Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, January 17, 2021
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: If we limit ourselves to seeing only what we expect to see, we fail to see the unexpected.
Jesus had been healing and teaching in Capernaum and word about him had spread. Israel was ripe for a savior. Oppression by Rome had taken a toll. They knew from their history that one day God would deliver them from their oppression, as God had done many times before. They were waiting for someone who would bring God’s wrath to Rome and return Jerusalem to the people of Israel.
By the time Jesus returned home, people were anticipating something wonderful. They were willing to receive the gifts they’d heard rumored he could bring—healing and miracles. But Jesus knew better. They would not be able to receive the gifts even if offered because they couldn’t see past the child they knew. They were expecting a savior, but all they saw was Jesus—the Jesus they remembered as a boy. He was only a carpenter’s son, certainly not trained to teach and preach about the Lord! He was definitely not the one who would deliver them from oppression.
And his words were bitter to them. They were open to a savior—an activist (or at least a prophet) who would restore Israel to her former autonomy. They were not prepared for the words he brought. He had come to be savior of all people—Gentiles, widows, lepers, all the marginalized. These words infuriated them. It was blasphemy to their hardened ears. He was a heretic in their hardened eyes.
The sad thing is that because they remained closed to his radical words of acceptance and his harsh criticism of their closedness, they were unable to receive the gifts he brought. These were not the gifts of healing and miracles they wanted. Jesus brought words with the power to topple kingdoms and soften hardened hearts. But these words would not soften theirs. Not today.
Encourage your congregation to wrestle with their own closedness. Challenge them to receive the words of people who disagree with them, and to struggle with their own certainties. Remind them that if they remain closed to receiving the radical message of God’s love and tolerance of those different from them, they risk missing what Jesus brings. They miss the unexpected.
