June 16

Luke 4:22-30 (Click to see scripture)

Bible in One Year Passages:

Journal Entry

Scripture

And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.And they said, “Is not this Joseph's son?” (Luke 4:22)
And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.(Luke 4:24)
When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.(Luke 4:28-30)

Observation

What we see here in this passage is how grace is freely given, but it is not freely accepted. While some marveled and wondered at Jesus, the proud and self righteous, were angry to the point that they wanted to throw him down the cliff. The fact that they were waiting for a King for so many years to come to their rescue had created in them many presumptions that so often blind our image of Jesus. The proud just could not accept that Jesus was simple "Joseph's son". They turned away from Jesus message of grace and made it a way to express their own ideals and the corruption in their hearts.

Application

In our daily walk with the Lord we need to constantly examine our hearts to see if there is any trace of our own presumptions and any hint of pride or self righteousness as we seek to know Him more. Daily we need to have a posture of humbleness to be able to receive His grace in our lives. For those of us, who have been going to church for so many years, it is easy for us to fall trap of the mindset of " I've seen and/or heard it before" and loose the awe of His grace in our lives. I want to end with the following question: To what extent are our views of Jesus "filtered" to "match our presumptions" about him? To what extent do we feel we know Jesus already, that his words and deeds are so familiar to us that Jesus himself loses his capacity to surprise and instruct us?

Prayer

Dear Jesus, come into our hearts and examine our thoughts, and see if there is anything that hinder us from knowing you as You would want us to see you. Help us to stay humble before You, so that we can also experience daily the amazing grace that is so freely given to us. Help us to realize that thought that grace is free to us, there was a price that had to be paid so we could be set free. Thank You Jesus, for understanding our shortcomings and still loving us unconditionally. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen!

--CKP