Luke 4:16-21
This is an amazing moment because we get to see what happened when Jesus went to church. Not our kind of church – he created the church – but before he died the Jewish people met in Synagogues that were a lot like today’s churches but of course only used the Old Testament.
He reads a passage from the prophet Isaiah that sounds kind of like a mission statement for Jesus. He’s going to:
- Be filled with the Spirit of the Lord
- He’s anointed (like a king or prophet would be)
- He’ll proclaim good news to the poor and liberty to the captives
- He help the blind to see and free the oppressed
- He’s announce the year of the Lord’s favor (also known as Jubilee – when all that’s gone wrong is reset)
Then he sits down and says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Sounds like a pretty normal church service except that they drive him out of town and try to thrown him off a cliff at the end of it! (4:28-30)
Jesus claimed to be the person that Isaiah prophesied about (the messiah) but in his hometown, all of these people thought that they knew Jesus. Nope!
After narrowly escaping some cliff diving without a parachute, Jesus goes about doing the very things Isiah said he would 700 years earlier.
Do you know this Jesus or do you have an idea of some other Jesus that you grew up with?
Jesus is a king, a healer, he has the best news and looks out for the oppressed and the captives. He is still all of those things! He wants to rule our lives and our world. He can heal our sin-sickness and free us from the captivity of sin. He’s always on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressor. The good news is the gospel he proclaimed.
Is this Jesus active in your life?
Jesus claimed to be the person that Isaiah prophesied about (the messiah) but in his hometown, all of these people thought that they knew Jesus. Nope!
After narrowly escaping some cliff diving without a parachute, Jesus goes about doing the very things Isiah said he would 700 years earlier.
Do you know this Jesus or do you have an idea of some other Jesus that you grew up with?
Jesus is a king, a healer, he has the best news and looks out for the oppressed and the captives. He is still all of those things! He wants to rule our lives and our world. He can heal our sin-sickness and free us from the captivity of sin. He’s always on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressor. The good news is the gospel he proclaimed.
Is this Jesus active in your life?