Pete's Reviews and Sermons: January 2025

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay on 26 Jan 2025 at 10:00

Recorded here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaHtGFPbsS8 from 18:25 to 34:25

Introduction

Well, that’s a very odd place to stop. It’s as if there was a second part of the drama coming tomorrow. Here’s what happened next:
21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 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. 23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your home town what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his home town. 25 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. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 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.”
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 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 off the cliff. 30, But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Reaction: Good, then bad

As you have heard, the initial reaction was good – everyone was amazed at his gracious words. Then Jesus notices a change in their mood, they start to question who He is – “He’s Joseph’s son isn’t he?”. Jesus’s response is to tell them that a prophet is never accepted in his home town. Then, to make it worse, He uses two examples where prophets were sent to foreigners. Both Elijah and Elisha, two of the greatest prophets, were sent to people who were in the pagan nations around them. That, I suspect, was too much for the crowd. They are very happy to receive God’s blessings from the prophet speaking in front of them, but they cannot accept that the gentiles would also receive God’s blessings. Those people, after all, are supposed to receive God’s wrath.

The Nazareth Manifesto

These few verses, where Jesus reads selectively from Isaiah, are often called “The Nazareth Manifesto”. That’s because they sum up very nicely what Jesus will do in the rest of His ministry. In a moment we will look at each of them individually, but first it's worth going to the passage that Jesus selected and to read what’s there for ourselves.

What’s Out - vengeance

The reading is from Chapter 61 verses 1 & 2.
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
… and it goes further, but Jesus has already stopped quoting this part of the scripture. It is interesting to note that Jesus didn’t talk about vengeance at all, that he stopped, part of the way through verse 2, before that phrase. He’s preparing them, very subtly, for a change in the way that God will deal with them. He knows, that He will, after some time, give up His life for them and take the vengeance that they are due, on Himself. So, here, He doesn’t have to bring it up.

The manifesto is for us too

The manifesto is not just for Jesus’s ministry, it is for ours too. As His followers, we have to find ways to put the manifesto into practice in the world we live in today. As we look at these 5 points, try to think of other or better ways that we can make this manifesto work.
Here are the 5 main points:
    1. good news to the poor
    2. freedom for the prisoners
    3. recovery of sight for the blind
    4. set the oppressed free
    5. the year of the Lord’s favour

5 Manifesto points

1. good news to the poor

Good news to the Poor.
The poor are those who don’t have enough, they are the helpless, who have to rely on the rich and powerful, or the government, for their existence. The poor can also be the poor in spirit, as Matthew 5:3, tells us. These are those who have to rely on God for their spiritual well-being – which I might suggest is all of us [Get Agreement?]. The good news is God’s message of redemption and forgiveness of sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The root word in the Greek for good news is where we get our word evangelism. Jesus though went further than simple proclaiming the good news, he fed the poor, - for example in the feeding of the 5000.
As His followers, we are called to help the both the physically poor and the spiritually poor. Can you think of ways that we do that, or could do that better than we do now?

2. freedom for the prisoners

Freedom for the prisoners.
This seems to go against justice, and I can’t think of any prisoners released by Jesus. Except Barabas, but that wasn’t strictly by Jesus, more because of the crowd and the Romans. We wouldn't want someone like him on the streets, would we.
There are two possibilities. Firstly, it was common practice to throw people into prison if they could not pay their debts. We don’t do that any more, but we do have charities like CAP that will help people in debt to pay a reasonable amount of what they owe in a structured way.
The other possibility is that Jesus is being metaphorical. If that is the case, the prisoners would be those enslaved to sin in various ways – through substance abuse, addiction, bad habits, selfishness – the list goes on and on. We know that the Holy Spirit can release people from addictions – read “Chasing the Dragon” for a good example of that. We know that God can release people, and that He uses us to help with those changes.
Can you think of ways that we do that, or could do that better than we do now?

3. recovery of sight for the blind

Recovery of sight to the blind.
We know that Jesus cured blind people, there’s an example in John 9:6-7. So this part of the manifesto can be taken literally. There is also a spiritual component. Many in our world today cannot see the gospel for what it is. It is becoming harder for them as we hear of more and more cases of abuse perpetrated by church leaders who should be able to be trusted. Jesus frequently said that He is the light of the world.
Can you think of ways that we help people to see, both physically and spiritually? Can you think of ways that we could do that better than we do now?

4. Set the oppressed free

Set the oppressed free.
Jesus’s hearers would, no doubt, immediately have thought about their Roman occupiers, and being freed to rule themselves. Oppression is defined as being “governed in an unfair and cruel way and prevented from having opportunities and freedom”. We know that there are many people in the world today that live in those circumstances. Many Christians around the world, work for Human Rights, freedoms and human flourishing.
People are also oppressed by sin, and Jesus can provide freedom from that, just as He will provide freedom from unfair government.
Can you think of ways that we bring freedom to the oppressed? Can you think of ways that we could do that better than we do now?

5. the year of the Lord’s favour

The year of the Lord’s favour.
Every fiftieth year was a jubilee year. The rules for jubilee are set out in Leviticus 25:8-55. In summary any land that is sold is recovered, and anyone sold into slavery is freed. It’s an economic reset because everything they have – the land and all that is on it and all the people belong to the Lord.
Jubilee is clearly impossible while the Romans are in charge.
The jubilee teaches us that the constant acquisition of wealth and the establishment of a super-wealthy class is not a biblical concept. Instead, we must try some form of re-distribution. In the past, this was achieved to some extent by the super-wealth building hospitals and libraries. That doesn’t seem to happen today.
This is perhaps the hardest of the 5 ideas for us to enact. Can you think of ways that we can bring jubilee?

Conclusion

Jesus announced his manifesto in his home town. The announcement was well received until he stated that God’s love and healing power is available to the gentiles as much as it is to the Jews. The manifesto is revolutionary in its own right, and it is our manifesto too. As we have declared ourselves His followers, we have no choice but to follow where He went. So let me leave you with some summary questions.
Can you think of ways that we are implementing the Nazareth manifesto? Can you think of ways that we could do that better than we do it now?
Amen.