MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/14/2026
9:21 AM
My
Worship Time
Focus: PT-1 “The Reaction”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke 4:22-30
Message of the verses: “22 And all the people were speaking
well of Him, and admiring the gracious words which were coming from
His lips; and yet they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s
son?” 23 And He said to them, “No doubt you
will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! All the
miracles that we heard were done in Capernaum, do here
in Your hometown as well.’” 24 But He
said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his
hometown. 25 But I say to you in truth, there were many
widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three
years and six months, when a severe famine came over all the land; 26 and yet Elijah
was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in
the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And
there were many with leprosy in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and
none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the
Syrian.” 28 And all the people in the
synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; 29 and
they got up and drove Him out of the city, and brought Him to the crest
of the hill on which their city had been built, so that they could throw Him
down from the cliff. 30 But He passed through their
midst and went on His way.”
Now as we begin to look at these
verses we can see that the reaction of the people to Jesus’ message was
positive, as all were speaking well of Him.
They were especially wondering at the gracious words which were
falling from His libs. I don’t think
that these people in they synagogue had ever heard Jesus speak in public like
this before, and were very impressed in the way that He was speaking to them,
and this ability was also seen on the Sermon on the Mount seen in Matthew
7:28-29, and those who were sent to arrest Jesus at the end of His ministry as
seen in John 7:46. I will now quote these
verses that I have listed beginning with Matthew 7:28-29.
Matthew 7:28-29
“28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the
crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29
for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their
scribes.”
John 7:46
“46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke
like this man!’”
Shockingly the crowd will change
their mind very rapidly as they will want to kill Him, and even try but as is
written “He passed through their midst and went on His way.” The question is What went wrong? What changed their assessment of Jesus so radically?
MacArthur writes “Som, no doubt,
were wondering why Jesus stopped His reading of Isaiah 61:1-2 in the middle of
verse 2, omitting the reference to ‘the day of vengeance of our God.’ The
Jewish people expected that when Messiah came, He would take vengeance on their
enemies. John the Baptist had spoken of the unquenchable fire of Messiah’s
judgment (3:17), and even he became perplexed when Jesus showed no signs of
executing vengeance on the wicked (7:19-10).”
There is something else that others
could not reconcile, and that is the stunning power of Jesus’ oratory with the
reality that this was Joseph’s son. Familiarity
breeds contempt, and all experts are from out of town seems to be a familiar
saying. These people resented His claim
to be the Messiah, especially since according to popular belief Messiah would
be unknown until He suddenly appeared to redeem Israel (John 7:27).
(John 7:27)
“27 But we know where this man comes from, and
when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.’”
The
question that they had was how then could this man, whom they had known since
He was a child, possibly be the Messiah?
MacArthur then writes “But most of
all, the people resented Jesus’ assertion that salvation is available only to
those who acknowledge themselves to be the poor, prisoners, blind, and
oppressed. They were not about to accept
such labels, since they viewed themselves as righteous. After all, they kept the law (at least
outwardly); they honored the Sabbath, paid their tithes, observed the
ceremonies, and performed the rituals.
Besides, as the Jewish leaders proudly reminded Jesus, ‘We are Abraham’s
descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone’(John 8:33). Rather than acknowledge their spiritual
poverty, sinful bondage, blindness, oppression, and need of a Savior, they
questioned whether Jesus was really the Messiah. How could He be if He could not even
distinguish the righteous from the wicked?”
5/14/2026
10:02 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment