He Began to Speak to Them

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

Daily Thoughts 

February 10, 2025

Then he began to speak to them.

“The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

Luke 4:21

Read: Luke 4:16-22

I remembered the old church expression, “You’ve gone from preaching to meddling” after reading today’s passage. As the great preacher Fred Craddock noted, there are two kinds of preaching people won’t listen to: bad preaching and good preaching. Bad preaching wasn’t the issue in Nazareth.

History reveals that the Jewish people were longing for God to rescue Israel from the oppression of their enemies. Jesus announced he is the Messiah, the One whom God has sent to save Israel. What was so offensive about Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah? It’s all about control. Jesus was saying the Messiah was coming to proclaim God’s grace for all people, including the Romans, the enemy of Israel. The people very much wanted God’s grace, but just for Israel, not for other nations. The people wanted to control God’s agenda, to be the ones who determined which nations were redeemed and which were not.

The people in Nazareth wanted to be like God. That’s a familiar theme, not just for first century Jews. In our world today, we still suffer from the sin of wanting to control God’s agenda. The foundation of the Christian faith rests on two imperatives: “Love God with all that we are and love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.” Yet we struggle as much as the Nazarenes with wanting to determine who our neighbor is.

My Takeaway: 2 Takeaways today: 1- it is in the process of loving God and our neighbors, that we are transformed to become like Jesus. 2- In verse 21, Jesus demonstrated he clearly understood God’s mission, God’s purpose for his life: “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” 

As I am transformed to become like Jesus, I too understand God’s mission, God’s purpose for my life. So also you!

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.