John 18: I Have Said Nothing in Secret

Today’s reading is John 18.

I want to be like Jesus. I know you do too. I want to be moral. I want to be faithful. I want to be loving and kind. I fall too short too often. However, I set before me the goal. And in Jesus’s trial I see a statement in His defense that sets the bar high.

Listen to what Jesus said when questioned “about his disciples and his teaching” (John 18:19).

I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in the synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.

John 18:20-21 (ESV)

Wow! Nothing in secret? Jesus had nothing to hide. He was on trial for His life and was not remotely scared of what anyone might reveal about anything He ever said. I hate to admit it, I’ve said things I hope never make their way onto a court stenographer’s legal pad. I’ve said and done things behind closed doors I hope never get publicized.

See this as one example of Jesus knowing how to live life in kingdom power. Look at the freedom provided Jesus by His honesty, sincerity, truthfulness, and love. Have you ever lied? Have you ever practiced a little subterfuge? Have you ever participated in a bit of gossip and slander? Hey, I know you aren’t an evil person. You only fudged on the facts because honesty, sincerity, and truthfulness were going to cost you something in that moment. You only shared the juicy tidbit about your friend because you were hurt or angry or needed an emotional payoff. Jesus, however, was always who He was. He always taught the same thing. He was always sincere. He was always honest. He had not a drop of hypocrisy. He always loved even those who were not present. And so, He didn’t fear the deepest investigation into His actions or words. Jesus was free to let the court bring every person He ever talked to in that court. I want to be like that.

Satan tempts me to think Jesus was just trying to rain on my parade when He told me to be honest, loyal, truthful, sincere, loving. I seem to be able to get ahead when I’m allowed to fudge the facts, play both sides, or seek my own interests above others. (I mean, what they don’t know won’t hurt them, right?) But that’s the thing, isn’t it? What if they find out? Jesus was helping us not simply with the moment, but with the long term. And when I conduct myself in ways I’m not willing for everyone to find out about, my freedom is diminished. To that degree, I’m a little enslaved. I live in fear that one guy will turn on me and talk to that other guy. I have to make sure to keep that one woman happy with me or she’ll tell that other woman. I have to hope the lawyers don’t come across that one group of “friends.”

Granted, people may lie about us as they did Jesus. Striving to be like Jesus in this is not done to avoid suffering or even crucifixion. We’ll trust God to deal with that just like Jesus did. It’s done…well…to be more like Jesus. I’m tired of the stress and anxiety of trying to get away with stuff on the sly. Oh sure, in the moment I get some pleasure and payoff out of it. But over the long haul, it is exhausting. Wouldn’t it just be easier, better, and in the long run happier if we could be like Jesus who could say, “I have said nothing in secret”? Granted, this will mean not saying everything that pops in my head. But that will probably make you happier as well as me.

Tomorrow’s reading is John 18.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does John 18 prompt or improve your praise of God?

John 8: Live Not By Lies

Today’s reading is John 8.

If we abide in Jesus’s Word, we will know the truth. Truth will set us free. In contrast, if we follow lies, our father is the devil. He has no truth in him. The only outcome we can find on his path is tyranny, enslavement, and death.

Please, understand. If Jesus is real and is who He claims to be, the devil is real. Not only is he real. He is active and influential. No, he won’t dance before you in red tights, waving a pitch fork, stinging you with his pointed tail. Rather, he will blend in with the world, presenting opportunities for you to please yourself instead of God. Doesn’t that sound nice? Doesn’t it sound fun? Haven’t you already fallen prey to that. How did it turn out for you? He will lean in to your desires (see James 1:14-15) and draw you down a wide path of least resistance al the way to deepest pits of Sheol.

The devil is lying to you. The problem is as he appeals to your eyes, your flesh, and your pride of life, part of you will want to listen. And the real kicker is he’s already convinced the world. As you look around, the world will lead you to believe the devil’s lies are the norm, making you a bit ashamed not to listen. Do not be fooled.

Only the truth of Jesus Christ will set you free. The devil promises community, power, validity, justice, honor, healing. But he only delivers death. The problem is he has so confused the world, you may think the people who love you are the ones encouraging you to do whatever you want. They aren’t. The ones who love you are pointing you to Jesus, calling you to account by Jesus’s truth, shining the light on your behavior. If your life is being led by lies, it will become obvious. Then you’ll have a choice to make. Will you hang out in the light having to confess your own personal darkness or will you slink back to the shadows.

Please, don’t live by lies. That way is only death. In fact, let me say it in the postmodern lingo. Don’t live by your truth. That way is only your death. Live by the truth. Live by Jesus.

