Jesus in the synagogue

Tonight as I was finishing my lesson for Saturday night I came across a statement that made me stop what I was doing and just sit for a while the impact of said statement made it way through my mind. I was reading from William Barclay's small but powerful thoughts on the Gospel of Luke, specifically Sunday lectionary reading Luke 4:21-30. Jesus is in the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath reading form Isaiah. I don't have his exact word in front of me so I can't quote exactly what Barclay wrote. So I will give my version. Jesus had to be extremely frustrated by the hypocrisy and heresy that he heard will in the synagogue. Yet he still attended, according to the scripture, regularly. Can you imagine the sense of frustration he had to feel being a part of those gatherings? What does that tell us about our response to the local church and congregational worship? Should we abandon it because it is frustrating, at times maddening? Am I comparing apples and oranges? As time progresses I feel more and more that we can't abandon the church. It is necessary for orthodoxy and for community. As a community of believers grow, which should happen in a healthy community of faith, there comes a time when positive institutionalization must occur. I have been moving in that direction lately and Barclay's observation about Jesus confirmed it for me. We can't escape our identity as the Body of Christ and from the very beginning that meant being part of an institution. That doesn't mean that we must agree with the way the institution functions, rather we should be speaking truth into it and trying to reform it and help it reconcile unto itself at all times. Sorry this is choppy and not well thought out but I just needed to put it out there because it is consuming my thoughts.

As an aside, take time to read Luke 4:16-30. Think about the reasons the crowd from Nazareth wanted to throw Jesus off the cliff.
1. He identified himself as a prophet.
2. He recalled a time when God used the prophets to help non-Jews. God was interested in providing redemption to Gentiles.
This won't be a difficult lesson to teach, but it will be difficult to hear. I am basically asking the question, "How different would our reaction be, than that of the first century Jews, when they heard Jesus was going to be speaking the truth they didn’t want to hear and offering the Good News to people they knew were going to burn in hell?"