Our MIssion

 

 

 

 

Luke 4: 16-30 

 Rejected

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. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

²² All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

²³ Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

²⁴ “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵ I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. ²⁶ Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Jesus seems to have had mixed reviews after his first appearance and teaching in his hometown synagogue. "They were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips." But then the skeptics chimed in with the usual "Who is he to be teaching us? Isn't he just the carpenter's son?" The people wanted miracles, but Jesus wanted their faith.  Neither happened and Jesus had to escape for fear of his life.  What sadness and frustration he must have felt.  He wanted to give them "first dibs" at his teaching and they rejected it and him. Do we cause sadness and frustration to others, to Jesus, by our refusal to accept or bend? Do we have hard hearts like the people of Nazareth? As we rest from our Labors this day, may we take some time to examine our attitudes and behaviors. Hopefully they won't be the same as theirs.

Bro. Rene

Dear Jesus, open my ears and heart to hear and follow through on your teachings. Is that not our mission?  Amen