Luke 4:22-30 (The Message)
22 All who were there, watching
and listening, were surprised at how well he (Jesus) spoke. But they also said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son,
the one we’ve known since he was a youngster?”
23-27 He answered, “I suppose
you’re going to quote the proverb, ‘Doctor, go heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we heard you
did in Capernaum.’ Well, let me tell you
something: No prophet is ever welcomed
in his hometown. Isn’t it a fact that
there were many widows in Israel at the time of Elijah during that three and a
half years of drought when famine devastated the land, but the only widow to
whom Elijah was sent was in Sarepta in Sidon?
And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elisha
but the only one cleansed was Naaman the Syrian.”
28-30 That set everyone in the
meeting place seething with anger. They
threw him out, banishing him from the village, then took him to a mountain
cliff at the edge of the village to throw him to his doom, but he gave them the
slip and was on his way.
This is Jesus' first trip home following
his baptism and 40 days in the wilderness.
It is the beginning of his ministry.
He is announcing who he is and why he has come. And he is going it in his home synagogue.
Jesus should have stopped before
he hot himself thrown out of town. But
he didn’t. He went on to say what they
didn’t want to hear. That God used
outsiders – Sarepta and Naaman – to do what the insiders wouldn’t do. For with God there are no outsiders! Jesus began his ministry with this clear
message, and we still find it hard to swallow.
“Jesus was a reject who
rejected rejection”
Virgilio
Eliizando
Prayer thought for the
week: “Lord, help me remember that you
do not reject those I reject. Your love
is beyond my understanding or control!”
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