Day 17: Which Jesus- Indeed! (Luke 4:14-21)
Today’s Passage: Luke 4:14-21
Stunning really, this scene. If you were to ask the average man or woman on the street what they knew about Jesus, you would get all manner of answers. I expect you would hear “A great teacher,” or “A man of peace,” or even “Someone who loved others.” Would you hear “confident, perhaps even over-confident”?
I doubt we would hear about him as someone who was assertive. Yet, consider again what Luke has presented. Once we get past all that led up to Jesus’ birth, and a few segments of his childhood, we are left (so far) with three scenes: Jesus contending with Satan and winning, and Jesus going about the country teaching so well that he is glorified—and the “cherry on top” for this itinerant teacher is that when he gets to his home town, he makes a stunning announcement. He is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.
Pause and reflect on what you have read. Jesus, meek and mild carrying a lamb in his arms (with flowing hair), is not the man we have read about.
Jesus has such an inner strength inside of himself, that he is not looking to this world for affirmation. His self-worth comes from someplace, someone, else—and it frees him to be on mission. If Jesus had a Facebook page, I doubt he would be checking it hourly to see if someone new “liked” him.