Luke 4:16-22

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “the spirit of the lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the lord.” And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” ^[1]

The first place Jesus goes, after coming through His ordeal in the wilderness and His subsequent encounter with the devil, is home. It was the place where he was known as the carpenter Joseph’s son. The people there would have known Him well, but they never truly knew Him. No doubt it was more than a little shocking, perhaps even disconcerting, when Jesus stood up and applied to Himself the words of the prophet Isaiah. Initially everyone marveled at how well He spoke but once they realized that was serious in His application they were suddenly filled with rage and led him out to a cliff to throw him off.

It strikes me how much like these residents so many believers are today. The citizens, some of whom were no doubt members of His family, were ready to receive Him as long as He was Joseph’s son. But the moment He demonstrated He was something more, they were suddenly offended to the point of rage and homicide. One cannot always go home or back to the place from where they have come once they have embraced their mission. There will always be people, some of them family, who will not be able to see you anything other than who they knew you to be. Some of us have childhood nicknames that family members will never let us forget no matter how many years have passed since we were known by them. But where God is leading us is far too important to allow the limitations of the past to pose obstacles. The residents in their rage drove Jesus, Joseph’s son, out to a cliff with the intent of throwing Him off, but Jesus passed through them and went on His way. Like Jesus we must maintain our focus on that to which we have been called even if that means walking away from those who want to hold us back.

Gracious Lord, we are not nearly as bold as You were. We confess to allowing the opinions of others stand in the way of fulfilling the mission You have committed to our care. Help us to care more about Your opinion about us than that of others. Help us to boldly pursue that mission trusting that You will lead us in the way that we should go. Give us what we need to adjust to the changes we experience as we transition from where we have come to where we are are called to be. We trust You to lead us in the way we should go. Amen.

^[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Lk 4:16–22.