Anchor My Faith

Jesus Claims to be the One

Scripture: Luke 4:20-22

In Luke 4:17 a scroll was handed to Jesus and he unrolls it to a prophecy about himself. We covered that prophecy in our previous lesson and are now ready to see what happens next. “[Jesus] rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him” (Luke 4:20 ESV).

In your mind’s eye you can almost see Jesus carefully rolling up the scroll and handing it to the attendant and then goes to sit down to teach. Was there something special about the composure of Jesus as he read and handled himself that drew a closer attention on the part of the people? Based on his choice of what he read and what they already heard about Jesus, were they possibly expecting him to say something special that caused their special attention to him? The expression, “the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him,” was an attention getting means of focusing the reader on what Jesus was about to say. What did he say?

“And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21 ESV). There were five things listed in the Scripture he read that he was going to fulfill during his ministry on earth. Think about the impact of this statement on the people setting there. Earlier, Jesus left them as the son of a carpenter and now he returns claiming to be the Christ, their Messiah, and speaks words that seem to conflict with who they know him to be. He grew up among them, so how can he claim to be the one spoken of in that prophecy he read?

“And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.” (Luke 4:22 ESV). In our harmonization narrative, only the first sentence of verse 22 is used with the second sentence being expanded upon with information from Mark and Matthew. The first sentence has its focus on what Jesus read, which impressed the people for they “spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.” Their focus was on the message which was uplifting, but then they began to think of Jesus who claimed to be the one spoken of in the scripture he read, who grew up among them and they began to have doubts. Who the prophecy spoke of and who was speaking did not seem to be the same person in their thinking.

What was their thinking? What was causing them distress? We will address this in our next lesson.

Prayer

Father, how often we may read something in Scripture and wonder how is that possible, or why should we obey that? It seems that our sinful natures find some way to justify our stand against what we read. Often times we may not read so that we don’t have to deal with that which makes us uncomfortable. Father, these people were becoming uncomfortable, and their sinful natures will begin to show its influence over their behavior. Help us to be aware of this in our lives.