Can you believe what Jesus just did?
While reading Luke 4: 16-30, I imaged myself being in the congregation where Jesus was reading from the Prophet Isaiah. Jesus was always in worship and we all lived in the same small town (Nazareth) together. Today was different. Jesus did something I was not expecting.
It was so different that it made me feel uncomfortable. At the same time it made a lot of people around me angry. I'm not sure exactly sure why I felt this way or why people got so upset.
All he did was read the scripture for the day.
The only thing I can think of was the Jesus put the emphasis on me and not on the Spirit of the Lord. All the other rabbies always put the emphasis on the Spirit of the Lord.
I guess it was his personal identification that he was the one the Prophet Isaiah was talking about. That made people so upset.
I was also amazed at how quickly the congregation turned on Jesus. So many were talking about him positively before the service started, but at the end of it they were following him out in to the street and wishing him harm.
I do not understand why this would have been so radical… Can you?
Here are some other questions to reflect upon and comment upon…
Where were you in the story as you read the scripture?
Can you believe he did this so early in his ministry and in his hometown?
What questions does this scripture bring up for you?
What do you understand this scripture saying to you as someone looking in from the outside?
What does it say to you as someone who wants to follow Jesus?
2 comments:
As I try to to put myself in the position of someone in the crowd while reading this, I think the crowd's reaction was based upon the fact that they only knew Jesus as the son of Joseph, not the son of God. It seems to me that they wanted to only accept Him for who they thought He was, not who He really was. I wonder what happened in the crowd between v. 29 and 30.
It seems as though he just turned around and faced the mob and walked right through them. I don't think they expected him to be so bold.
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