Tuesday September 9 The Example of Jesus What does Luke 4:16 tell us about Jesus’ attitude toward the Sabbath? Why is this so important for us today? See John 14:15, 1 Pet. 2:21. _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ The word Luke used in verse 16, custom, comes from a Greek word related to habits constant in time and practice. In other words, Jesus regularly attended the synagogue every Sabbath that He could. Moreover, this is so important to Luke that four times in his Gospel he mentions Jesus’ attendance at the synagogue on different Sabbaths (Luke 4:16, 4:31, 6:6, 13:10). Also, Luke specifically identifies the Sabbath as the seventh day of the week (Luke 23:54–24:1). The fact that Jesus Christ, during His earthly ministry, observed the seventh-day Sabbath, along with the Jews, testifies that the weekly cycle had not been lost since the giving of the law at Sinai, or even since Creation. His example as an observer of the Sabbath is a model for Christians to follow, in both time and manner of observance. What did Jesus read on that special occasion in the synagogue? Why is this significant? See Luke 4:16–21. _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ This wasn’t the first time Jesus read and spoke at a synagogue. More than a year had already gone by since He was baptized in the Jordan River. However, this was Jesus’ first visit to Nazareth after leaving the carpenter shop, where He spent the first 30 years of His life and where He attended the local synagogue. During His youth, “often in the synagogue on the Sabbath day He was called upon to read the lesson from the prophets, and the hearts of the hearers thrilled as a new light shone out from the familiar words of the sacred text.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 74. But this time it was different. Jesus selected a particular passage, Isaiah 61:1, 2, a text that explains the Messiah’s work on earth and how He will come “ ‘to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord’ ” (Luke 4:19, NKJV). That was the Sabbatical, or jubilee, year, a time of rest. Appropriately, Jesus chose the day of rest, the Sabbath, to announce His ministry of redemption, liberation, and healing. Truly, we find rest in Jesus, a rest expressed in a tangible way every Sabbath day.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 06:28:42 +0000
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