Fill My Plans With Purpose
Luke 4 is one of those pivotal passages in scripture for me. It serves as a foundational part of what I think makes up the core values we should have as Christians. In the Gospel of Luke, it is also the very first sermon Jesus preaches. (Click the link to read it!)
And this first sermon of Jesus’ becomes more powerful when we consider where Jesus is as he preaches, and also where he came from.
Jesus isn’t just preaching to a group of people he barely knows. These people watched him grow up. That’s scary to do, especially if you have reason to believe that what you are about to say is going to ruffle feathers and cause conflict. No one wants to hurt the people they love. It took a lot of courage for Jesus to get up and start his ministry this way. To preach what he would continue to preach all across Gallilee, words of challenge and even rebuke, and start that journey among people who watched him play as a boy.
Have you ever had to take a friend you love aside and tell them a hard truth? One of the hardest conversations we ever have to have might be those that contront the people we love with a hard truth that is tough for them to hear, but also one they really need.
For instance, it takes a mountain of courage to acknowledge you have an addiction. But it also takes that much courage to confront someone you love about their addiction as well. Its so much easier to just let things be, isn’t it? So easy, in fact, that there is a whole dimension of addiction recovery that addresses “co-dependency” or all of the behaviors that abide with, and even possibly aid someone in continuing their addiction because the spouse, or friend, or life partner is struggling, for a number of reasons, to confront the same addiction in their loved one that the addicted person also struggles to recognize.
Jesus must have had a strong sense of purpose to have the courage he did. And knowing where Jesus came from right before this part of Luke’s gospel now comes into play.
Jesus didn’t just walk in from the street. Jesus had just come from a long trial in the wilderness of fasting and confronting the hardest temptations from the Accuser, Satan, himself. Jesus gained clarity of purpose through his hard journey.
Just like someone dealing with co-dependency gains clarity of purpose when there is no bottom left to fall out in the midst of their loved one’s addiction, Jesus’ fight against temptation and his long time in solitude in the wilderness honed his sense of what he must do next.
It would be nice if following Jesus could be simple and easy. I think many successful churches in our country today have figured out a way to manufacture that kind of story. But I believe that it is the hardships, the way we as Christians shouldn’t have the luxury of looking away from suffering or staying silent when spiritual forces of wickedness are at work in the world, that give us our purpose and remind us constantly why we are people of faith. And that purpose gives us clarity; it unstoppers our hearts and minds to receive the call God is placing on our lives.
The next four years is going to be a trial for many of our neighbors, and it will be a trial for us who bear witness to their suffering and oppression. And just like Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, I can sense the Accuser’s tempting even now to look away, or look down, or look anywhere else but straight into the soul of evil that is growing in might in our country.
Don’t look away. Have courage. And speak directly the challenging words to the challenging audiences God places in your lives, just like Jesus did to those who watched him become the man he is today in Nazareth.
