Luke 4:22-44

Very Like Us.

Yesterday I pondered what a marvelous moment it was to hear Jesus read from Isaiah and declare, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Those who were present seemed to think so as well. At least, that was the case for a few moments. Then things turned dicey.

Ultimately, they took Jesus out to a cliff on the edge of town to throw Him off and kill Him. Why? What caused the 180 change in attitude? What caused such a violent reaction?

Are you ready for this? Jesus suggested that sometimes God cares about other people. Foreigners. Outsiders. In fact, He even implied that sometimes such people are more favored, perhaps more worthy, than...than...us!

We seem to have a problem with the notion that “others” might get it right more than “us.” Furthermore, this notion of “others” can result in quite a fierce reaction. It did in the first century and it does in our day as well.

This passage starts with people being upset because Jesus held up a couple of “others” as examples where they were closer to God than “us.” It ends with people being upset because Jesus was leaving them to go to others.

Here is the deal. God is always “other” centered. The devil is self centered. This is true 100% of the time. The only way we can escape the error the people of Nazareth made is to move toward God’s viewpoint and become “other” centered in our thinking.