Savoring the Word 02 - Luke 4:16-30 - Today
As I read through the passage for this week each day, one word just kept sticking out to me.
Today.
There's obviously so much in the passage about what Jesus did, what he said, the response of the crowd, but that one word just kept coming back to me each time.
Today.
After Jesus gets finished reading from the scroll of Isaiah, he says, "Today, this has been fulfilled in your hearing." Honestly, it feels a little bit like a mic drop, but I don't think that was the sense. I think it was simply an honest statement from Jesus - here I am and will be fulfilling all that was said by the prophet...
“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.”
So this week, as I kept coming back to that word - Today - I've tried to focus on the present day and what God is doing right here and right now. Not living in the past of what God has done or looking ahead to what I hope God might do in the future but staying in the present moment and celebrating what God is doing today.
So, I've been able to celebrate the way that God has moved in the lives of people, I celebrate the conversations I have had today with dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I was blessed by the heart and faith of one of our church's volunteers, I have seen the beauty of creation around me, found the comfort of God after a few difficult situations, and many more things.
Where are you seeing God today?
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.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.