ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN WORSHIP 2 10.LW2 Captioning provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 ******** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ******** >> DAVID: I have two questions. The first is this: How is the sermon preached in Nazareth instructive for our liturgical life today? >> DR. ARTHUR JUST: The synagogue service that Jesus preaches in Nazareth is a wonderful way of illustrating what our liturgical life looks like today. When Jesus is given the book of the Prophet Isaiah, the scroll as it says, and unrolling it reads from Isaiah, he is announcing the program for his ministry as the Messiah. These are the first public words that we have heard from Jesus in his ministry. And I'm talking here about the first public words after his baptism. Now, earlier I referred to the words at twelve years old when he said in the temple I must be about my father's business or I must be in my Father's house. And if you read through the Gospel of Luke, you will note that he did talk one more time and that was after his baptism, but it was privately to Satan, in the wilderness. Now what was remarkable about that is that Jesus there did not utter anything original or new. He simply quoted the scripture which shows you how to defeat Satan by just simply using God's word. Now, in Nazareth after his baptism and after his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus now speaks for the third time in Luke's gospel. And again his words are not his own, they are words of scripture from Isaiah 61and Isaiah 58. The first words Jesus utters in the sermon in Nazareth are these: The spirit of the Lord is upon me. Now think about those words for a minute. You may perhaps know where they come from or know what they're referring to. Clearly we would say they refer to Jesus' baptism when the spirit came down upon him. And he was anointed by the spirit, we would say, to be now publicly the Messiah. But if you think about those words for a minute, think about what they're referring to. The spirit is the Holy Spirit. The Lord is the father. And when Jesus says upon me, he's speaking now, of course, about himself as the Son of God. Father, Son and Sspirit. Jesus' first public words in his ministry in a liturgical setting in a synagogue in Nazareth are a reference to the Holy Trinity. In other words, we could say it this way: Jesus begins his ministry in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. By citing the words of Isaiah 61. That's one of the reasons why Christians decided to begin their worship with the invocation. And that's such a beautiful way to speak at the beginning of the liturgy for the Pastor to announce to the congregation through the invocation of the Holy Name of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that Christ is now present among us within the context of the Trinity itself. Wherever God�s name is spoken, He is present, and that is our baptismal name. And that's one of the reasons why you see people make the sign of the cross on themselves as I just did before because this marks them as the baptized, baptized in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, coming right out of Jesus' first sermon in Nazareth. But then Jesus says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim released to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Now look at what those words are saying. You'll see there it talks about Jesus' anointing by the Spirit. The word anointing is the word for Christ The Spirit Christed me, Jesus said, which is the reference to his baptism where he publicly comes now out as the Messiah. And then He says, He sent me. The word send is from the word apostle. Jesus is the apostle, the sent one, the one who goes out into the world to show us what God is really like. That's one of the things we sometimes forget that Jesus shows us what our true humanity should be like, that you and I were born, not fully human because we are with sin. And what Jesus shows us as He is sent from the Father, he shows us what true, full humanity is because he is the sinless one. He is the perfect son of God. We should say parenthetically that we now are fully human, those of us who are baptized, because we now bear in our bodies Christ who restores to us in our communion with his flesh, our full humanity. But when Jesus is said to be sent into the world, he is the apostle to show us what it means to be created as God intended us to be created, without sin, even though he is the and uncreated one. The key to understanding this sermon in its relationship to worship, however, is to look at what is said about the program of Jesus. In English we would say there are four infinitives there, to proclaim the good news or preach the good news which is to preach the gospel, to proclaim release to the captives, and finally to proclaim the jubilee. Three of those infinitives have to do with proclamation. The third one is to set at liberty those who are oppressed, which is a reference to the miracles of Jesus. Now, think about that for a minute. What Jesus comes to do is to preach, to proclaim something. Now, when we look at the dictionary, we talk to people about preaching. We often hear them speak of that in a legalistic way. My father was