Tomorrow’s reading is John 8.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does John 8 prompt or improve your hope in God?

Boasting in the Cross

Today’s reading is Galatians 6.

I admit Galatians 6:14 is a bit odd to me. In 1 Corinthians 1:31 and 2 Corinthians 10:17, he references Jeremiah 9:23-24 and says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” That, however, is not what Paul says in our reading. Paul doesn’t say he will never boast in anyone except Christ on the cross. He says, “May it never be that I should boast except in the cross of Christ.” The cross is his boast, not Christ.

Surely, this is because he is carrying on a theme he highlighted in Galatians 5:11. There he spoke of the offense or scandal of the cross. To the Jews, the cross itself was a scandal (see also 1 Corinthians 1:22-24). After all, anyone hung on a tree was cursed (see Galatians 3:13). In Galatians 6:12, Paul wasn’t being persecuted for Christ, but for the shame of the cross. That shame is what the Judaizing teachers who taught Gentile circumcision were trying to avoid. Remember, Judaizing teachers were not Jews trying to get Christians to quit being Christians and be Jews. They were Christians who taught you had to be a Jew to be a Christian. The Jews who refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah would persecute them for following a “cursed” Messiah. However, even those non-Christian Jews would stand down on the persecution if Jesus merely became a means to make people into Jews.

Paul, however, isn’t trying to avoid the scandal and persecution of the cross. He boasts in the cross. And what a shock that claim is. That is a great deal like someone today saying, “I’ll boast in the electric chair” or “I’ll boast in the noose.” Those are emblems of shame and dishonor. If anyone ends up on a cross, they are shamed. Anyone who follows them is shamed. Paul, however, is not ashamed of the cross. He boasts in it. He will suffer the persecution for it. Because he knows what it means. It means Christ became a curse for us in order to redeem us from the curse of the law, that in Christ the blessing of Abraham might come to us, allowing us to receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (see Galatians 3:10-14).

Paul says he will boast in the cross because through the cross, he has been crucified to the world and the world to him. On the one hand, Paul who has been crucified with Christ has been crucified in order to benefit the world. Because he is crucified with Jesus, he is able to pass the message of salvation on to the world including the Gentiles. Without the cross, he couldn’t do that. On the other hand, the world is crucified in order to benefit Paul. That is, because of the cross, Paul sees gaining the world is of absolutely no benefit. There is no sense in chasing the world, gaining the world, being followed by the world, conquering the world (see Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:36; Luke 9:25). Paul would have been spinning his wheels if he had continued to chase all the world offered. But in the cross of Jesus, that had been crucified for him. He now knew exactly where all advantage is–in the cross of Christ.

And that is the only advantage to us–the cross. May we ever boast in it.

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
for a world of lost sinners was slain.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true,
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
Where His glory forever I’ll share.

Next week’s reading is Hebrews 1.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Why is the cross offensive, scandalous, shameful to some?
3. Why is the cross something for Christians to boast in?
4. How can we cling to the old rugged cross?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

Crucify the Flesh

Today’s reading is Galatians 5.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (ESV). In Galatians 5:24, he says, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires ” (ESV). He is closing the loop.

We don’t die to the Law in order to live for sin or in order to live for ourselves. We die to the Law in order to live to God (Galatians 2:19). We aren’t set free from the Law in order to pursue the works and desires of the flesh. We are set free from the Law in order to crucify the desires, passions, and works of the flesh.

Paul must have been anticipating an objection from the Galatians. Or anticipating the objection the Judaizing teachers would make. “Paul, in saying we are set free from the Law in Jesus Christ, are you saying we can gratify the desires of our flesh as much as we want?” And in one sense, Paul’s answer is, “Yes. That is precisely what I’m saying.” But only in the sense that those of us who enter Christ start destroying our desire of the flesh. When we destroy our desire to sin, we can sin all we desire. Of course, if you miss what I’m saying in my effort to be cute, let me clarify. Being set free in Christ doesn’t mean pursuing our desire to sin, it means destroying our desire to sin.

Remembering this same Paul, in Philippians 3:12, said even he had not attained perfection yet, we know this destruction of sinful desire is a growth process. We grow our desire for Jesus; we diminish our desire for sin. We grow our desire to love God and one another; we diminish our desire to please our flesh. Further, remember the Spirit is working on our behalf. It is, after all, His fruit growing in us, not ours. Thus, when we fail and fall, it isn’t an argument to give up. It is another reason we need to draw near to God, remind ourselves of His promises, and hold on to the Spirit’s hand.

