Text: Luke 4:14-21
Introduction: What is Advent?
Advent = Coming
Advent has dual meaning:
- Remembering: Jesus's first coming 2,000 years ago as a baby
- Anticipating: Jesus's second coming as King
The church year begins with this season of looking back and looking forward, reminding us who we are as Christians: people who have been saved and will be saved.
Exploring Good News
Three questions to consider:
- What is the best news you've ever heard?
- Cancer-free
- New home
- Adoption news
- Debt paid off
- Relationship restored
- What's the best news you've ever heard but didn't believe?
- Wasn't for you
- Didn't trust the source
- Seemed too good to be true
- When did you need to hear good news the most?
- Times of desperation, poverty, exhaustion
- Moments of deepest need
The Synagogue Service (Luke 4:14-21)
Setting the Scene
Jesus returns to Nazareth and enters the synagogue "as was his custom." Understanding the synagogue service helps us grasp the significance of what happens next.
Structure of a First-Century Synagogue Service
Physical setup:
- Men on the floor, women on balcony or in back
- Facing Jerusalem (east)
- 3-4 hour services
- Centered on scripture recitation
Order of service:
- The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
- Hebrew: "Hear" or "Listen"
- "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."
- The Amidah (18 Benedictions)
- "Look upon our affliction and plead our cause and redeem us speedily for your name's sake"
- "Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed"
- "Bless this year unto us, O Lord our God"
- Torah Reading (Leviticus 25 - Jubilee passage)
- First five books of Hebrew Bible
- "Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you."
- Haftorah (Prophets reading - Isaiah 61:1-2)
- Jesus stands to read
- "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
- Instruction
- Jesus sits down to teach (customary posture)
- "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
The Theological Framework: Luke 4 → Isaiah 61 → Leviticus 25
Understanding Jubilee (Leviticus 25)
Israel's sabbath structure:
- Every 7 days: Sabbath rest
- Every 7 years: Sabbath year (land lies fallow)
- Every 50 years: Jubilee (Sabbath of Sabbaths)
Four provisions of Jubilee:
- Freeing of all slaves - Even those who chose to stay are released with provision
- Cancellation of all debts - Complete financial reset
- Fallowing of the land - Agricultural rest and restoration
- Return of land to original owners - Most radical provision, restoring original tribal allotments
Critical context: Israel never celebrated a single recorded Jubilee in their history.
Why Jesus's Message Was Offensive
Two major offenses:
- Jubilee has obviously not happened
- Romans occupy the land
- Jews pay taxes to Caesar
- No freedom, no debt cancellation, no land restoration
- Who is Jesus to claim it's already fulfilled?
- Who in the world is Jesus?
- "Isn't this Joseph's son?"
- A carpenter's boy claiming to bring Jubilee
- Previous messianic claimants got their followers killed
- This kind of talk brings Roman retribution
The result: They try to kill Jesus by the end of this story.
Application: What Does This Have to Do With You?
Imagine yourself in that synagogue
You are:
- Religious and moral
- Dedicated and generous
- Following all the rules
- Keeping your nose clean
- Paying your taxes and temple tax
Then Jesus claims Jubilee is happening through him.
Now imagine yourself as a Christian
You are:
- Religious and moral
- Dedicated and generous
- Going to conferences
- Paying your tithes
- Doing what you're supposed to do
Then your church starts saying the gospel means:
- Good news to the poor
- Freedom for prisoners
- Healing for the sick
Wouldn't you get suspicious?
Unpacking the Implications
"Good news to the poor"
- The poor = anyone at the mercy of someone more powerful
- Means those we take advantage of deserve the same treatment we expect
"Freedom for the prisoners"
- Anyone we've made feel trapped gets to be free
- Those we'd rather not sit next to get a place at the table
"Recovery of sight to the blind"
- In Jewish thought: sickness = God's punishment
- Isaiah says even those "deserving" sickness get freedom
- Social boundaries are torn down
The shocking truth: Our acceptable social order is being turned upside down.
What Does This Have to Do With Advent?
Four Reminders
- Those most comfortable in religion need Jubilee
- Jesus spoke to devout religious Jews
- They needed freedom and good news too
- Christmas is for us
- Those we're most uncomfortable with also need Jubilee
- People we quickly outcast or get angry at
- They need Advent as much as we do
- Advent is shocking
- God becoming man with a message of freedom
- Some tried to kill the messenger
- Not just a warm, fuzzy story
- Advent is a giant reset button
- Tears apart the fabric of society
- Debts paid, prisoners freed
- Poor are not poor, sick are not sick
Closing Questions
1. What part of your own life needs Jubilee?
Where are you poor? (At the mercy of someone else)
- Who are you indebted to?
- Who haven't you forgiven?
- Who are you still angry at?
Where are you imprisoned? (Not in your control)
- What addictions hold you?
- What things grasp so tightly you have no control?
Where are you blind? (Sin has taken hold)
- Where are you inhibited by your own sin?
2. Who do you need to offer Jubilee to?
- As a community
- As a church
- As a town
- As a family
- As an individual
The holidays force us close to those we're most uncomfortable with (often our own families). Is there:
- A whole slice of society you've written off?
- A boss or employee?
- A former friend?
The challenge: God offered them freedom. Who are we to hold it back?
Advent resets the year. Jesus boldly proclaims: Jubilee is coming. Freedom is here, and it comes through him.
Discussion