If you have ever seen a military EOD team suit up and go in on an actual bomb to disengage it you were probably in the wrong place and Very Blessed to be there. ALL eyes are typically on the guy in the big green suit as he carefully and clumsily at times waddles up to the bomb to do what he is trained for and what most EOD people will tell you they were made for! In this passage all eyes were on a different sort of Bomb Technician and a different sort of bomb but one that is much more destructive to human life and spiritual life than and every conceived!
“Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” – Luke 4:20-21
“Never take a knife to a gun fight” – Sean Connery in the movie The Untouchables. Never let it be said that Jesus was shy about His mission! After the words He just stated All eyes “in the synagogue were fastened on him” and for a Very good reason!
In case you missed the earlier study Jesus has just announced that YOU are His mission and He came to set YOU FREE! If you would like to check it out read “The Bomb” its Jesus telling the congregation at the synagogue that Sabbath that He Is the fulfillment of scripture to a hurting, lost and oppressed people – namely Everyone!
So Jesus just having set off this bomb tells everyone that He is the one that will accomplish this – Jesus didn’t rock the boat of complacency and religiosity – He sank it! He burned out the idea that by coming in and sitting in some building and listening to some blah, blah and by giving money for listening to the blah, blah and from time to time throw in a little change to the poor people – well God would just think you were the greatest thing since sliced bread and be begging you to come to Heaven!
The reason most Americans never find Christ is that they don’t need Him – or so they think because they have too much already and they are comfortably complacent in what they believe. The reason so many hurting struggle to find Christ is that they don’t see how the struggle IS the sign that He Radically Loves them and wants to show them that!
What Jesus did in the passage above was to tell this synagogue – business as usual is OVER! The least of these, the downtrodden, abused, suffering and brow beaten Ugly least of these – are the ones that He has come for because the pretty, beautiful, well off people cant see the forest for the trees – they cant see the need they have because they are comfortably complacent in the seat they have, the achievement they have made, the wealth and security they have worked hard for and oh yes of course “God is good” because “we all know He gave me all this and as long as I keep serving Him by “doing” all these things – its All good” – try telling Job that!
My greatest hope and prayer for America, my friends and everyone that I know is that they will come to the “saving knowledge” of The LOVE and FREEDOM found Only in Christ “by whatever means necessary” and that God would allow me to be here for them when they thud! The thud by the way is the sound of them hitting the bottom only to look up, beside them and within themselves and find Christ there!
To let God Be God and let Him out of the shoebox may very well be the most painful experience of your life – but Very well worth it I assure you!
