Epiphany 3 - The Man Standing in the Synagogue

Text: Luke 4:14-21
Series: ILCW C – Epiphany 3
Theme: The Man Standing in the Synagogue
Place: Amazing Grace Lutheran Church, Myrtle Beach, SC
Date: January 24, 2010

It’s the Sabbath day! As a resident of the small Galilean village called Nazareth, you make your way to the synagogue. You find your place among the others who have found their seats. You are waiting for the regular weekly worship service to begin. But on this day there is more excitement than on other Sabbath’s because a rumor is circulating. A rumor that a guest speaker, someone special, has come to town. Maybe better said, ‘has returned to town.’

The speaker?! He’s not a foreigner or a fake!; unintelligent or unknown! No, you know him rather well. He’s the son of your town. He played in your streets. His foster-father was your local carpenter. More than all that! He’s the son of your synagogue. Perhaps he sat right next to you, in front of you, or behind you in worship! But lately there has been a great deal of commotion surrounding him. He’s become a traveling preacher - proclaiming wonderful messages from God’s Word throughout the area. But not just that. There were miracles to certify his message. They knew about the water he had changed into wine at Cana, about the paralyzed man he had healed in Jerusalem.

There you sit with such talk circulating. As the service begins you can hardly pay attention. Those questions about Jesus, circulating among the townspeople, are now going through your mind. What do you make of this Jesus? What is he going to say to us or do for us? Some are curious. Some are suspicious. Some are hopeful! Some have hesitations! You!, you’ve heard as many answers about this man as the number of people you’ve heard comment from. He’s a prophet! He’s a Messiah! He’s a healer! He’s a Rabbi! He’s a national figure – a politician! All those thoughts race through your mind, but then comes the moment. Before you know it, he’s The Man Standing in the Synagogue!

He’s the guest preacher today. As guest preacher he walks forward to receive a scroll from the attendant on duty. Receiving it from the man, he steadily and silently opens the scroll to the prophet Isaiah. He reads those words, words we read before, The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (vv. 18-19).

All seated would have known that passage. It was one of the most famous passages in the Old Testament. They knew Isaiah had written these words, but they also knew he hadn’t spoken them. The speaker was the Servant of the Lord. The speaker was the one God had promised to send to the people of Israel. They knew God had chosen this servant, that God had anointed him—it said so right here—and so they called the servant of the Lord Messiah, which means the Anointed One. When God sent the Messiah, all their troubles would be gone and all their problems would be solved.

For the Spirit of the Lord had anointed The Man Standing in the Synagogue to carry out a specific task. This man standing in the synagogue is the one on whom the Spirit descended in the form of the dove at his Baptism. This man is the one who was led by the Spirit out into the desert to be tempted. This man is the one who returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, set apart, anointed, to preach good news to the poor, give freedom to the prisoners, restore sight to the blind, release the oppressed, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Every one of those phrases paints a different picture, but each picture depicts the same scene: The Man Standing in the Synagogue, Messiah, was coming to release people from sin.
The Man Standing in the Synagogue on that Sabbath wasn’t talking about preaching good news to the poor as the President might do in his State of the Union address, where he’ll discuss the economic situation of society. The Man Standing in the Synagogue had come to discuss the economic situation of the soul. It wasn’t about bankrupt banks, but a bankruptcy of righteousness in the ledgers of God. He was talking about the way sin strips us of any hope of being called sons of God.

The Man Standing in the Synagogue on that Sabbath wouldn’t free the inmate whose been institutionalized in a place where you’re locked in chains, behind bars, a prison where you suffer with no hope of escaping. The Man Standing in the Synagogue had come to give freedom you who’ve lived it. You whose sins have locked you up, trapped you in its clutches and bound you with its lies.

The Man Standing in the Synagogue on that Sabbath wasn’t there to open eyes so that the blind person who is unable to see what is so clearly evident to others who have sight no longer has only a hazy partial understanding of the imagination of the way something may appear. The Man Standing in the Synagogue had come for those spiritually blind with a totally wrong picture of God, blinded by own sinful thoughts and led by blind guides who would try to give us their explanation of who God is, what he’s like and how we might have a relationship with him.

My friends, the Man Standing in the Synagogue is describing you and I and the sin we have. It eats away at us. It dominates our lives. It’s what we think about in the middle of the night while others might think about it in the middle of the day. Some people feel guilty for things they did, but some people feel guilty for things they didn’t do. Counselors and psychologists work with some people to help them get rid of guilt, and sometimes that’s necessary. But the truth is, we’re all guilty. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all done things God doesn’t want us to do and not done things God wants us to do. The trouble is we’re stuck with it. We can’t buy our way out of guilt because we’re penniless before God. We can’t escape the prison of guilt because we’re guilty. We’re blinded to God’s freedom because we always focused on our guilt. We’re oppressed by guilt and we’re slaves to guilt and there’s nothing we can do to get rid of it.

Or is there? Your eyes are fixed intently upon him. Your eyes and others’ who are in the room! And then the Man Standing in the Synagogue rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And in the chair he sits! In the chair he will give his interpretation of these verses. Very simply he says, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (v. 21)

With those words, Jesus announces to the worshipers what the scriptures announce about him. Jesus is saying, “I am the finale! I am the completion! I am the fulfillment of God’s plan to save you! Everything Moses wrote on the sacred pages; everything David penned in the psalms; everything the prophets promised in their preaching and prophesies—all of it pointed to the Anointed One. The Anointed One who is the seed of the woman, the Son of David, the Suffering Servant. The Anointed One announced by the Scriptures is your Savior.

My friends, Jesus got rid of guilt. When he spoke through Isaiah long before he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin named Mary, Jesus said he would get rid of guilt. When he preached in Nazareth, Jesus said he had come to get rid of guilt. And he did. He kept God’s laws and had no guilt of his own. And then he took your guilt on his back, he carried your guilt to the cross, he paid for your guilt with his blood and his death. He came back alive and his rose from his grave. And now God says to you: No guilt, no more. Your guilt is gone. Your conscience can’t plague you. The devil can’t accuse you. Sin can’t control you. Death can’t frighten you.

These are not just hopeful wishes or unfulfilled dreams. In Jesus these great blessings are definite realities. And they translate into definite blessings that we actually possess right now through faith in Jesus. He has definitely released us from the oppression of sin, which can no longer condemn us. He has definitely released us from the oppression of the devil, taking away his right to hound and accuse us. He has definitely released us from the oppression of death and its horrors, changing it from an end to the beginning of unending, uninterrupted joy. This Savior has definitely ushered in the day of God’s favor – a forgiving of sin and a cancellation of guilt.

You can be sure of it, because the Scriptures assure you of it. The Man Standing in the Synagogue who then was seated is announced to you, revealed for you, looked at by you each time you open up his Word. Think about what Jesus had just done. What had Jesus just done, but unrolled the words of the prophet that pointed to him, proclaimed them, and then rolled them back up and said, “All eyes on me! I am he!”

My friends, today is no different. Oh sure, Jesus didn’t show up as the guest preacher. He didn’t walk forward to receive a scroll and then steadily and silently open it and read it like he did that day in Nazareth. But you know what, The Man Standing in the Synagogue preached to you today. Right here, he comes to you. This, the Bible isn’t just some ordinary book. It’s not just a history book, or a newspaper article full of highlights of Jesus’ ministry. Not, they’re Jesus’ words to you.

Words that make a difference for someone struggling with their sin and all its attendant guilt. Words that offer forgiveness, peace, and pardon. Words that have, not just a few, not just some, but every answer you will ever need in life. Words that provide strength for the day when your energy and enthusiasm are sapped. Words that provide nourishment for the soul when it is starving. Words that are “truth and life” when there is doubt or even death.

For here, what Jesus unrolled and read to those in the synagogue that day, he opens and shares with us today. The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Our eyes are fastened on him. The Man Standing in the Synagogue stands before us in his Word, Anointed by the Spirit and Announced by the Scriptures. And you know what? He is still here speaking with us today. AMEN