LUKE 4:28-30.

“All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.  They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.  But he walked right through the crowd, and went on his way.“

I see two things happening here that I want to share about.

First, I see that Jesus had an incredible ability to escape from a threatening situation.  The whole crowd was swarming around, and they had bad intentions in mind for Him.  They wanted to cause Him a great deal of pain.  They wanted to shut His ministry down.  They wanted to make an example of Him.  They wanted to take away His life.  Yet, with an angry mob pressing in, ready to make good on their ill motives, He passes through them all without suffering ANY harm at all!

Second, I notice how quickly the hearts of people can flip from being captured by Christ to driving Him out of our lives. If you read a little earlier in Luke 4, you catch how the crowd was initially amazed at His great teachings, hanging off of every word He spoke.  Verse 22 tells us that ‘they all spoke well of Him, and were amazed at the gracious words that came from His lips.’  There was a sense of awe and appeal.  It all changed though when His teachings began to target issues in their own lives, and their demeanor towards Him altered.  They wanted to throw Him off a cliff!

So, what does all this mean for us today?

Well, for those of us who are feeling swarmed by adversaries or confronted by dark circumstances, THERE IS HOPE.  Many years ago, Jesus demonstrated His capacity to escape from threatening and perilous situations, and I believe He is overwhelmingly able to rescue us out of similar moments today!  Sometimes, life can feel a lot like that menacing crowd in Nazareth… pressing in and threatening the things that matter most to us.  BUT – no dilemma is too big or dangerous for Jesus to make an escape out of!  When the Lord wants to ‘go on His way’, nothing can stop Him.

Looking at it from the other angle, I’m also impacted by the crowd flip-flopping on Jesus from awe-struck amazement to down-right denial of His ministry!  This massive switch was triggered when Jesus focused His teachings towards an area of their lives that needed correction.  Surely they must have felt the conviction of the Spirit, but they managed that opportunity for adjustment quite poorly.  Instead of receiving it with an openness to improve, they rejected it with hostility and disapproval.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen this play out in churches of our time and generation as well.  The encouraging sermons coming out of pastor’s pulpits that speak of hope, peace and blessings are the crowd favorites.  Yet, some of the harder messages that target a need for change and growth in our lives don’t get near as much of the fanfare.  We need BOTH types of messages in our lives, and we need to receive them with equal openness.

PRAYER

If this week’s devotional spoke to your life in some way, I encourage you to pray about it… even something like this:

God, help me to be reminded of your supernatural ability to deliver us from ANY situation the enemy means to harm us in.  When the pressure is mounting and the hope is bleeding, may we NEVER lose hope that you can come to our rescue, and lead us on our way.  AND, help us to be courageous enough to receive your word in our lives, especially in those moments it creates the opportunity for us to move forward in the things of God. In Jesus’ Name… AMEN.