I Have Come

I HAVE COME

a prayer to open

Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

May your Kingdom come, may your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon me,

for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,

that the blind will see,

that the oppressed will be set free,

and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.”

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

When asked why Jesus came to the world, Christians usually answer with something like “To save me from my sins.” Of course, it is true that Jesus did and does this. But the gospel is so much bigger and broader and deeper! Jesus came to bring good news to the poor: that God’s favor had come, that the Kingdom of God had arrived, and that, as a result, captives would be released, the blind would see, and the oppressed would be set free. God had intervened! The course of human history had changed. Jesus is Lord and King, reigning over all things. Not only that, but he invites us, the church, to participate in his Kingdom now, doing the very things for others that he did when he walked the earth. In other words, we have been saved from our sins and are being transformed from the inside out for the sake of others so they might know that Jesus is Lord and be saved, healed, freed, and made whole.

• What emotions are evoked when you hear the words of Jesus reflected in Luke’s Gospel?
• How has your understanding of Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth as a human changed over time? What accounts for the changes you see?
• Take a few minutes to reflect on the robustness of the gospel you currently share or believe. Where do you need God to expand your understanding? How is he calling you to participate in his Kingdom?

Father, forgive me for the ways I have reduced your Good News to an individual salvation plan. I am so thankful to be saved and in relationship with you, but you are doing so much more! Open my eyes to the ways you are redeeming and healing the whole world, pursuing every person, engaging every heart, and building a people—the church—to carry the Good News of Jesus’ reign and your Kingdom. Let me be an agent of healing, freedom, and justice here and now. Let me live for the sake of others. Amen.