Luke 8:38-39
38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.

In the passage immediately preceding this, Jesus had driven demons out of a suffering man, who had been literally controlled by them to the point that others had chained him up so that he would not be a danger to others or himself. Thanks to Jesus, he now is freed, both physically and spiritually. No wonder the man now wants to follow Jesus!

But instead of taking the man along on His journey, Jesus simply tells him to go home and tell about what has happened to him, how divine power did what nothing and no one earthly could do for him. It’s assumed that the townspeople know this man’s story and have seen him before, so they will be the first to recognize the massive change in him, and be moved to learn more about this strange personage called “Jesus” who has worked this miracle.

We as individual believers may not have had literal demons driven out of us at the moment we were saved, but we each have a testimony just as life-changing as this man. We all had tremendous spiritual issues that kept us trapped, for years or even decades on end–and then, at some point along our very troubled and desolate road, we met Jesus. Then, the sun came out…or should I say, the Son. (I know it happened this way for me, when I was saved as a child and when I came back into the fold as an adult–life brightened, problems became easier to bear, trials felt less weighty on my shoulders because I knew I could depend on God.)

Jesus’ command for the formerly demon-possessed man, then, is also for us. We should go forth and tell others what Jesus has done for us–because He’s worked miracles in each of our lives, and others will be changed by our testimonies.

Luke 4:16-21

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus went to the synagogue for His regular time with God (thus setting a good example for his followers), but instead of simply praying, He chose to read a scripture aloud. It’s unclear whether Jesus chose this specifically or whether this was the passage everyone was already studying; the important message here is that Jesus uses this scripture to announce His purpose and His ministry to the people He grew up with.

This is a triumphant scripture Jesus reads–one of joyful news. Jesus, the Messiah so often prophesied about through Isaiah and many of the other Old Testament prophets, is finally here, and is come to give freedom and healing. Freedom from having to work for their salvation; healing for their spirits as well as their bodies.

In Isaiah, this time of good news is referred to as the “year of the Lord’s favor.” It’s akin to the Year of Jubilee in the Old Testament, when slaves would be set free, debts forgiven, and property was returned to its original owners…but this time, the Lord’s favor would be extended to everyone who believed in Jesus as Messiah. Jesus didn’t officially begin His ministry with His “hometown” as such, but He is bringing His message to Nazareth now, declaring His purpose. (Nazareth doesn’t accept His message, as I’ve discussed in another post, but that’s a whole other story.)

Do We Tell Others How Jesus Has Brought Us Joy?

These days, the phrase “Lemme tell you the Good News about Jesus” is almost a cliche in our culture, often heard but seldom listened to. In our haste to convert people, as Christians, we sometimes forget about this Good News and focus instead on our target’s need to “come to Jesus.” So often, we forget to tell about how Jesus has changed our lives, how He has given us freedom and healing, how we rejoice in His presence.

But what if we approached witnessing, and even worship, with this kind of joy (presented in Isaiah, read aloud by Jesus Himself) instead of condemnation? What could that start?

Luke 4:23-27
23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'”

24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed–only Naaman the Syrian.”

Here, Jesus is visiting Nazareth, his “hometown,” where He was raised by Mary and Joseph and is well remembered by neighbors and acquaintances. Many of the townspeople had likely heard of Jesus’ miracles and preaching in the surrounding area, but until now He had never done anything back home.

Jesus, being God in flesh, knows what’s primarily on the Nazarenes’ minds, even as they praise Him for His earlier quotations of Isaiah’s prophecies in the synagogue. He knows they want Him to do a bunch of miracles for them, too, even though most of them don’t believe He’s really the Messiah. (That’s right–they don’t believe the kid who was raised among them is really the Messiah. They actually refer to him as “Joseph’s son” the whole time, and their adoration is more born of condescending affection than awe.)

So, Jesus addresses the issue directly. “All right, you want me to do miracles for you, but you don’t really believe in Me; I’m still just Joseph’s kid to you,” the gist of His reply goes. He tells them that Israel didn’t believe in God’s power in the Old Testament either, so God didn’t bless them–He went to other nations and other peoples instead. By doing this, God proved He was still powerful enough to bless, but He was reminding the Israelites that they had to meet Him halfway by trusting and not repudiating Him.

The Nazarenes were making the same mistake. They stood there and practically told Jesus they didn’t think He was nobody special by calling Him simply “Joseph’s son,” but wanted Him to do miracles anyway. They had already rejected him as Messiah, but wanted the benefits of salvation (blessings).

Modern-Day Nazarenes: Yes, They Still Exist!

There are many people today who want a “non-believer with benefits” relationship to Jesus. They don’t REALLY trust in Him, don’t believe in His power to save, but they want all the blessings that they see other Christians getting. But just like a “friends with benefits” relationship eventually falls apart because there is no real love, a “non-believer with benefits” relationship will weaken and die over time because there is no real faith to support it.

Jesus makes it clear: you can’t be a non-believer with benefits–you have to either believe or not. But many people today want God only on their terms. This doesn’t work, and people who relate to Jesus this way end up without the blessings they expect, leading to an eventual doubt of whether He even exists.

If we want God’s blessings to rain down on us, we have to first accept that we are saved by the grace of Jesus–Jesus, God’s Son, not just Jesus from Nazareth. If we don’t truly believe in that grace (and its power to rescue us from our sin), we can’t expect any blessings. It seems too simple to mess up, and yet a lot of us, even established Christians, completely miss this point.

