MY RIGHTS!
On that special day in the temple Jesus took the scroll and found Isaiah 61 and then read from it, (Luke 4: 18-19).
This was Nazareth, a settler town in Galilee. Galilee had become known as ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’ (Matt 4:15).
The Jewish plan was to move Jewish settlers from Judea onto the land in Galilee and take Nazareth. Isaiah 61 was their motivating prophecy.
This prophecy of the coming Messiah promised great things.
v 2 there would be a day of vengeance of God
v4-11 = there would be rebuilding and restoring places, places like Nazareth.
v7 = there is the promise of a double portion.
v5-6 = the Gentiles around them will be their servants and they will be fed on their wealth.
But Jesus stops reading this popular and well known passage at the point at which judgment and submission is pronounced on the Gentiles whom the Nazareth settlers were there to displace, places like Zarephath and Damascus.
“Today this Scripture is fulfilled”, Jesus said.
Jesus took a text of judgment and turned it into a text of mercy. The text of judgment was from Isaiah of all people, passed down generationally, steeped in their culture, thought and word life. Yet the revelation of the Messiah turned it upside down into a text of mercy. Mercy offends when you are banking on judgment.
They thought the messianic age would be a golden age for them. In fact it would be all about them. Jesus shifts the text from ‘Here is what you will receive” into “Here is what you are expected to give”.
We need words: the preaching and proclaiming
We need the heart: the justice amongst the downtrodden and the outcasts
We need action: Showing compassion, opening life to those who are bound.
Above all, even though the Bible says we are important to God, this life is never about us. We need to train ourselves to view people through merciful eyes not judgmental ones and to know we laid our rights down at the cross sometime ago.
Missions Paul 