preaching me today, or the pastor was really preaching to us. We look at that as a kind of way in which somebody kind of gives us the law. But that's not what preaching was in the time of our Lord. Preaching was an announcement, a proclamation of a new reality. And we would describe this as performative speech. That is, that when Jesus speaks, he creates reality, something happens. Something comes into being. This is why when we go back to Genesis and we see Jesus the creator speaking into that nothingness, into that void, his word has the power to create something out of nothing. It's performative. It has the power to do exactly what it says. In the world today, we do have people in our culture who can do that, who have the power of performative speech. A judge, for example, can take someone who is declared guilty and declare them free, innocent. The power of his speech, by simply saying not guilty sets them free. A president can give a pardon which is, in a sense, another way of performative speech. And we would also say that pastors have that power. That in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, pastors say, I forgive you all your sins. And your sins are forgiven. Now, what we see here is simply pastor following in the pattern of Jesus and the apostles in doing what they did. That is speaking and having reality change because of that word that is spoken. We're going to see that oftentimes, that speaking resulted in miracles where those who were sick were healed. Those who were possessed by demons were freed from that demon possession. Those who were dead were raised. And that power of performative speech is exactly at the very heart and the core of Jesus� ministry. And when we look at our own liturgy today, we're going to see that that very word that was preached by Jesus is preached also among us when we gather around the word. And the Spirit works through that word to create miracles in our midst. But returning to the sermon in Nazareth, what is it that Jesus preaches? If you look at the second part of those phrases, you will see that what he preaches is good news. What he preaches is released to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. What he preaches is the year of jubilee. Now, it's interesting three times in those verses Jesus refers to freedom or release. Now I mentioned earlier, in terms of forgiveness of sins, that that is what forgiveness is. And the word that is used there in the Greek is the word that we translate forgiveness. What Jesus comes to announce, the reality that he declares to this world, is a freedom. Now, that is something we sometimes forget, that Jesus is a great liberator. He sets his free from bondage. And in Jesus' ministry there were four kinds of bondage that he set us free from: the bondage of demons, the bondage of sickness, the bondage of sin, and the bondage of death. It's really remarkable that right after the sermon in Nazareth, Jesus goes out into Galilee and he demonstrates his power to free people from these bondages. Immediately after the sermon in Nazareth he goes to Capernaum and there he meets a man with an unclean, evil demon spirit. Now this man is all bound up in his body by this evil spirit. And he knows who Jesus is. He knows very clearly, and it's remarkable what he says. You are the Holy one of God. The demon is unclean, and Jesus is the Holy one of God. he's the clean one. And he says, the demon, have you come to destroy us Holy one of god? What Jesus does to that demon is he rebukes him. And in speaking that rebuke, Jesus has the power to set that man free. He is released from that demon, and now he is set off into the world, this man with the demon, free from it. And it's a physical thing. His body is released as well as his soul to show that Jesus does not distinguish between physical and spiritual bondage. Jesus is there to free us from both physical and spiritual bondage because he looks at as holistic way, the whole person. He doesn't divide body and soul. Then immediately following this, immediately from coming from a synagogue, he goes into the house of Peter and there is his mother-in-law who is possessed with a fever. This again is in Luke 4. Remarkably, the language there, possession shows that that fever, the sickness, was like a demon. It possessed her. What does Jesus do to the fever? This is just the sickness. He rebukes it, the same word he used to rebuke the demon. And it says it sets her free. It releases her, and she gets up and serves him because she no longer is sick. She has been freed by the power of Jesus� word that brings healing to her life. There are two forms of bondage that Jesus sets people free from: demon possession and sickness. And in the fifth chapter of Luke�s gospel's starting in verse 17, Jesus comes to the home of the paralytic. You know this story. It's so crowded they have to let him down, the paralytic, to Jesus through the roof. And Jesus their talks about not only the man's paralysis, but that he is there as one who forgives sins. The Pharisees begin to debate with one another. This man blasphemes God. Who is able to forgive sins except God alone? And Jesus says to them, in order that you might know the son of man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. What does he say