heals a man with leprosy, but tells him not to spread the news. He is only to go to the priests as the Old Testament law prescribed. He didn't want the crowds to know; He did want the Jewish leaders to know. I'm sure it wasn't often that someone was cleansed from leprosy. It was important the leadership knew what was happening.

It was also important that the leadership knew why this was happening. The healing of the paralytic was a demonstration that God was offering forgiveness to the people. He was doing it through His Son. The healings were a demonstration to the leadership that God was forgiving those who they considered outcast. The ones who they thought must be horrible sinners because of the afflictions they had. They should have known better.