Devotion for January 18, 2022

Luke 4:14-21
Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to 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 bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Centuries of scholars have parsed the words of the Bible to best understand Jesus and what it was he stood for. They have tried to answer questions of his humanity, his divinity, his ministry and separate out the theological Jesus and the historical Jesus.

It was probably this moment that those conversations began. Jesus tells the people who he is by reading from the prophets, rolls the scroll up and sits down. Perhaps the first Messianic mic drop moment. Even as we continue to wrestle with who he was, Jesus showed us a better way, bring good news to the poor, seek justice, provide to others what they may not have, offer mercy, and bring hope.