Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Luke 4:14-16 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and . . . and came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.
THE PROMISED MESSIAH STILL COMES . . . TO US
Those anointed (with scented olive oil) in ancient Israel were thus marked as being chosen by God to carry out certain tasks on behalf of the nation. So Jesus, anointed not with fragrant oil but with the Holy Spirit, began His ministry and His redeeming work. In the power of the Spirit He brought the Word that comforts and delivers, heals and enlightens-- that sets sinners free from sin and death.
Furthermore, it will be the life and death and resurrection of Christ which will make His word, the Gospel, powerful and effective. For the road from Nazareth will finally go to Jerusalem and Calvary and the empty grave in the garden. Because of this we can say without doubt or equivocation: Today Jesus still comes to us! He comes because He is still what He claimed to be that Sabbath in Nazareth: The promised Messiah, the Christ of God, the world's Redeemer.
The Messiah would need to be both God and man. The townspeople of Nazareth had no doubt He was truly human, but His claim to be the divine Messiah they rejected with a ferocity that bordered on murder by mob violence. Mary, who was no doubt there, could have told them what the angel Gabriel had told her about the Child to be born of her womb. Namely that the "Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
Son of God and Son of Man, the Christ was to be punished in our place, for our sins. "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53). The Christ was to triumph over death and reign forever. "He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied" (Isaiah 53).
Having returned from the grave triumphant, the living Christ still comes to us in Word and Sacrament. Through faith He brings us into fellowship with Himself. This is not the same as when a man long dead influences others through the record of His words or actions. We have come to know not merely Jesus' ideas and principles-- or His example. He who once was dead has come to us personally. He who once was limited by time and space is no longer so limited. Jesus has come to us and by the Spirit's power He has touched our hearts. He comes not merely to inspire us through what we know of Him, He comes through His Word to live in us.
"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
