Our blog is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Emphasis mine Mark 6:1-6
Mark and Matthew have about the same wording. Jesus couldn’t heal because of their lack of faith.
Luke expands this further by having Jesus read from the Torah and Jesus proclaiming;
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
And He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all the people in the synagogue were intently directed at Him. Now He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all the people were speaking well of Him, and admiring the gracious words which were coming from His lips; and yet they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! All the miracles that we heard were done in Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” But He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a severe famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many with leprosy in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and brought Him to the crest of the hill on which their city had been built, so that they could throw Him down from the cliff. But He passed through their midst and went on His way.
Luke 4:16-30
I enjoy linking the Gospels together, something I had never done before writing our blog.
If we only had St. Mark and Matthew, we wouldn’t see the citizens of Nazareth and the problem they had with Jesus proclaiming that He was the Messiah.
The Chosen had this in the third year’s fourth episode.
When you read the Bible, it’s hard to imagine two thousand years later, with full knowledge that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, the problem the Jews had in coming to believe this to be true.
Jesus had performed miracles and mighty deeds before he came to Nazareth, and the local citizens had heard of these and were expecting Jesus to do the same for them.
But,
For Jesus to perform miracles and mighty deeds, they had to believe Jesus could.
I included both readings because St. Mark doesn’t tell us any more than Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith.
No,
They were so enraged at who Jesus was claiming to be that they would throw Jesus off a cliff.
Throwing Jesus off the cliff set my mind in motion. I had never fully appreciated, until I watched The Chosen, how much Jesus was attacked.
Last week we noted that in Chapter three of St. Mark’s Gospel, the Pharisees and Herodians were plotting to kill Jesus.
The week before, we talked about Mary and Jesus’ brothers & sisters coming to bring Jesus home because they felt he had gone off the tracks.
In today’s blog, the people in Nazareth were so enraged they wanted to throw Jesus off the cliff.
Why?
Jesus came to establish a new world, “The Spirit World,” and as we have mentioned, a war is being fought. The Jews were happy with the status quo and didn’t want the apple cart upset.
If you think about it, isn’t this true as much today as it was two thousand years ago in Nazareth?
Today many have the same problem as the Nazarians, they feel content with where they are in life, and Jesus presents a challenge to them.
That challenge is to “Follow me, and leave the “world” behind.”
And yet book after book that I have read presents just the opposite. Those who accept the challenge find their lives changed for the better.
Having Faith sets up a lifestyle that lets you grow into a genuine eternal relationship with a God who wanted you, created you, and will sustain you, now and forever.
Healings and miracles we have reported are happening now, so that’s the same as in the time of Jesus. I pray our reports of healings and miracles will encourage you to grow in your faith and discover “The Spirit World.”
If you want to join Team Jesus, learn “The nine” and grow in the Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit by growing in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
Then Peter came up and said to Him, “Lord, how many times shall my brother sin against me and I still forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy-seven times.
Matthew 18: 21-22
As I was thinking about God’s willingness to forgive, the above reading came to mind, Holy Spirit.
The question raised in my mind was, why do I have to forgive?
Forgiving someone is a question that comes up in the jail. The answer is simple. You forgive others so God will forgive you.
God is a mirror of you. If you forgive, God forgives.
Easy!
I was mad at a few people, actually mad in most cases is not strong enough, and once I realized my sin, I had to ask the people I was angry at to forgive me for my anger, and an unexpected thing happened.
One, they didn’t know I was mad at them. They were all surprised when I asked them to forgive me.
Not appreciating my anger made me slightly madder for a brief moment. I had expended all that energy, and the person I was mad at didn’t appreciate it.
Go figure!
Second, it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. That weight being satan. I hadn’t realized how I was limiting my growth in Love, Joy, and Peace until I set myself straight with people I had been mad at.
Now, whenever I feel the start of anger, I tell satan to “Get behind me” and fight my way back into the Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit.
Just as we discussed at the beginning of our blog, Jesus fought satan ALL of His life; we should expect no less.
Men in the jail have asked me, “How do I forgive someone who has died?”
Easy,
First, forgive them and mean it; next, pray they are with Jesus in Heaven, and repeat that prayer daily.
We should Celebrate that we are in the fight and place our trust in God!
Ryan sent this, and I had to pass it along:
satan saw me with my head down and thought he had won until I said AMEN.
Picture:
I took the bee shot as I was hiking one day. Picture by Jerry Torres.
There it is, the humble Bombus Terrestris, plainly flying around us throughout the summer, and those crazy know-all scientists with their noses in their test tubes say it cannot possibly fly. The Bumble Bee flying is just another reason I love God.
I included the above because it shows the Joy God gets in confounding man and his scientific theories.
Please keep Snapping!
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, no people, please, because we have to get permission from that person to use their photograph; in the comments section at the bottom of our blog, tell me you want to submit a picture, and I will send you my email address in our reply on Thursday.