Luke 8:49-55

49 While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” 50 Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”

54 But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” 55 Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat.

In this part of Luke, Jesus had just talked to the woman who had touched His cloak and was healed, and Jairus had already talked to Jesus about his daughter. Suddenly, a random guy comes back from Jairus’ house and tells him that his daughter is dead. But Jesus is unruffled, even though Jairus is probably shocked and overwhelmed with this news. Jesus already knows that Jairus’ daughter can be healed.

When Jesus gets to Jairus’ house, people are already mourning in the streets (likely the girl’s family members). He even tells the mourners that the girl is not dead, but they don’t listen–their eyes, and their human knowledge, tell them otherwise. So Jesus goes into the house, bringing with Him only His closest disciples, and in only a few moments, the girl is up walking around! A miracle has truly been wrought!

We, too, have a hard time believing Jesus can come through for us when the worst happens. When our senses and our human wisdom tell us that something is impossible or irreparable, we tend to believe that rather than trusting in God. The mourners certainly didn’t trust Jesus’ judgment, and already one visitor to Jairus’ house believes the girl is already lost to them. But Jairus, while probably shaken, still trusts in Jesus enough to bring Him physically into his house, and for that act of faith and trust, his daughter is brought back from the dead.

When we trust in God, giving the entire situation over to Him, amazing things happen. Illness is healed (we’ve seen three incidents of inexplicable healing in our church alone); relationships are saved; troubles unravel and vanish. For that matter, I’ve experienced it in my own life, feeling depression unwrap its dark tendrils from my mind as I grow stronger in my faith, so it’s not a delusion. I’ve lived as a skeptic of prayer and lived as a believer in prayer, and I know which lifestyle I much prefer, for the sheer number of prayers I’ve seen answered right in front of me.

“Believing” is not simply a matter of praying once about it, kinda hoping God will come through for you, and then going back to trying to fix the problem yourself. You must pray consistently about it, believe that God is who He says He is, and believe that He has the power to fulfill your need. Believing, just simple, childlike believing, has wrought even modern-day miracles.

Luke 24:25-27
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Once Jesus had risen, He appeared on the road leading to a village named Emmaus, on which the two people He addresses in this excerpt are also traveling. They don’t recognize Jesus, even though they witnessed His crucifixion, and they proceed to literally tell Jesus about the ordeal they saw Him endure, including the apparent fact that Jesus was missing from the tomb He was buried in.

Once they tell Jesus all of this, He speaks to them firmly, referencing all the prophecies that had been in Jewish tradition for so long. “These prophecies have been around for years–why don’t you believe that they could have at last come true?” He’s saying. “Didn’t all the prophets say the Messiah would have to suffer like that?”

Then, He does something that likely astounds them–He goes back to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), as well as back through all of the prophets’ writings contained in the Old Testament, and details each instance the Messiah was spoken of, often in great detail concerning what He would eventually endure. That’s a lot of Scriptural references, and I mean a LOT. But Jesus knows them all, and directly references them back to His own experiences.

In this instance, Jesus is proving to those two people, as well as to all readers of Luke (and the rest of the Bible), that He is who He says He is. He isn’t some random carpenter, an upstart preacher, or a lunatic–He’s the Messiah, Who was foretold many centuries before He came. He knows all the Scriptures because He helped inspire those Scriptures; He knows that what He endured matches Scripture because God the Father planned it that way.

Many people today doubt the Bible because Jesus is so strange a figure to believe in. Do we really believe, historically and scientifically, that this could happen, did happen? So much in the world urges us not to believe. But this one verse, tucked away in the back chapters of Luke, proves over again that Jesus was and is the Messiah–He simply knew too much and was too much not to be.

Luke 10:38-42
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

In the village of Bethany, 2 miles from Jerusalem, Jesus and the disciples stopped, and Martha offered him hospitality. But while Martha’s bustling about the house, getting things ready (probably airing out rooms, beating out rugs and bedding), Mary is just sitting with Jesus and listening to Him talk.

Can you imagine what Martha feels like? All this preparation for all these houseguests to do, and her sister’s just off in another world, acting like she doesn’t need to help! That’s why she’s prompted to ask Jesus Himself in verse 40 to TELL Mary to get up and help.

But Jesus answers, in His serene fashion, that all Martha’s worries are needless. Yes, things like getting the house ready for guests and preparing food needs taking care of, but she shouldn’t agonize about it. What she should worry about is faith, and maintaining it, which is what Mary is doing. Mary’s absorbing all the spiritual lessons Jesus is giving, and becoming stronger as a result.

This is a lesson that is quite appropriate going into holiday season. So often we get tied up buying gifts, decorating, and cleaning house for guests, and we end up so stressed out, just like Martha. But when we’re overly focused on these more worldly concerns, we forget the REASON for the decorating, for the guests, for the celebration.

When we celebrate this season, especially as Christians, we are celebrating the day our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, came into this world as an infant, fully God and fully Man. We are celebrating His birth because of Who He is and what He represents: God and salvation, and a closer relationship with our God than we could have ever hoped for otherwise. This is how we build our faith up–by gathering together and worshipping as a family, and as a community.

Let’s take Mary’s example this Christmas, and just spend some time with God instead of with Walmart; after all, Walmart will take care of itself, but our faith won’t.