Reading: Luke 4:23-44

One thing that impressed me this morning in this passage is several of the responses to Jesus and His teaching. I’ve selected three to mention.

“No prophet is accepted in his own country” (24).

How nice it would have been had they accepted Him as their “favorite son.” But they didn’t — because He was of them and well-known to them.

Having grown up with Jesus, perhaps there is the danger that He is somehow too familiar to me to impress me as I ought to be impressed. I hope not!

As an aside here, it occurs to me that there’s a man in our church whose acceptance in my eyes has been diminishing because I know him as well as I do. That needs to change!

“And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath” (28).

They didn’t like His message and were so overcome with anger at Him that they set out (unsuccessfully) to kill Him.

I don’t think I’ve ever responded to Jesus that way. Or have I? Such as when I don’t like what one of His human mouthpieces has to say?

“And the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed with him, that he should not depart from them” (42).

These people even looked Him up in the desert and then didn’t want Him to leave them again.

That’s how I want to be. I don’t want Him to leave me. But will I put forth the effort to look Him up?

from Luke 4:40

A little bit more from Luke 4: Still True Today

Reading: Luke 4:1-22

For physical life, I need to eat.

So I eat. Not a bite and a bit here and there. Oh no! I eat lots and lots, sometimes with almost reckless abandon (which is far from good).

That’s the way it works. That’s what God said. By eating we live.

But living takes more than bread, because living is more than that which we do with our bodies.

“And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (4).

So for spiritual life, we need to take in God’s Word.

Not a bit here and there. Oh no! Lots and lots, for by His Word we live.

God’s Word in me shows me how to live. And gives me the power to live.

But it must be in me.

And I must depend on it. And apply it — to me.

So when I struggle with a decision or battle against a temptation or fight against wrong feelings, I must find in the Word the power to live.

from Luke 4:8

A little bit more from Luke 4: God’s Spirit at Work