Tuesday, May 1, 2012

May 1st 2012


Yesterday Jesus compared the people of Nazareth to the people of Israel during their most faithless times. How do you think they would respond?

Read Luke 4:13-30 especially verses 28-30 and journal some thoughts

To say that they were angry is a bit of an understatement! They are furious; they are on the verge of exploding! We are Nazarenes! How dare this rabbi say we don’t have enough faith! They are so angry that they set out to have him killed on the spot by stoning him.

In order to understand what happens next, we need to understand a little about stoning in their world. Traditionally the person to be stoned would be taken to a cliff which was about 18 feet tall, they would have their hands bound behind them. Then the victim would be given a chance to confess. Note if they confessed they were still stoned but they would then go to heaven. Then anyone who thought the victim was guilty would pick up a stone and throw it at the person. If the person survived the stoning (see Paul) that meant that God thought they were innocent.

So often when we read verse 30, we read something mystical into it. It’s almost like at this moment Jesus becomes a Jedi from Star Wars and does a mind trick on everyone as he walks through the crowd. But let’s ask ourselves a quick question; what has Jesus done wrong that would deserve stoning? He called them faithless, but that’s not a stonable offence. He claims to be Messiah, but once again Jesus was a rabbi with authority (S’mikah) and lots of S’mikah rabbis claimed to be Messiah, so nothing there worthy of being stoned. Jesus has done nothing wrong, he’s not guilty of anything and so he walks through the crowd untouched.

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