Luke 4:16 “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read.”

If you know anything about Jesus’ ministry, you know that he preached in many venues. The Sermon on the Mount, as the name suggests, was preached from a hillside. He once got into a boat so that he could preach to people while they stood on the beach. Many times the home where Jesus was staying was packed with people who came to hear what he had to say. Some of his best sermons and classes were delivered on the road, while he and his disciples were traveling from one place to another.

But there was one place he consistently showed up to preach or hear God’s word at the end of each week. The Sabbath found him in the synagogue. That, Luke says, “was his custom.” That’s where God’s people gathered to worship. We may call it “church” rather than “synagogue.” And we may hold it a day later, on Sunday. But that’s still where God’s people gather to worship, and there are some lessons for us to take from Jesus’ practice.

First, Jesus’ custom of attending worship each weak confronts our less than consistent practice. “But I don’t like going to church,” some might object. “It’s boring. The music is lame. I don’t find the message relevant.” None of those things stopped our Savior. Sometimes they let him preach, but not every week. I don’t imagine the music was better for him, singing thousand-year-old songs played on primitive instruments. Do you suppose the all-knowing Son of God learned anything new listening to merely human rabbi’s comment on texts they didn’t fully understand, words that had been composed and given to the prophets centuries earlier by Jesus himself? Still, he went. Still, he gathered with the people of God for worship, “as was his custom.”

Second, by his very presence at these services, Jesus was living and creating the good news he came to bring. This was more than a habit, a custom. It was obedience to the third commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day.” Jesus’ perfect obedience to God’s command was part of the formula for our salvation, offering his Father in our place fulfillment of the laws we have broken. His example isn’t intended only to confront, or even inspire us. It is the good news the Lord’s expectations of you and me have been met in him.

Third, we have the promise that Jesus is still in the custom of showing up where his people have gathered to worship. This did not stop with his earthly ministry. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” he promised the disciples a little later.

Our gathering on Sundays isn’t just about educating ourselves. Many weeks we may not learn anything new, either. But it is always a time for us to spend with the one who loved us all the way to cross and tomb. He is here, truly here, with his love and blessing. That, too, is good news.