Tag Archives: fulfillment

What is Jesus all about?

The story of Jesus in his home synagogue (Luke 4:14-21) is an announcement of what Jesus is all about, and it demands attention. Jesus quotes Isaiah 61:1,2, but he’s talking about the fulfillment of the greatest hopes of a people. I’m not sure if we have such clear and unified national hopes now – we don’t even talk easily about our personal hopes – but the Jewish people of the first century knew what they wanted. They wanted freedom, and the life that God had promised – a good life, a life of wholeness and plenty and right – right relations and right order – to happen in their time.

And Jesus comes to his home synagogue and says “Yes, its happening now.” And we blink, thinking, have I missed something, what happened next? Look back, and you will see that in Nazareth they took offence, and he narrowly escaped violence. Jesus had stopped quoting Is with “the time has come when the Lord will save his people” it continues “and defeat their enemies”. Perhaps Jesus didn’t need to speak of that, because it was shown to be happening.

So we are set up by Luke to ask if we recognise these things in the gospel story – both the story he tells, and the story our lives re-tell. Jesus as the bringer of good news: not always happiness, sometimes hard work (but never pointless). Good news which includes being set free – not free of all constraint, but free of evil, free to learn to live with other people as difficult as we are ourselves.

Then there’s recovery of sight. Jesus did heal some blind people, but more than that, he has made it possible for many of us to see –

  • to see something of God, his character, his activity, and purpose
  • to see in people not just what they are, but what they might be, and how God might view them.
  • to see the collection of Christians not as grumpy, quarrelsome bunch, but as the potential citizens of a new kingdom.

Some of the oppressed are free, and some of those who profited from their oppression are quite annoyed. We see a struggle developing, and already we are involved. Do you think Jesus should have known his place and kept quiet in his home town? Or are you hearing what he says and saying, even without quite getting all the significance, “Yes!”

Luke is only beginning. But he warns us that this is no story that we can read and analyse like an instruction book or technical specification. We are drawn in; right away we either rejoice that freedom is announced and healing practised, or we worry that we may lose out if things change too much.

God is in charge, the Holy Spirit is leading a new wave of history – and it continues for us. As we read on, where will your sympathies be, who will you support, what will you do?

“The Spirit of the Lord is on Jesus, because he has chosen him to bring good news to the poor. He has sent him to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people”

Yes?

Useless?

Why does Jesus need John the Baptist? There’s not much competition between them; Jesus outshines John from the moment his ministry gets into its swing. So why? Is it an accident, some sort of political gesture – or have we missed something?

The first thing that comes out of these readings (Luke 3:1-6, and Malachi 3:1-4) is that John fills the role of the forerunner, the “messenger preparing the way” foretold by Malachi (and indeed Isaiah 40:3). It is part of God’s plan that those who knew the writings of the prophets should have had several chances to recognise and understand what was happening, as John revived the long-dead tradition of prophecy, and Jesus came with his teaching.

That would mean John was needed to explain the significance of Jesus as fulfilling the Old Testament – and I am sure that is true. But, even so, isn’t that just a detail? Will Jesus not be heard, because he is Jesus, or because of the delightful message he gives?

Look again. Malachi 3:2 “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap;” burning and caustic – that is not quite the gentle message we expect. But John has heard the same tone, for he proclaimed “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” Luke 3:3

Why? John’s message is not an optional icing on the cake. The coming he speaks of is dangerous; there is the possibility of catastrophic failure. Those who would not repent were heading for disaster. The reality of judgement, even in the ministry of Jesus and not only at his second coming to judge the world and – us; is something we like to leave out, but should not. John’s ministry, even in its ferocious and forthright denunciations, was an act of merciful warning – of a real danger. A danger that is not past.

It would be nice to say that John gets through to those who need shouting at, and Jesus speaks with love. Nice, – but not true. Jesus is quite capable of speaking sharply and directly, of judgement and hell, as well as of God’s love and forgiveness. We may have trouble fitting them together, but he didn’t and we need to learn.

In the same way, John offered people a way of escape and salvation. Repentance and baptism were freely available, and clearly popular as well. John the Baptist is part of God’s plan, and in that sense Jesus needs him. He

  • makes clear the fulfilment of the Old Testament in Jesus
  • shows us that new life doesn’t happen without leaving the old; repentance, commitment, faith are not “options” but the necessary route to heaven
  • he announces the demands of a holy God, who requires holiness in his people.

