In the back of my thoughts, as I was reading this morning, is Luke’s emphasis on Jesus as the prototypical Spirit-empowered man. I believe I have mentioned already that Luke, more than any other gospel writer, emphases that Jesus operates in the power of the Holy Spirit (which is the same Spirit God will give to the church in Acts, Luke’s second volume). With this in my thoughts, two comments about Jesus’ life jumped out as me as I read. It was as if they were highlighted in yellow as I read.
The first is verse 16, But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Jesus needed and made connection time with His heavenly Father. Jesus’ life was incredibly busy. Like a rock star or celebrity of today, Jesus was hounded by paparazzi, people pushing to get near him. They didn’t want a photo. They wanted to be healed or if they were skeptical of Him, like the teachers of the law, they wanted to catch Him in a compromising situation or giving a compromising quote. The gospels picture Jesus as one who had scant time to Himself. So, apparently Jesus made time to be alone with the Father in prayer. He would disappear, other verses suggest this was sometimes (often?) at night, when others slept. Whenever it was, Jesus pulled away from the crowds and even His disciples to pray.
This speaks to me. If Jesus is the prototype spirit-empowered man and He needed to recharge His life by spending alone time with the Father, then I (we) would be wise to learn that life-trait, too, if we want to be His disciple and want to live Spirit-empowered lives.
‘Act on this’, nudges the Holy Spirit…
The second sentence, that seemed to be highlighted, comes at the end of the next verse which reads, One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick (17). The inference of this almost incidental sentence is that the power to heal was not always with Jesus and Jesus knew the difference.
The fact that these two verses are side by side causes me to think that they are related. Since Jesus maintained a close relationship with the Father, it was through His communion with the Father that Jesus knew who and when and even how to heal. Admittedly, this moves beyond the actual wording of the text but it seems a reasonable deduction from the text.
Again, the Spirit nudges, ‘Stay connected with the Father and keep your Spirit-ears open for the direction of the Father. When you do this, you will be living the Spirit-empowered life.’
O, God, thank You for the Holy Bible, Your word. Thank You that You continue to speak through it today and that You will speak through it every day until Jesus returns and we live directly in Your presence. Continue to shape my life as I spend this time with You each day. And, Lord, help me to be attentive to You throughout the day, listening for Your voice, Your direction and Your leading so that I might be available to You in order to bring Your kingdom light to anyone You want. I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment