Luke 4-5, Psalm 114

We come right off the rather confrontational preaching of John the Baptist into the public ministry of Jesus. John has been telling everyone who comes to him to repent, and for each person who asks what they are to do he tells to abandon their selfish ways and become generous and content. They wonder if this is the Messiah speaking. But John cuts them off- this message is not the message of the Messiah. It comes first- you never get Jesus with John- but it is not the entire message. John is just saying what the Prophets always said. But there is someone coming after him who will say something more, and do something more than any prophet.

Jesus begins his public work by going out to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Not the way we are taught to begin much of anything these days, but perhaps that is worth reconsidering. By this point we are familiar enough with the repeated narrative of Genesis 3 that we should recognize what is going on here. Jesus is taking the test that Adam could not pass, and he passes it with flying colors. Of course, it is worth looking at how he does so. For every temptation to reach out and take power, knowledge, and wisdom on his own terms, Jesus answers with the power, knowledge, and wisdom of God as revealed in Scripture. He uses the wisdom of God to defeat the temptations of the devil. Instead of taking for his own the knowledge of good and bad, he lets God speak on his own terms.

Jesus’ victory over the devil’s temptations ends with his return to public life. And what does he do? He starts wandering the countryside teaching the people about new life in the Kingdom of God. Almost everything Jesus does from this point on references some kind of new life. New wine in new wine skins. Good news and a new day of the Lord’s favor. Fishermen called to a new profession as fishers of men. As in the book of Matthew, Jesus is going around healing the sick, the lame, and the dying, proclaiming that this is what the Kingdom of God is like. But as in Matthew his audience wants something different.

The scene of Jesus teaching in his own home town of Nazareth is at the same time inspiring and depressing. He comes home after at least months of wandering in the wilderness and the countryside, and the people excitedly hand him the Scriptures to read at their synagogue. It appears his reputation was quite high. Despite being just a carpenter and a carpenter’s son, they were ready to give him a listen based on what they had heard as he was glorified by all who heard him. Jesus quotes the words of Isaiah the prophet: Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. What a place to start! This is smack in the middle of one of the most hopeful passages in the entire Hebrew Scriptures. The people have been waiting for the Servant of the Lord who makes all things new since the days of the exile. Jesus gets right to the core of their hopes and dreams for a new life.

But don’t forget how we opened the day- you never get Jesus before you get John. Jesus reminds the people of their own stubborn hearts, from the days of Elijah and Elisha right up to the present. Given how well that went, you might think they would be quick to repent and turn from their sin, ready to follow Jesus. But no, they decide that they do not want to hear about how they should change. And they very quickly go from ready to listen to ready to kill.

Jesus is bringing something new to the life of the exiled Jewish people, and for them to see it something will have to die. New life doesn’t fit in the space taken up by old life. This has hardly changed today. It is relatively easy to talk about forgiveness, grace, and the power of God to fill and transform those who believe in the name of Jesus. What is hard is talk of repentance, evacuating the dead things to make way for that transformation. John comes first to prepare the way, and he is all about judgment and repentance. Jesus beings speaking the new life of the Kingdom to the people of his hometown, but they will not accept him because they will not accept the message of John.

This does not go well as Jesus leaves his home and begins repeating this message all over the place. He blows up the expectations of everyone who did not accept John’s message that they were in need of repentance. Those who believed they were well could not accept his presence, surrounded as he was by repentant sinners. Those who believe they had their sins forgiven by the law could not accept his forgiveness of sin of the repentant paralytic. Now there is a man who knew he needed saving- he couldn’t even get near Jesus without enlisting others to move him. Finally, those who had grown comfortable with their exile could not accept him because he was bringing it to an end. They fasted and prayed and asked God for deliverance. When the deliverer shows up, they ask why he and his disciples do not fast and pray. He is the object of and the answer to their prayer and fasting. They should be celebrating like the Israelites after Pharaoh’s army is drowned, but they are comfortable with sitting in Egypt as slaves. It is the whole Hebrew Scriptures played out again and again, but Jesus is going to put the kabosh on it. The old story is dead. The new wine is here, and it will burst your old wine skins right open. You will have to change, because Jesus will not. He is going to make all things new, and nothing is going to get in his way.