to the paralytic? Rise, take your bed and go home. He heals him of his physical sickness and in doing so, he also forgives him his sins. For both sickness and sin are manifestations of our bondage in this fallen creation in which we have been infected with this virus from the fall of our first parents in the Garden of Eden. Here again, Jesus is releasing people from their bondage. Of course, the ultimate bondage is death. And in Luke's Gospel in Chapter 7, he raises the widow's son at Nain. And then in Chapter 8, he raises Jairus�s daughter. That resurrection of Jairus�s daughter is a remarkable moment in the Gospels. All three of the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke have it, and it shows exactly what I'm trying to talk about here in terms of Jesus' ministry. That he is a teacher and a miracle worker, that he teaches the people of God that he is there to free them from this bondage which is the good news, the gospel. And then he demonstrates that in a physical way, his flesh coming to their flesh and then releasing their flesh from bondage. One thing we sometimes forget, and that is in Israel, if you were sick or disabled or you had some disqualifying condition like leprosy, you would be an outcast. And over sixty percent of the people of Israel were considered unable to enter the normal society of Israel. That's why when Jesus sets people free, heals them, casts out demons, things like that, he is giving people access back into their lives because they go from a state of being unclean to being clean and being able to participate in society itself. Now when Jairus comes to Jesus and wants his daughter to be healed and really raised from the dead by Jesus, Jesus on his way to Jairus�s house is surrounded by thousands of people it says. And this is one of those remarkable moments in the gospel where you can really see kind of the pathos of Jesus' ministry. He's walking along. The disciples are there. And there's literally thousands, myriads of people around him, and Jesus says to the disciples, somebody touched me. Peter almost laughs at Jesus and says, Lord, of course somebody touched you. All these people are around you. And Jesus says, it's really remarkable what he says, he says I felt the power come out of me. Now this is a remarkable moment because what Jesus is saying is that somebody, unbeknownst to him, has touched him, and he felt the power to release them from whatever it was they were in bondage to, he felt the power come out of him to do that. And he asked around, who touched me? and this woman who was behind him touching just the very fringe of his cloak admits, yes, Jesus, I touched you. Now, we know about this woman, and here is this kind of remarkable thing about the Gospels. Jairus�s daughter was twelve years old. At the age of twelve, I should say, is the age when a woman becomes a woman. This was the fullness of what God created her to be. This is where she reaches the destiny that God had. It was a great tragedy when a woman could not come to this point. This was the point of puberty. This is when she could now begin to bear children. And just when she was about to reach that point at twelve years old, she's about to die, which is a great tragedy. This woman who touches Jesus' cloak was a woman who for twelve years, notice the twelve, the same length of time that this child was growing into becoming a woman, this woman had a flow of blood. We might say she had been a woman for twelve years, and she spent all she had to release herself from this bondage, but nothing was able to help her from being an outcast because she could not come into the world in which she lived with this flow of blood. The minute she touches Jesus' cloak, she's healed. And what has happened there is what we might call the great exchange, that that power flows out of Jesus into her. But guess what happens to her sickness? It flows into Jesus. One of the things we must recognize is that Jesus, throughout his ministry, is absorbing into his flesh our sickness, our sin. Throughout his ministry, he becomes more and more weighted down by the bondage of our fallen world as he takes upon himself the sicknesses of the people of Israel as he heals them and as he takes upon him their sins as he bears in his body their sinfulness. Of course, all sickness, all the demon possession, all sin, all death comes upon Jesus once and for all upon the cross. And one of the things I've been trying to say to you here is that this is such a physical reality. This is the creator in his creation interacting with it in a physical way. And even at the cross, there is this physical reaction in the creation. There is darkness for three hours. There's an earthquake. It's as if the world is rocking and rolling as Jesus is making all things new, as he is bringing in this new creation. There are a number of wonderful illustrations of this in the popular culture that I'd like to share with you now. There's an old movie that I saw when I was a young, young child called "Ben Hur." Maybe you've seen it. This is one of those movies that kind of is old fashioned. It never shows the face of Jesus. We only look at Jesus from behind. In the scene of his crucifixion in Ben Hur, you have this remarkable moment where the director has two scenes, in fact, going on at the same time. You see the three crosses on the rock pile, and then the other scene is a scene in a cave where Ben Hur�s mother and sister who are lepers are huddled there in the cave with Ben Hur�s fiancee. Now, what you see in these two scenes is the experience of this creation gone wild. You see the darkness. You experience the earthquake, and the women are afraid of the darkness and the earthquake. And then the director takes a little bit of literary license and he shows a thunderstorm and the rain pouring down. And the rain pours down on Jesus and it washes the blood down Jesus' body down on to the rock pile. And then the blood goes into a stream. And that stream flows by these leprous women. And guess what happens. They become healed. