Now Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and the regaining of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
(Luke 4:16-19)
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What gets me about this passage is the people’s reaction. Jesus reads his HafTorah portion as was the custom, in fact the schedule of what was to be read on that day in the Synagogue went back years. What are the chances that Jesus just happened to be reading that day? Pretty cool.
What’s more: Jesus then says this is fulfilled! Today! He claims outright to be the Messiah, at which point I would expect the people to be outraged. But it’s quite the opposite:
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All were speaking well of him, and were amazed at the gracious words coming out of his mouth. They said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
(Luke 4:22)
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The people weren’t opposed to Jesus claiming to be the Messiah necessarily. It was what came next, when they realized that he was a much different sort of Messiah than they were expecting. They saw themselves as the poor, the oppressed, the downcast and the needy. They thought Messiah would destroy the Romans and set the captives (Israel) free. But what Jesus was up to was way bigger than that!
He was here to set all of us free! Even the Gentiles, the people that the Jews wanted Messiah to destroy.
But Jesus comes and declares God’s Kingdom is here. Not just for the people who are “in”. But for everyone.
I have to wrestle with some things here.
Do I really want everyone to have access to the Kingdom? I want to say that I do, but so often I’m just like the hypocrites, wanting to cast judgment and decide who I think is “in” and who I think is “out”
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When they heard this, all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage
(Luke 4:28)
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The Kingdom of God is something much more vast and expansive than I make it sometimes, Lord help me to see people as you see them, and to desire the Kingdom of God to come for all, not just for those I want it for.
Lord have mercy on me, a sinner and a hypocrite.
Sam (anglinsam)
Sixty-six books in a year 