Dwelling in Scripture: Luke 4:14-30 - a podcast by Christopher Stephens

This week I chose to dwell on Luke 4:14-30. I jumped into the section and was a bit thrown off by the word usage of Dr. Luke.

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I could not understand why he stated that Jesus was returning in the power of the Spirit. I like to get my pericopes tight but I had to jump to the previous one in order to put myself at ease. Jesus had just been tempted by the adversary and remained faithful! It would seem as though this interaction gave Him confidence. But as he does as he normally does and heads to synagogue. My imagination takes off in verse 16. I can see Jesus in the synagogue unrolling the scroll that has the writings of Isaiah smoothing it out gently but with intent. I see him looking down at the scroll with a pregnant pause and then reading with a confident yet gentle voice. As he completes the reading he rolls up the scroll with the same care, ignores the glares and whispers and sits down. Then he proclaims with an unmatched confidence "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.". The folks in attendance are astonished! Some wag their finger, others roll their eyes, but some believe. But as He continues to speak the mood changes. They seemed to miss God in Jesus because they were stuck on His humanity. Here Jesus was ready to give them a heavenly blessing and they missed it because they were concerned with what tied him to this earth. As I am dwelling on this text I am reminded that I need not be too attached to the things of this world. I do not want to miss God because I was too focused on a house, a retirement savings, or a church building. Jesus describes who Elijah was able to help and it was folks who were not “of the family”. It would seem to me that being blessed of God and living in those blessings can cause Christians to miss him in the future. I do not believe that is God’s intent or a faulty plan of God. I just believe that is the propensity of humanity to lose the purpose of blessings. They are not meant to be held onto but to continue to freely flow so that others can see how special God truly is. It seems they missed the creator because they were too consumed with His creation.

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