Ok, Ok,... I Get It

Luke 4:14-21

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.

The synagogue is the place that Jesus comes to and reads aloud of the words of the prophets to feed the hungry and heal the sick. It is within those walls that he hears, reads, and is instructed.  It is there that he is told that he is called to reach out to those in need.

This passage is a clear message to us that the church is important and has an important role to play in casting vision and setting forward people to heal a hurting world and transform lives.  In this passage Jesus came to the synagogue to get his marching orders. 

When someone asks me what 'church' is, or what 'church' means, I think of this passage. For me, personally, this is church. A place we go to hear the words, read the words, sing the words, in community with other believers. And this same place then calls us into love and action in the world.

So, the last week of the "This is Your Life, Jesus" series ends right here with Jesus in the synagogue.  This place (the synagogue) is the last 'character' to appear in his story of who set him forth in his path to ministry. Without his instruction and upbringing in the synagogue, he has little context for the ministry and the prophetic vision he is beginning to create.  He then, in this place, with all the community of believers around him, can say "Ok, ok.... I Get It, " and allow himself to become Jesus the healer, who would become Jesus the Christ.

 Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Why do you think the place we call our church is important? Who/What do you find important within its walls? 

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