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses the whole creation of its bondage to sin, sickness, death, and the devil. Those leprous women are all of a sudden now made whole by the blood of Jesus, a sign and a symbol of the complete cleansing of the creation through the blood of Jesus. And notice, it is a physical thing, creation itself is being impacted by this death of Jesus. Now, here is the big release. Jesus did all these little releases in his ministry, but now, it comes once and for all. I'm sure many of you have seen the movie that came out this year, Mel Gibson's "The Passion." I was so hopeful they would portray this physical character of Jesus' death in such a way that it would communicate clearly what I've been trying to say here. And he does. If you remember at the crucifixion, there is that drop from heaven, which is the teardrop of God weeping over the death of his son. And as soon as that drop hits the earth, all of a sudden you see the storm, the earthquake, the walls beginning to crumble. And even it shows you in the temple the high priests and all the other priests petrified as the temple begins to become undone and there you see the opening of the holy of holies. Here is another example of how Jesus' death is this remarkable release that is physically affecting the creation. On the third day, when Jesus rises from the dead, he brings all of creation with him. This is, again, the great miracle of his reversal of death, just like the widow's son at Nain, just like Jairus�s daughter, just like Lazarus. But now, this is the very Son of God who shows us in his resurrection a glimpse of what our life will be in our resurrected life with him. And then, of course, after the third day, he rises again on the fortieth taking us with him into heaven because we are joined to him in our baptism so that we are now enthroned in heaven in the flesh of Jesus Christ. Some of you might be asking yourself, now what does this have to do with worship? What I've been talking about from Jesus' ministry, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension, is that Jesus is first and foremost a teacher and a miracle worker, teaching and miracles. That's at the heart of Jesus' ministry. Now, I think it's easy for you to see how teaching continues in our church today because we gather around the word of God, just like they did in the synagogue in Nazareth. And we hear preaching just like we hear preaching of Jesus in Nazareth where he says today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. When Jesus says today, the scripture is filled in your hearing, he is saying that the reality that I'm speaking about from Isaiah now comes to completion here in me, in my preaching. And that same thing happens today in our churches where we gather around word and preaching. And Jesus is present there in the flesh, as we said earlier. It is performative. It creates reality. Perhaps the hardest thing for us is miracles. Where are the miracles today? Well, I haven�t defined miracles, but I'm going to now. In the New Testament what miracles are are testimonies to the presence of God in his creation bringing about this new creation. Jesus the creator comes to his creation, and by his flesh in this world impacts and changes this world, kind of healing the sick and raising the dead and casting out demons. They testify to the presence of God in the creation. Now, we've already mentioned how God is present in his creation today in word and sacraments. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the new miracles of the new era of salvation. Baptism is one of the greatest miracles because there in those waters, by word and spirit, we are taken from darkness to light, from death to life. We are transformed and joined to Christ in this world that never ends now in his flesh. Then, of course, the Lord's Supper is one of the great miracles where there in with and under bread and wine we receive the very body and blood of Christ for our salvation. Teaching and miracles now translate today in our worship as word and sacrament. We're going to see from Jesus' own teaching, from his own life, that these two structures of word and sacrament are the foundationlsl structures of Christian worship begun in the life of the Jesus and continued now even down to this day. And we're also going to see that there is not one Christian liturgy, from the time of the New Testament, that is an orthodox Christian liturgy that does not have word and sacrament, teaching and miracles.