Next week’s reading is Galatians 6.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. How do you think we go about crucifying the desires of the flesh?
3. What does living as though Jesus were living our lives look like?
4. What do you think we should do when we fail and fall, pursuing fleshly desires?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

Freedom is No Opportunity for the Flesh

Today’s reading is Galatians 5.

Picture in your mind a group of slaves under a tyrannical, harsh, cruel master. Their lives from birth have been those of service and obedience to another. They didn’t get to go do what they wanted. They didn’t get to act for their own interests. They had to serve. Then, one day, someone came along and killed their master and killed their master’s descendants. No one would inherit them. The chains were broken. Freedom obtained. Imagine the relief, the joy. What would you do if you were one of those slaves?

The victor then reads a proclamation: “You’re free! Go be slaves to one another!”

Wait! What? But you set us free, didn’t you? Doesn’t freedom mean I get to do what I want without consideration of anything or anyone else? What do you mean go be slaves to each other?

This is exactly what Paul says God has done in Galatians 5:13. Through Jesus Christ on the cross, God has set us free. He has set us free from sin and from Satan. He has set us free from the Law. And that is where the problem comes in. When Paul explains we are set free from the Law, he knows some people will think freedom means freedom to do anything that appeals to me or makes me feel good in this moment.

God, however, has not set us free to serve our own flesh and pleasure. He has set us free to serve one another in love. While I prefer the word “serve,” the word translated here is the same one translated in Galatians 4:9 as “whose slaves you want to be once more.” He has set us free to be slaves to one another.

Of course, this builds on what we discussed yesterday. Circumcision doesn’t count for anything. What counts is faith working through love. But now we know what love. Certainly, we are to love God, but our faith is also to work through love for each other.

Paul concludes this section by saying, “But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” In the past, I’ve read this as some kind of extreme sin Christians might commit. However, Paul seems to offer this as merely what will happen if we don’t love each other. In other words, there is no middle ground. We can’t claim, “Okay, I mean, I didn’t love my neighbor, but it’s not like I bit and devoured my neighbor.” Actually, if I use my freedom to serve and please my own flesh, I will bite and devour my neighbor. When I do that, we will be destroyed. The only way to avoid this destruction is to love my neighbor.

Freedom is no opportunity for my flesh. It is, however, an opportunity for love. Let us love one another.

Tomorrow’s reading is Galatians 5.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. How can we serve one another love?
3. What hinders us from serving one another in love?
4. What advice would you give to help us overcome those hindrances and obstacles?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

Don’t Get Severed from Christ

Today’s reading is Galatians 5.

If Jesus Christ has set us free, why would we submit again to a yoke of slavery? Paul is completely flummoxed by the actions of these Galatian Christians. Surely they should realize if they decide to get circumcised because the Law demands it, they have to keep every part of of the Law. Don’t forget, when Paul was there, he specifically preached freedom came through Jesus Christ, not from the Law (Acts 13:39). The Galatians’ actions were not just an accidental slip into a mistaken notion because of their youth in Christ and inexperience. It was a choice to go against what they had been taught when they surrendered to Jesus in the first place.

In Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters. Thus, if someone decided to get circumcised for just any old reason, whether Jew or Gentile, it wouldn’t matter. But these Gentiles were being convinced circumcision was part of following Jesus. It was part of giving Jesus allegiance. They were being told to give their allegiance to Jesus, they had to do it by keeping the Law of Moses. However, if giving allegiance to Jesus gave them freedom the Law couldn’t give, how would overlaying the Law on top of Jesus give them more freedom? It couldn’t. It could only provide slavery.

Surrendering to the Law is worse than simply useless. Paul is not saying, “Well, you didn’t have to do that, but no big deal.” He says if they submit themselves to the Law for justification and righteousness, they are abandoning Jesus. The advantage they had received by entering Jesus was lost. In fact, Paul describes it this way, “You are severed from Christ…you have fallen away from grace.”

No doubt, this passage does say falling from grace and being severed from Christ is possible. The Calvinists are wrong when they claim we cannot fall from grace. Further, I am sure there are other ways to do so than just the one described in this passage. For instance, based on 2 Peter 2:20-22, if disciples decide to pursue sinfulness and the defilement of the flesh, we will fall from grace and be severed from Christ. Paul essentially gets to that same point later in Galatians 5. However, that is not what Paul is addressing here in Galatians 5:1-6. The Galatians were not falling from grace because they decided they could pursue unrighteous, sinful living. They were falling from grace because they were trying to gain righteousness through their own strength in keeping Moses’s Law. In other words, when we try to be justified by proving we are good enough to be justified, innocent enough to be justified, strong enough to be justified, we are actually declaring we don’t need Jesus. As Paul said back in Galatians 2:21, if we can become righteous by keeping the Law (or, in fact, any set of legal stipulations), then Jesus died for no purpose. Think about it. If I can be justified by keeping a list of rules, Jesus didn’t need to die. He just needed to give the right set of rules. The fact Jesus died proves there is no set of rules that can justify me.

