Here is the revelation shaping my life today – I strive for life, and I want a great life, but so often my striving is poor investments. Is the way already open to me?
Luke 4:16-21 NIV
[16] He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, [17] and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: [18] “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, [19] to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” [20] 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. [21] He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Observation
Jesus is rejected by many for various reasons. We don’t see our need, we don’t believe, we serve logical and imperial evidence and can’t reconcile the mystery of Jesus within this servitude. Or is it that religion has turned our stomachs and we cannot unravel their abuses from the person of Jesus? Despite the genius of Jesus and his shaping influence of our culture and world, we reject the greatest cultural and personal influencer in the history of mankind, and in doing so we miss what he offers us, and is it the very thing we are desperately searching for?
Good news, freedom, sight and favour, this is what Jesus comes to bring us collectively and individually. A better way, a better version of me, and a new world order. If we were to wipe away all that we know as to how things work and are designed and sought to create the perfect culture, and the world for all to live in – it would be a place where all thrive, all are equal, all are cared for, no one has too much that another must miss out, where love of others reigns and giving of self is the joy of life. This is the culture that Jesus came to bring the news about, to bring the sight and freedom for us to enter and to release its favour upon us. In other words, we want exactly what Jesus clearly proclaims that he came to give. It’s just we want it without him. But we miss the interconnectedness of the created order of this universe and we miss that it’s only in connectedness does this favour, freedom, and sight flow.
Humanity is innately spiritual, science is proving that our brains are only healthy when we are spiritually alive. For we will never break from our investment in capitalism, consumerism, and self before others, through logical data analysis, we will never forgive those who hurt us, turn our cheeks, or love our enemies, through logical analysis response. It is only through a supernaturally received awareness in the spiritual part of our brains that this new thinking will interrupt logic with truth that defies reason and shape us. Only through connectedness to the person of higher power do the ways of God make sense and I am empowered to embrace them. We will only receive sight, freedom, and favour through personal intimate experience, not logical intelligent analysis and application, otherwise, we would already live in the beauty and favour of heaven.
Application
“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Could it be that we are dying of thirst when the water of life is available and flowing free for all? Could the humanity and world we all crave to be part of be present right under our noses? I will walk connected to the one who offers good news, sight, freedom and favour. I will carry my questions and doubts but not allow them to be the why of disconnection, but rather a further reason for connection as I stay on the search, the journey, for this life. I will be aware of how I serve the ‘isms’ of my day and seek sight and freedom so that the favour of heaven may flow upon me and through me.
Response
Thank you that you offer, don’t force, an amazing way of life and being. You lay down manipulation in all forms and arouse me exclusively to you and your ways by beauty and love, through intimate connection. The offer of good news, freedom, sight and favour is not made to the select few who understand, deserve or are worthy of its offering, it is available to all who would come and connect intimately with the one who makes the offer. This is an amazing life that is laid before me.
Meditation
Mediate – Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
Consider:
Why do you reject Jesus? What keeps you at arms distance or outright rejection?
Is your rhythm of connectedness enabling you to see the beauty of his freedom and favour released in your life?
JOURNEY DEEPER