First Sunday of Lent
February 22, 2015
Who do you say I am?
This radical question will guide and challenge us during our Lenten Season.
During Lent, I want to invite you to invest your energies in getting to know Jesus better. I am challenging the whole church to join me in reading the Gospels of Matthew and John between now and Easter. As you do so – make a list of all of the titles and names used for Jesus.
Each week I will also preach a sermon on one of these titles.
Today, we examine the most basic and common of the titles for Jesus in scripture: Jesus of Nazareth. Long before followers wrote and sang hymns about Jesus – he was known as Jesus of Nazareth. Long before anyone ever prayed in his name, he was known as Jesus of Nazareth. Long before anyone was baptized in the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit, he was called Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus of Nazareth. This was how Jesus was first known.
The proper name - Jesus – is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua which means “to rescue or deliver.” Nazareth is simply his hometown, a small, inconsequential village in Northern Galilee, a backwater province of the Great Roman Empire.
To help us gain a broader mental picture of Jesus – each week, I will show a short movie clip about the life of Jesus. To help us get a sense of Jesus of Nazareth, I’ve chosen a clip from the TV miniseries called “Jesus of Nazareth.” I love this movie that was produced in 1977 by Franco Zeffirell. This scene opens in Nazareth immediately after the death of King Herod as Joseph and Mary bring toddler Jesus home from Egypt.
In our scripture passage today, we see the power and authority the simple title Jesus of Nazareth has gained throughout the region from the moment that little boy arrived in Nazareth to just before Jesus is crucified in Jerusalem 30 years later. Jesus is traveling from Galilee up to the holy temple city of Jerusalem. He walks south through the Jordan River Valley and comes to the ancient town of Jericho where he must pay a toll tax for entering into a new Roman province.
The time for the Jewish festival of Passover has arrived and Jesus and thousands of others are traveling to the temple to participate. For Jesus and his disciples – this trip has more meaning and purpose. Jesus knows something important is about to happen. He’s been focused on Jerusalem and now he’s almost there.
As Jesus approaches Jericho, he is surrounded by an entourage of people – his many disciples from Galilee, interested, yet uncommitted followers, and spectators. He no longer passes by unnoticed. Like a presidential auto processional driving through downtown Atlanta – everyone notices, gets out of the way, and pays attention.
Pushed to the side by this passing tide is a blind beggar who has come to this spot outside of Jericho to beg for money from the hordes of festival goers as they make their way up to Jerusalem. Perceptively, he notices something unique happening when Jesus passes his station. Primarily, he gets pushed to farther to the side by the sighted and more important entourage of people.
He asks those standing by what is happening. Everyone around states clearly, ““Jesus of Nazareth[a] is passing by.”
The title tells the beggar all he needs to know. Like celebrities during our time, the title Jesus of Nazareth conveys power and importance. We might have the same experience if we were sitting in food court at the Mall of Georgia in Buford when we notice a large group of passing through, moving chairs, creating a momentary bit of chaos and we were to ask – what is happening? – and someone said, “Justin.” Or Dolly. Or Bono.
These are just simple names. Yet, their reputation and fame gives the title power and meaning.
The same is true of Jesus. The title Jesus of Nazareth is just a name and a simple village designation. Yet, in this story, we see the fame and curiosity and power the simple name has garnered.
So much so, that when the blind man hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, he immediately begins to shout above the din of the crowd. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The crowd tries to silence him. Surely, this powerful man, Jesus of Nazareth, has more to do than listen to a blind man.
Yet, ever attentive to the truly faithful around him – even when everyone else sees chaos – Jesus hears the blind beggar’s confession and stops. The crowd stops too.
The blind beggar has seen past the celebrity title that others used for Jesus and spoken his confession of faith. When he shouts, “Jesus, Son of David” he is telling all of those around him – that Jesus of Nazareth is more than a great rabbi and more than a great healer – he is God’s chosen, anointed one, sent to rebuild the Kingdom of David, and save the world.
When Jesus stops, he asks the man, ““What do you want me to do for you?”” I love that Jesus doesn’t take this question for granted. The man wants to see again. V. 43 says: “Immediately he regained his sight and followed him, glorifying God.”
When it comes to understanding who Jesus is and wants to be in our lives and in the world – this story demonstrates the challenge and the opportunity.
Before Jesus is anything else, he is Jesus of Nazareth. Unless we understand the dynamics of his place in the world, we miss who Jesus is today and what God’s Word tells us about him.