The long and short of it is this. Don’t be severed from Christ. Don’t fall from grace. Don’t do these things in any of the ways they can happen. Don’t fall from grace by trying to be justified through the Law. Don’t be severed from Christ by abandoning loyalty to Him and His will.

Hang on to Jesus today. He is the only path to salvation and justification.

Tomorrow’s reading is Galatians 5.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Does knowing we aren’t saved or justified by keeping the Law of Moses make you glad? Why or why not?
3. Are you glad righteousness is found in Christ? Why or why not?
4. Do you think finding righteousness in Christ means we can go on sinning willfully and recklessly and expect salvation? Why or why not?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

God and Not Gods

Today’s reading is Galatians 4.

It’s been a couple of weeks since we started this look at Galatians. However, do you recall the picture Paul started with? Do you recall how his rebuke brought back memories of Israel at Mt. Sinai? The picture continues here in Galatians 4:8-11.

Paul tells these Gentile Christians about their former slavery when they didn’t know the one true God. Instead, they were enslaved to “those that by nature are not gods.” This is like Israel enslaved in Egypt. However, through the plagues, at the Red Sea, and especially at Mt. Sinai, they were introduced to Yahweh, their covenant God. They came to know and be known by the one, true, living God. However, what did Israel do? They quickly deserted God by having Aaron cast the golden calf which by nature was no god at all. Though God had set them free, they were turning back to slavery. The Galatian Christians were in the same boat. As pagans, they had been worshiping what was by nature not god. However, in Jesus Christ they had come to know the one, true, living God. Yet, when the Judaizers came and turned them to the Law of Moses for justification, they were actually going back to slavery even while they thought they were getting closer to the true God.

Do you see the evidence of their slavery? “You observe days and months and seasons and years!” (Galatians 4:10, ESV). That is, they had come out of the paganism that put so much stock in feasts, festivals, proper sacrifices, the moon, the sun, the seasons. For them, these things were all about their false and “not gods,” with stories of gods that supposedly died every year at the beginning of winter and were reanimated at the beginning of spring, and the like. Though they had been set free from this, they had decided to add into the gospel the feasts, festivals, days, new moons, and seasons from the Law of Moses. The problem is, as already explained, nothing in Moses’s Law justifies. None of those rules, rituals, or observances actually brings us closer to God. Only Jesus Christ does that. No doubt, for Jews, those feasts were important. No doubt, for Jews celebrating their own heritage, those feasts and festivals were appropriate even when they became Christians. But for Gentiles to add them in as if they were participating in some deeper spirituality, some closer connection to God, some more intense Christianity was worse than useless. It was actually destructive. Though in a different form, they were turning again to the elementary principles of the world. They were not hanging on to Jesus Christ.

Paul feared all the work he had done in his missionary travels and teaching among them were in vain. Instead of being set free, they were trading in one form of slavery for another. They needed to hang on to the one, true, living God through Jesus Christ. Because, of course, the fulness of deity dwells in Jesus Christ.

We need to grasp this. We have only two choices. We either follow the One who is truly God or we follow not gods. Anything or anyone we follow other than Yahweh through Jesus Christ is simply not god. There is no freedom in what is not god. There is only slavery.

In God, in Jesus Christ, there is freedom. Do not be enslaved by what is not god, be set free by God.

Tomorrow’s reading is Galatians 4.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Why do you think some Gentile Christians are attracted to following parts of Moses’s Law?
3. Why is following Moses’s Law or adding Moses’s Law into the gospel so empty?
4. Do you think freedom in Christ means the freedom to do anything anyone pleases as long as they have been baptized? Why or why not?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

Preserve the Gospel

Today’s reading is Galatians 2.

What was the big deal? Why didn’t Paul just go along with the folks who were saying they needed to be circumcised? Was he just some kind of control freak? Did Paul just have to have it his way?

No doubt, sometimes when people argue, their motivation is to be in personal control. Sometimes their intent is to be the top dog and make everyone else kowtow to their whims and wishes. However, on some occasions, the right thing to do is stand up and refuse to back down. Paul says some false brothers had slipped in and were trying to bring the Christians into slavery. In that moment, Paul refused to back down. He refused to just get along. Paul’s control wasn’t at stake. The gospel was. Further, the souls of the Gentile Christians he had taught were at stake.