John the Baptist is a forceful antidote to a sentimentalised Christmas which does little more than excuse a conventional holiday. He won’t have that. The arrival of Jesus is the turning point of world history, an opportunity for every human – but one which could be missed, with eternal consequence.

Try it out

Why do we start this story after the angels have left? (Luke 2:15-21).  It might seem we are missing the point, but perhaps there is a point to make this way, too.

For the shepherds, it was one thing to be told; quite another to go and see for themselves. There’s effort and risk involved, but it makes the whole experience their own. The walk into Bethlehem may have been less fun than the angel choir, but doing it made it part of their own experience, not just an “entertainment”, however heavenly.

The shepherds prove what was said – they find a baby in a manger, and are able to tell what has happened to them, before they go home “singing praises to God for all they had heard and seen; it had been just as the angel had told them” verse 20

For Joseph and Mary, the shepherds visit may have been a shock, but their story provided confirmation that God was at work. We might wonder how they could forget, but it had been a long time since the angel’s appearance to Mary, and Joseph’s dream. We all need reassurance, and this is a confirmation they share, to make them more sure – and ready for the next difficulty.

So, if the end of the story, the shepherds visit to the Bethlehem babe, was important for them and for Joseph and Mary, what about us? We continue the celebration of Christmas, while many have finished with it for another year. Like the shepherds, we need not only to hear about it, but to see it, and make it our own. It needs trying out, as well as hearing.  When we have made sense of it, we then need to share it as well, passing it on, whatever reception it gets. (Nobody recorded the impact of the shepherds on Bethlehem.  I like to think they may have made quite a stir!).

We may worship with many people vaguely aware of God, but with no idea that he might be involved in their lives. That was the temptation for Joseph and Mary; but they were reminded of how God was using them, and it strengthened and prepared them for the next steps.

It’s no use just sitting back and enjoying it – even if “it” is a choir of angels. We have to take action on what we are told, and when we have found out for ourselves, we need to share that, and to build on our experience of God at work, so that we know we have a place in his work, and are ready to take on the next challenge.

Unrecognised

It is surprising how often Jesus is not recognised.  Today’s story of a walk with a “stranger” (Luke 24:13-35) is an example.  The resurrected Jesus is the same, but not immediately known.  There is time for talk on the road, and Jesus listens.  It is a good school of evangelism.  As he listens, he discovers what these two travellers had hoped for, expected, and felt about events as they had unfolded.  He gets an insight into their disappointment and confusion.

Then – only then – “he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures” (v27).  I wonder how long a list you could write of the Old Testament passages which tell us something about Jesus?  We may not see them as “proofs”, for there is always discussion about how they were originally understood, but there is plenty to guide and encourage us.

I suppose the biggest references would be to the “Suffering Servant” in Isaiah, especially Isaiah 53.  A pointer to how suffering might set people free!  With the Servant, and joined totally, is the King, the Messiah expected to succeed to King David’s legacy.  For that we might look to the Jeremiah 33:17f, as well as to the gospels.  The idea of the Servant King, whose glory is at the cross, will explain a great deal to us of who Jesus was, and what he did.

Is that it?  I think there were many more references Jesus could have picked up.  His favourite title, “Son of Man” has a meaningful background in Daniel 7, as a figure empowered by God.  Then there is the expectation of a “prophet like Moses” in Deuteronomy 18.  Earlier in Isaiah are the passages we typically read at Christmastime – the descendant of Jesse (King David’s father) bringing peace (Isaiah 11), but also Emmanuel – “God with us” (Isaiah 7.14).  The one who brings light to Galilee, and is “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9).  Perhaps Jesus talked of the donkey-riding King of Zechariah 9, or the prophesied birth in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).  There are more you could look for.

These are useful references in Eastertime.  They may not “prove” anything, but they make us think more deeply, and help us understand how much history came to a climax and fulfillment at Jesus death.  He was so many things, fulfilled such varied hopes and expectations.  Faith can wear thin if we only explain in one way, endlessly repeated.  Jesus then remains unrecognised as the one for us.  That is a disaster!  God has provided many dimensions to wonder at, and a Lord with a heritage worth deeper exploration and greater appreciation.