The fact is this: Of all of the historical moments the world has see – from the Egyptian empire to the British Empire – God choose this particular moment to enter into human history as a child. And on top of that God choose the town of Nazareth – a backwater village of no significance in which to enter. He didn’t choose Rome or Jerusalem or Paris or New York or Beijing or Johannesburg – God chose Nazareth.
If all God does is intentional – this means the time and location of Jesus birth and ministry are key to understanding Jesus.
N.T. Wright in his book Simply Jesus: A new vision of who he was, what he did, and why it matters describes this moment in time and the location of Jesus arrival as “The perfect storm.” Like the great confluences of high and low pressure systems that created the story of 1993 that led to the book and movie of the same name – when Jesus arrives on earth – three large confluences of pressure merge that change the world forever.
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| Caesar Augustus |
The first system to emerge is the Roman Storm. For over 200 years before Jesus is born the low pressure system of Roman Empire had been building as Rome steadily increased in power and prominence throughout the Mediterranean world. 30 years before Jesus was born, Julius Caesar grasped power of the emerging empire, declared his divinity and created a civil war. Eventually, Augustus Octavian Caesar – who we know from scripture as Caesar Augustus, defeated the warring factions, unified the empire and created the world in which Jesus was born.
One of the keys needs in managing this great empire Caesar Augustus built was food. The Roman Empire needed Palestine and the Middle East to provide grain for the overpopulated empire – like we need oil for an expanding economy. It was the job of all Roman leaders in the Middle East – from King Herod to Pontus Pilate to keep peace, administer justice, collect taxes suppress all unrest and most of all keep the grain moving into the rest of the Empire.
In our passage from Luke – we see the overtones of this Roman storm. The beggar sits outside the town of Jericho – a collection point for Roman toll Taxes - hoping to receive small coins as travelers pass his way. Without this political structure – the scenario would be much different.
2. The second element in the perfect story of Jesus of Nazareth is the overheated, high pressure system of the Jewish Storm
From as far back as their ancient scriptures, the Jewish people believed the story of their people was a story going somewhere. Despite many setbacks, they always maintained God would make sure they reached their goal. This is the story in which Jesus lived. The Jews of Jesus day believed passionately that finally they were living in the day God would act. For them, this was not an ancient story – instead, they were the actors in an ongoing story. All of their hopes and dreams for a new theocracy – a combined political and religious Jewish world would be realized soon!
This realization can be seen in the many different political and military movements happening the first half of the 1st Century. While the Romans are trying to keep peace and provide grain for the empire, the oppressed people of Israel are planning and fighting for a new Kingdom to emerge.
Religious fighters called Zealots mobilize to overthrow the Roman Government. After King Herod died, a revolutionary named Judas the Galilean rose up to claim the title Messiah. He pulled together other zealots warriors who wanted to establish the country in strict adherence to the Torah and the Law. Judas and his fighters would be caught and crucified outside of Jerusalem 20 years before Jesus. 30 years after Jesus died, another group of zealots would do the same time – leading the complete destruction of Jerusalem and its temple.
We see the power of the Jewish world in the story of the blind beggar. In the high law world of Judaism, the blind man had no religious role or life. He was considered unclean for religious life so he existed outside the life of the community and was left to beg by the side of the road to survive.
3. Into these two storms comes the making of the perfect story: The Wind of God arrives in the person of Jesus.
The people of Israel had been telling their own narrative of God’s story – full of national ambitions. Yet, God remained free and independent of these ambitions. The people hoped for one thing – God had another story to tell. Jesus was this story.
This is God’s moment, Jesus declares. With his birth, the strange, unpredictable, and highly dangerous wind of God arrives to create the perfect storm. Jesus arrives to show us the true Son of God, the true high priest, and indeed the King of the world.
This is why title Jesus of Nazareth carried so much power and authority as Jesus walks into Jericho. Jesus confronts the Roman and Jewish storms which have created a blind man begging outside of town – and blows fresh wind. When Jesus walks away – this man no long begs, he walks as a follower of Jesus.
There are many things yet for us to learn about Jesus – but today we make this one key lesson. With the arrival of Jesus of Nazareth into the world – the world as we know it will never be the same. A hurricane has arrived. It was for the blind beggar – and it is for us.
There are storms blowing in all of our lives – the storms of illness, the storms of busyness, the storm of failure, the storm of success, the storm of children and family, the storm of work and school, the storms of national and local crisis – into each storm – the wind of God blows bringing Jesus to confront, save and love each of us.
Will you today – allow Jesus of Nazareth to speak and bring Good News to you? The choice is yours! Amen.
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