Lent Day 9: The Hometowners

Pause

Spend a few moments meditating on and memorizing Psalm 103:11-12. Thank God for the grace He has shown to you in Jesus, who made it possible for your sins to be removed as far as the east is from the west.

Read & Journal

Read Luke 4:16-30. Process what you’ve read by asking these questions:

• What does this interaction with the Jewish people in His hometown reveal about Jesus’ character? About His purpose and mission?

• How do you see Jesus entering into human brokenness in this passage?

• The people gathered in the Nazareth synagogue would have recognized the passage Jesus read as being written by the prophet Isaiah and knew it referred to the Messiah, yet Jesus boldly claimed it referred to Him. How have you responded to Jesus’ claims that He is the Messiah?

• How has He brought good news and freedom into your life? How has He opened your eyes and freed you from oppression? Be specific.

Ponder

Jesus stood before the people who had watched Him grow up—“Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked in verse 22—and announced Himself as the Messiah. It was a bold claim, and most of them weren’t ready to accept it, since Jesus didn’t fit their idea of the Messiah.

We, too, can often put Jesus in a box and anticipate Him to work in the ways that we expect. Yes, we understand that He is our good news, the One who opens our eyes and sets us free from the oppression of sin, but we get frustrated and sometimes angry when He doesn’t do that in the ways we expect. When He doesn’t answer the prayer the way we wanted. When the test shows the cancer has grown rather than the miracle we wanted. When your dream is crushed, the job interview ends in a form letter—”We’re moving forward with other candidates”—or when a sweet season of life seemingly comes crashing to a halt.

The beautiful thing about Jesus is that He isn’t constrained by what we expect. He is more than we could ever ask or imagine. So in those moments when we don’t understand, we can trust that Jesus is at work, even if we don’t see it, because we know who He is. He is the Messiah, our good news, the One who opens our eyes and sets us free.

A Note from Mandy:

There are specific things I'm praying for right now where I am earnestly praying that God would act, that he would open hearts, heal wounds, bring wholeness. And in many of those circumstances, I can clearly see God at work, but in others it feels like I'm praying and waiting, praying and waiting on repeat.

The beautiful thing about Jesus is that we can't put him in a box or figure him out—and the difficult thing about Jesus is that we can't put him in a box or figure him out. It's easy to get tired and weary when we pray and pray, and God doesn't seem to be responding, or he responds differently that we desired.

My hope for all of us in those situations is to keep praying, to keep trusting, to keep entrusting the deepest burdens, dreams and desires of your heart to the One who loves you most. Will you always get the answer you want? Will God always solve the problem in the way you think is best? No. But you will be trusting the things you care about most to the One who loves you best, who created you, who knit you together, who knows the number of hairs on your head. Trust his character and rest in the peace he gives.