When Jesus preached His first
sermon in His hometown, Nazareth, He drew on the contents of Isaiah 58:6 and
60:1-61:7. However, He omitted all references to the following:
- All foreign rulers and nations coming to worship in Jerusalem (60:1-2)
- Jews who lived in foreign nations returning to Israel (60:4)
- The wealth of the nations being brought to Israel on ships and camels (60:5-7)
- Gentiles rebuilding ruined Jewish cities and towns (60:10)
- The destruction of nations that refuse to serve the Jewish people (60:12)
- Jewish people sucking up the wealth of surrounding nations (60:6)
- The Jewish people possessing the Promised Land forever (60:21)
- God taking vengeance on Gentiles who trouble His people (61:2)
- Gentiles serving as farmers and shepherds for the Jews (61:5-6)
Moses gave the people special
social legislation that was to be enacted during the Jubilee year:
- All debts were to be cancelled.
- All slaves were to be freed.
- All patrimonial land (inheritance) was to be returned to the family who originally owned the land.
How would you like to have
all your debts cancelled---all of them, including college loans, credit card balances, car payments, and your mortgage? You would celebrate with great
passion! However, those to whom you owed all that money would become furious---very
furious. But there is more. In His parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:13-21),
Jesus teaches us that we own nothing--not even the body in which we live or the
land or house or car that we claim to own.
A crucially important
question: Are our people hearing or being taught these radically profound
truths? If not, what are we going to do about that situation? Are we here to
teach people how to feel good, or are we here to teach them how to be
good---to reflect Jesus’ servant mind and manner in all that we think, say, and
do?