Archives for January 2022

And all spoke highly of Jesus and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.  They also asked, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury.  They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.  (Lk 4:22 & Lk 4:28-30) What happened here?  These are two different parts of the 4th chapter of Luke’s Gospel separated by only 5 verses.  In the first section, the people are rapt by the beautiful words of Jesus, and in the second they are so angered as to want to kill Him.  What provoked that?  What caused their attitude to change?  Actually, it was a strong statement of Jesus about what had happened with prophets that … [Read more...]

He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”  (Lk. 4:16-19) Imagine being present in the synagogue when this dramatic scene took place.  All the eyes are on Jesus, and He reads this dramatic reading from Isaiah 61, and then succinctly explains that the passage refers to Him.  There are three important Greek words in this passage … [Read more...]

After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." (Lk 3:21-22) This weekend we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. For centuries, Christians have celebrated the season of Christmas as twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany.  The season ends with our celebration of the Lord's Baptism. The public life of Jesus begins with his baptism by John in the Jordan.  John hesitates, but Jesus insists. Then the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes upon Jesus and a voice from heaven proclaims, “This is my beloved Son.”  Similarly to the visitation of the magi, this is an “epiphany” – a … [Read more...]

“And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.  They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother.  They prostrated themselves and did him homage.” (Mt. 2:9-11) Why were the “wise men” wise? Were they wise because they knew the movements of the stars in the sky?  Perhaps.  Were they wise because they understood the seasons of the year or the mysteries of nature?  Maybe.  Or were they wise because they knew how to navigate according to a star.  All of that might be true.  But the underlying truth is that they were wise because they were searching for God. Their desire for Him meant that they could detect his coming appearance on earth in the … [Read more...]