WOMAN WITH BIBLICAL HEADDRESSADDRESSES THE AUDIENCE Do you ever feel like you’re headed for a cliff? People, pressures, predicaments pushing you toward that cliff? You feel helpless, you feel hopeless. Everything is pushing you closer and closer to that cliff.
I know the feeling. So much pressure from the Romans. Life was so frightening at times. And then I was astounded when Jesus came back to our little town of Nazareth. I remembered growing up with Jesus. He was different, he was special. And so wise. And then he goes to the front of the synagogue and reads from the scroll of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19. NIV I’ve always loved that Scripture, that hope,that promise. Oh, for freedom. Oh, come Messiah come. And then Jesus made my jaw drop when he said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:21b NIV SAYS SLOWLY Fulfilled in our hearing? But isn’t this Mary and Joseph’s son? My old neighbor is the Messiah?
The words that come from Jesus’ lips enrapture me but enrage the crowd. Jesus tells them how a prophet is not honored in his own hometown. He reminds us of how there were many widows in Israel, but Elijah was sent to a widow in Zarephath instead. And many with leprosy in the time of Elisha, but none of them were cleansed, only Naaman the Syrian.
I watched the enraged crowd drive Jesus out of town, taking him to throw him off the cliff outside of town.
I couldn’t watch. I couldn’t keep up with the crowd, and wouldn’t have wanted to. I couldn’t watch my dreams be thrown off the cliff. I should have known better. A Messiah come from Nazareth? How absurd.
I wait and weep, my hopes and heart broken, dashed at the bottom of the cliff.
Or so I thought. A few minutes later, I see the dejected, puzzled crowd come back and hear the amazing news. When they tried to throw Jesus off the cliff, he just passed through the crowd and went on his way.
So when you feel like you are being pushed toward a cliff, reach out to Jesus. The master of the impossible.