¹⁴ Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. ¹⁵ He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

¹⁶ When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. ¹⁷ The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
    that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
¹⁹     and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

²⁰ He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. ²¹ Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

²² Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

²³ Then he said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ ²⁴ But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.

²⁵ “Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. ²⁶ Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. ²⁷ And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”

²⁸ When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. ²⁹ Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, ³⁰ but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.

Luke 4:15-30

Dear God, I can’t believe I never saw the racial insecurity in this story before someone pointed it out to me a few years ago. The people in Nazareth weren’t upset after Jesus proclaimed he was the Messiah. They were in wonder. No, when they got mad was when he said that there is a role in your Kingdom for Gentiles too. That there were times in history (Elijah and the widow and Elisha and Naaman, the Syrian who had conquered Israelites and taken a Jewish girl as a slave) when you mysteriously showed your favor on a Gentile over an Israelite. That he was there everyone. “When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced im to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff…” Wow, he really hit a nerve!

It seems like the theme of my prayers lately have been about the humility I am supposed to represent as your child and ambassador. I’m not supposed to look for more power. I’m supposed to look for more opportunities to love–whether the person is a Christian (or even my TYPE of Christian) or not. In this case, there is a mob mentality that happens. And of these people on their own might have responded to Jesus differently. But together…well, I’m sure that each and ever one of them regrets what they did that day. They tried to kill your Messiah after he said just a few words that they felt insulted them as a collective.

Father, it feels like the tribes that are out there–in America right now that pretty much means conservative or liberal–are trying to get me to join their anger and their fury. I was watching Ted Lasso season 4 episode 4 the other day, and one of the new characters says, “So never underestimate the power of anger as fuel.” It feels like that is the temptation all of the click-bait monsters are trying to offer us right now. But our anger turns into their fuel. And it begats only more anger. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Oh, Holy Spirit, help me to identify when someone is trying to falsely draw me into their anger and when there is something happening that should legitimately make me angry. And then, when the anger is the right thing to feel, guide me in how I respond to it. Let it be in love and compassion. Let it be sacrificial. You gave me four tools to use to impact my world: Prayer, Service, Persuasion, and Suffering. Help me to limit myself to those four tools.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen