Luke 4

Thursday, Jan 14, 2016


No need to blog about the temptation of Jesus, that's familiar from yesterday.


Beginning in verse 14, 2 things happen when Jesus "goes home".  First, He shows up at the synagogue and reads a passage from Isaiah 61.  The backstory on that is interesting:  every time the men gathered to worship, one person was selected to read.  The person who read would move to the front of the room and sit in a large chair called "Moses seat".  A second person would go to the cabinet in the room and take out a scroll (most places had only one, or a part of one) and carry it to the reader.  Generally, the reader didn't pick his own passage to read...they began where the last person left off, and made their way through the scroll that way.   I don't know if Jesus changed that, or if He knew that what they chose to read would be applicable to Him.     "What a coincidence" that Jesus just happened to be the reader on a day that they "just happened" to be reading from Isaiah, and it was a prophecy that he was fulfilling as He read it.


Second, he tells the crowd that He isn't going to do any miracles in His hometown.  Of course, that makes them furious.  Intellectually, I know that Jesus doesn't need me to believe in Him in order to work.   There are several instances in Scripture when Jesus healed people who didn't even know who He was.   However, there is something to be said about Jesus preferring to work in areas where He is going to get the credit.   We learn in Exodus 20 that "I the Lord your God am a jealous God"...meaning that He isn't willing to share His glory with anyone.  Bottom line:  if you want to see God working around you, believe that He can and will, and be sure to give Him credit for anything that is already happening.


There are lots of other things to comment on in Luke 4, but let me leave today's blog with one last comment.   In the last paragraph the crowds are begging Jesus not to leave them.  I can understand that.  Jesus has healed their people, shared good news with them....things are good.   It would be nice if He would just settle down and get comfortable and live right here.   That way, any time we had a problem in the future He could take care of it.    But Jesus reminds the crowd (and us) that He didn't come to make us comfortable.  There are many towns out there where help is needed.  There are hundreds of thousands of people who hurting and desperate, and aren't aware that help is available.   Jesus wants to reach them too.
Since we are His children, and pattern our lives after Him, and desire to think and act like Him....we should be just as concerned about sharing the Gospel with others.   We should be developing a pattern of "going out" rather than "keeping to ourselves".    We act like Jesus when we share with others, help others and remind others that there is a hope and a future for all who believe in Him.


Serving Him,


PR