He refused to yield in submission to these false brothers for even a moment “so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.” In other words, Paul withstood these false brothers on behalf of the Gentiles to whom he had taught the gospel. How frustrating to him that the Galatians would not withstand false teachers and brethren on behalf of the apostle Paul.

But in this we learn a profound principle. We must preserve the gospel. We must not allow the gospel to be twisted. We must not add to it. We must not take away from it. We must not compromise with those who claim to be brethren when they would change it. We must not even worry about the amount of influence others have if we must stand up for the gospel. After all, there is only one rescuing gospel, those who distort it are cursed.

If we allow the gospel to be twisted just to get along with people, we aren’t saving them. We are condemning everyone. Let’s dig into God’s Word and find the one true gospel. Then let’s live it and pass it along to others.

Tomorrow’s reading is Galatians 2.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. What is the gospel?
3. Why would anyone want to change it?
4. How can we preserve it?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

The Freedom of Titus

Today’s reading is Galatians 2.

Teachers who wanted to bring the Law into the Gospel had followed Paul in Galatia. It seems to me they had convinced the Galatians the Jerusalem apostles had changed Paul’s teaching on the relation of legal requirements from Moses’s Law to the Gospel. They claimed he was now teaching circumcision was required to be in Christ even for Gentiles.

As Paul continues his explanation that he hasn’t changed his gospel, he tells them about a second trip to Jerusalem fourteen years after the first. In this one, Titus, a Gentile, went with him and Barnabas. Instead of getting into all the details of the meeting, Paul dropped the results. Titus was not required to get circumcised. In other words, the Jerusalem apostles didn’t change Paul’s mind because the Jerusalem apostles agreed with Paul. Gentiles do not have to be circumcised.

Sadly, some had come among them that were trying to enslave the Christians to Moses’s Law. However, remember the gospel Paul preached when he was among these brethren. In Acts 13:38-39, when Jews and Gentiles were saved by their faith in Jesus, they were set free from everything from which the Law could not set them free. If these Gentiles became enslaved to the Law again, they would go back into slavery to all those things from which they had been freed.

Titus was free from the Law. He was free from circumcision. However, he was not free to do whatever he chose. Galatians 5:13 says neither Titus nor anyone else is free to use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Jude 4 explains we must not pervert the grace of God into sensuality.

Titus was free from the yoke of the Law. He did not have to become a Jew to become a Christian. We Gentiles today are free from the Yoke of the Law. We do not have to become Jews to become Christians. Additionally, Titus would not become a better Christian by adding Jewish legal requirements and customs into his service to the Lord. Neither do we. However, neither Titus nor we are free from God’s righteous will. Why would we even try to be? Aren’t we people who hunger and thirst for righteousness? But we know the path to righteousness is through Jesus, not through Moses’s Law.

If you are Jewish and have come to the Messiah, there is not a thing in the world wrong with you maintaining the customs of your family and ethnic heritage, so long as you aren’t attempting to be justified by the practices. That won’t work. If you are a Gentile and have come to the Christ, don’t add the Law and its customs to your submission. It won’t help you. Be free, like Titus.

Tomorrow’s reading is Galatians 2.

POCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Why is it good to be free from the Law of Moses?
3. Why is it important to understand that doesn’t equal the freedom to do anything we choose?
4. What advice would you give Christians to help us avoid the indulgences of the flesh or sin?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

The Jubilee of Jesus

Today’s reading is Luke 7.

I don’t understand exactly why John began to wonder if Jesus was really the one the Jews had been waiting for. This is another one of of those texts where I’m sure there is some profound point I haven’t grasped yet. However, I do see Jesus’s answer. He fulfills Isaiah 61:1-2 (a passage He had claimed to fulfill back in Luke 4:17-21). Isaiah 61:1-2 is calling to mind the Year of Jubilee described in Leviticus 25. It was a year of freedom and deliverance. It was a year when debts were forgiven, slaves were released, property was restored. Isaiah prophesied that one would be coming who was anointed to institute this great Jubilee. Jesus says, “That’s Me.” Jesus is our Jubilee. He is the one that gives sight to the blind and sets free the captive. He is the one who not only proclaims good news, but is the good news. We are not awaiting the 50th year to receive our freedom. We can have it right now because Jesus is our Jubilee. He will remove our shackles. He will enlighten our eyes. He will be our good news. What wonder and glory we experience as His ransomed ones. He is the one the Jews were waiting for. Let us not miss Him just because He doesn’t look exactly like we might expect. He is the Lord. He is the Savior. He is our Jubilee.

Tomorrow’s reading is Luke 7.