Luke 4:14-21

 

PAUL’S LOGIC - By his faithfulness, Jesus affirms the sabbath, the scriptures, and the synagogue. Jesus not only attends synagogue services regularly but he participates, as all male adults were permitted to do, by reading Scripture and commenting on it. The synagogue services were rather informal, led by laity, consisted primarily of prayers, reading of Scripture, comments, and alms for the poor . . . While there was only one temple, synagogues arose everywhere, wherever ten adult males wished so to constitute themselves. The synagogue was not only an assembly for worship but also a school, a community center, and a place for administering justice. Among relatives and friends, in the synagogue Jesus is at home. [1]

GOOD NEWS FOR WHOM? - Poverty is a scandalous condition inimical to human dignity and therefore contrary to the will of God. English equivalents to the Hebrew words for "the poor" are such things as the frail one, the weak one, the bent-over one, the humiliated one. The New Testament Greek word, ptochos means "one who does not have what is necessary to subsist" and is forced into the degrading activity of begging . . . Throughout the Scriptures, this kind of poverty and the social conditions that cause it are condemned. The Jubilee year was a conscious attempt to restructure social conditions to get rid of such injustice and poverty. [2]

ORIGEN OF ALEXANDRIA [fl 200-254] - Blessed is that congregation of which Scripture testifies that ‘the eyes of all were fixed on him!’ How much would I wish that this assembly gave such testimony. [3]

 

When we take the words of God, that is God’s revealed truth and eat it; if we dwell upon his words and say them over and over to ourselves, and thoroughly take in and assimilate their meaning in a commonsense way, we find that our soul-life is nourished by them, and is made strong and courageous in consequence. [4]

 

Please see this week's sermons of this passage on DPS.

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[1] Fred B. Craddock, Interpretation Series:  Luke (Louisville:  John Knox Press, 1990), p. 61-62.
[2] Robert McAfee Brown, Unexpected News (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1984), p. 99.
[3] Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture III (InterVarsity, 2003), page 81.
[4] Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Devotions from the Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984, 86, 89.