8/27/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 2. 5-6)

“Leaving Nazareth, Jesus went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. This fulfilled what was said through the prophet Isaiah. ‘The people living in darkness have seen a great light and
on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.’” (Matthew 4.13-16)

“[After this…] Jesus went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. On the Sabbath day, He went into the synagogue as was His custom. He stood up to read the scroll of the prophet Isaiah which was handed to him and the reading for that day.” (Luke 4.16-17) 

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I have been reflecting on the theme of getting our lives “straight/strait” before God. Whether our faithfulness invokes God making a way to us or God’s faithfulness invokes us to make a way for Him doesn’t matter. The key and critical element, as I have proposed, is our obedience to “simple righteousness” and the forsaking of “self-righteousness.” Because of God’s mercy and grace, we are returned to “ground zero” for a begin again. Granted, especially in light of what Jesus taught Peter about forgiveness, some of us may have seven begin agains. Some of us may have seven times seven begin agains. Some of us may even have (and this is probably true for many of us) seventy times seven begin agains. Regardless, we have to have our “one” begin again in Christ Jesus or none at all. In His conversation with Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was willing to listen to Jesus’ teachings up close and personal, Jesus asserted, “I tell you without a doubt that no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again.” While Nicodemus quickly imagined returning to the source of his earthly existence being born of a woman, he related Jesus’ words to that same act. Mighty ones of God, we do not get that kind of begin again. Nor do we ever get to return to Eden and live in bliss and peace with God and one another as if everything after Eden never happened. No one gets to time travel back to that moment and Gibb’s slap the Serpent or Eve or Adam (if anyone needed Gibb’s slapped it was Adam) and put everyone back on that “strait and narrow.” The truth is that what Jesus brings to us is our begin again with God. In Eden, God sacrificed a “lamb of God” whose blood covered their multitude of sins (there was more than one) and covered up their cause of shame (being naked and afraid.) In Christ, the “Lamb of God” is sacrificed in much the same way and for the same purpose. Life as it was would never be the same. But, life with God remained a possibility in this world on earth as it would be in that world in the next.

Even Jesus experienced His own begin again after His baptismal transformation. Matthew and Luke both record that Jesus returns to Galilee and Nazareth. Lest we get confused thinking Jesus’ begin again should have been in Bethlehem where He was born, remember that Mary was blessed by the Holy Spirit of God while she was in Nazareth. It was only by Roman decree for the taking of a census that Joseph took Mary and her blessed fetus to Bethlehem. From there, two years later, they went to Egypt and in time returned to Nazareth where Joseph would begin again as a carpenter and stonemason. So, Jesus returns to His earthly point of origin following His sojourn in the wilderness. Why He did so, we do not know except to honor His mother. She alone, after all, knew of His destiny as God’s Son though His crucifixion was not what she imagined. She did fear for His life. He should be safer at home. On another occasion that offer was made but Jesus was too far down that “strait and narrow” road to turn back home. Yet, maybe Mary was on Jesus’ mind so as to confirm with her His greatest joy and her wondering concern. She knew, after all, from Simeon, “…and a sword shall pierce your heart as well.“

But, there is another reason, I believe, for His return to Nazareth and it comes in synagogue when He was asked to read from the scriptures. Matthew and Luke relate two different passages but they are linked with the same theme: Jubilee. For those who do not know about the practice of “Jubilee,” an edict of God’s Law, let me summarize. The intent was to keep Israel together and the people as one humbled before God. I suppose some would say God was the founder of “communism” with this call to “Jubilee” but that was not the case. What was the case was every fiftieth year, all people were supposed to return to their tribal hometown. All debts (all debts- fiscal and spiritual) were forgiven. Some suggested that all lands, property and monies were divested as well. I do not know if that is true or not. If so, there is little wonder why Jubilee was not practiced in Israel. Regardless of their “chosenness,” they still had a bent to sin and selfishness as do we all. But, it was a begin again in freedom. There were no slaves, indentured or otherwise. All we free men and women without debt. It would symbolize, I imagine, an accommodation of life on earth as it was in Heaven where there are no fiscal, physical or spiritual indebtedness. Regardless of the “world” status, Jesus certainly believed in the spiritual calling which Jubilee (as Isaiah declared it and Jesus read from the scroll in Nazareth) invoked. In fact, Jesus said, after He finished reading and rolled up the scroll, “Today, in your hearing, this scripture has been fulfilled.” In other words, Jesus went straight to the source, made strait the path of righteousness and declared His presence was Jubilee year, era, epoch, millenium and eternity. Jesus went without cornering to the heart of the matter and said “This is what God intends, expects and empowers.” The purpose, of course, is to bring all of God’s people back together as every tribe, tongue and nation of Israel. Whether they were of the vine or grafted into the vine made no difference. In Jesus the Christ, we are called to live in Jubilee and manifest our begin again.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.