Never go back. It can only end in people throwing you off a cliff. Jesus demonstrated this old maxim to be true when he took his ministry back to Nazareth, the town where he grew up as the son of a carpenter. He would be going back there as the anointed son of god, much to the initial surprise and eventual disdain of his former townsfolk.
When he stood up to speak in the synagogue he received curious appreciation, as those present puzzled over how Joseph’s son could say such gracious words. The atmosphere soon turned hostile, however, with Jesus’ one-time neighbours looking to throw him over a cliff by the end of his visit.
Why this dramatic transformation of response? The answer lies in Jesus’ reading of Scripture.
The boy from Nazareth kicks off his return home by standing up in the local synagogue on the Sabbath and reading aloud a scroll of the prophet Isaiah:
As N.T. Wright is at pains to show, Israel still saw herself as being in exile at the time of Jesus’s ministry. The national hope was for freedom from their Gentile oppressors, the restoration of YHWH’s rule from Jerusalem and vindication of his covenant people. A text such as Isaiah 61 would have been understood on these terms, and not as a sort of timeless, groundless list of good deeds to be done.
Therefore when Jesus sits back down, with all eyes on him, and says “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”, he knows what is going on in the minds of those around him. The question is, what was going on in the mind of Jesus?
As seen in the wilderness, Jesus read Scripture in a way that placed him in Israel’s shoes. He assumed the role of a nation delivered out of slavery and headed towards the promised land, with a specific vocation to abide by: Be YHWH’s people.
Now here he is, quoting from a prophet who spoke to Israel not in exodus but in exile. God’s chosen people failed to live up to their communal vocation, so God removed them from the promised land. Judgement and separation seemed to be their fate, but YHWH would not let these realities have the last word. A new word is spoken; a word of comfort amidst affliction, hope amidst despair. Isaiah 61 represents one such word.
When Jesus reads these words, he reads them as more than the agenda of a charitable person/organisation; he reads them as the promise of return to a people in exile. They are eschatological words. Moreover, he reads them as the meat and drink of his own vocation. Jesus was stepping into the role of the anointed one, the “me” of the passage. The poor, oppressed, and brokenhearted of Israel would receive YHWH’s favour through Jesus’s own ministry. A quintessential christocentric reading of Scripture if ever there was one.
This all sounds like remarkably good news, but there is a sting in the tail. Many of Jesus's hearers supposed he was reaffirming Israel and her covenant with YHWH, but the thought of Jesus judging Israel was completely rejected by the multitude, probably as being contradictory. His fellow Jews read the “oppressors” and “captors” implicit in the Isaiah text as being the Romans, but Jesus not-so-subtly hints at his own people being the opposition to his ministry. (Might we Christians today be guilty of similar misinformed assumptions when we read Scripture?)
Joseph’s son does this by drawing on stories from the days of Elijah and Elisha, who tended to a widow and a leper from outside of corrupt Israel. Again Jesus reads Scripture as a scene in a drama, with himself in the role of Elijah/Elisha and his hometown in the role of corrupt Israel, too hard of heart to mourn and be comforted (cf. Is. 61:2; Mat. 5:4).
This method of reading is obviously extremely effective, because the crowd quickly turns on their former friendly neighbourhood carpenter. The person who they thought just might be their great liberator turns out to be their harsh critic. He reads to them a text of promise to Israel, and then turns around and hints at a ministry to Gentiles. Gentiles! This they cannot stomach. They refused to read the Scriptures the way Jesus read them. They refused to see themselves as oppressors of the poor, takers of prisoners, breakers of hearts. They refused to soften their own hearts, repent, and believe.
When he stood up to speak in the synagogue he received curious appreciation, as those present puzzled over how Joseph’s son could say such gracious words. The atmosphere soon turned hostile, however, with Jesus’ one-time neighbours looking to throw him over a cliff by the end of his visit.
Why this dramatic transformation of response? The answer lies in Jesus’ reading of Scripture.
The boy from Nazareth kicks off his return home by standing up in the local synagogue on the Sabbath and reading aloud a scroll of the prophet Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.”
As N.T. Wright is at pains to show, Israel still saw herself as being in exile at the time of Jesus’s ministry. The national hope was for freedom from their Gentile oppressors, the restoration of YHWH’s rule from Jerusalem and vindication of his covenant people. A text such as Isaiah 61 would have been understood on these terms, and not as a sort of timeless, groundless list of good deeds to be done.
Therefore when Jesus sits back down, with all eyes on him, and says “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”, he knows what is going on in the minds of those around him. The question is, what was going on in the mind of Jesus?
As seen in the wilderness, Jesus read Scripture in a way that placed him in Israel’s shoes. He assumed the role of a nation delivered out of slavery and headed towards the promised land, with a specific vocation to abide by: Be YHWH’s people.
Now here he is, quoting from a prophet who spoke to Israel not in exodus but in exile. God’s chosen people failed to live up to their communal vocation, so God removed them from the promised land. Judgement and separation seemed to be their fate, but YHWH would not let these realities have the last word. A new word is spoken; a word of comfort amidst affliction, hope amidst despair. Isaiah 61 represents one such word.
When Jesus reads these words, he reads them as more than the agenda of a charitable person/organisation; he reads them as the promise of return to a people in exile. They are eschatological words. Moreover, he reads them as the meat and drink of his own vocation. Jesus was stepping into the role of the anointed one, the “me” of the passage. The poor, oppressed, and brokenhearted of Israel would receive YHWH’s favour through Jesus’s own ministry. A quintessential christocentric reading of Scripture if ever there was one.
This all sounds like remarkably good news, but there is a sting in the tail. Many of Jesus's hearers supposed he was reaffirming Israel and her covenant with YHWH, but the thought of Jesus judging Israel was completely rejected by the multitude, probably as being contradictory. His fellow Jews read the “oppressors” and “captors” implicit in the Isaiah text as being the Romans, but Jesus not-so-subtly hints at his own people being the opposition to his ministry. (Might we Christians today be guilty of similar misinformed assumptions when we read Scripture?)
Joseph’s son does this by drawing on stories from the days of Elijah and Elisha, who tended to a widow and a leper from outside of corrupt Israel. Again Jesus reads Scripture as a scene in a drama, with himself in the role of Elijah/Elisha and his hometown in the role of corrupt Israel, too hard of heart to mourn and be comforted (cf. Is. 61:2; Mat. 5:4).
This method of reading is obviously extremely effective, because the crowd quickly turns on their former friendly neighbourhood carpenter. The person who they thought just might be their great liberator turns out to be their harsh critic. He reads to them a text of promise to Israel, and then turns around and hints at a ministry to Gentiles. Gentiles! This they cannot stomach. They refused to read the Scriptures the way Jesus read them. They refused to see themselves as oppressors of the poor, takers of prisoners, breakers of hearts. They refused to soften their own hearts, repent, and believe.
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