Month: February 2010

The Authority of Christ

Rob Woodrum5 Comments

This Sunday we’ll be looking at Luke 4:21-44.

Right on the heels of Jesus declaring that the prophecy of Isa 61:1-2a were fulfilled, he goes out and demonstrates just how it is He will be fulfilling His messianic calling.  While the people of Nazareth rejected Jesus, the people to the North-West in Capernaum have a very different reaction.  They are filled with wonder…because of Jesus’ “authority“.

What things does Jesus demonstrate His authority over in this passage?  What can it tell us about our own life specifically?  How often do we ever think about the forces that operate behind what’s seen with the natural eye?  What do we learn from Jesus’ interaction with those forces?

For all of His authority, Jesus also demonstrates submission as well.  What does Jesus submit to, and what does He NOT submit to in the last few verses of this passage?

Good stuff to consider, we’ll unpack it more on Sunday!

Closed Hearts to a Wide Open God

Rob Woodrum2 Comments

This Sunday we”ll continue in Luke’s gospel, reading chapter 4:14-30.

Many scholars believe Luke’s gospel intentionally reverses Mark’s order of Jesus’ return home and his ministry in Capernaum in order to provide a sort of overview of what will characterize Jesus’ ministry all through the story.  It’s sort of a microcosm of the whole thing.

In the text we’ll read, Jesus is the Homeboy who returns to the neighborhood after generating quite a bit of interest in his ministry while in the larger town of Capernaum in Galilee. As he goes to church with his old friends and neighbors, he is offered the customary honor of being the reader of the Scriptures that day.  The Synagogue of that time was structured in a very similar way to our present day order of any given church service – with songs, prayers, the reading of the Torah and a short talk on how it should be applied to a person’s life.  If a rabbi or honored guest was in town, he was asked to read the Torah for the group, and share any insights he may have.

So, Jesus is handed a scroll (a seemingly random affair which held such huge significance), and he reads from Isaiah 61.  He hands back the scroll, sits in the chair of honor, and with everyone waiting in rapt silence, announces that the prophecy he just read is being fulfilled at that moment.

Cut to pandemonium: Everyone is marching Jesus out of the synagogue toward a cliff outside of town…brandishing pitchforks and baseball bats, crying out for Jesus’ death.

So what happened?  Why did the people of Jesus’ own home town react like this toward him?  As you read it, and consider the place, the people (including their racial heritage)  and the implications of Jesus’ words…what do you think made them so mad?  In wanting to follow Jesus, how would we avoid doing what the fine religious folks of Nazareth did?

Stuff to chew on….see you Sunday.

Temptation: Settling for Less

Rob Woodrum3 Comments

Hey, hey!  I’m finally back to somewhat normal patterns, which leads me back to Wonderwhat!   I’ll do my best to keep updating with thoughts about our upcoming studies, but I will warn you that for the next month or so, I’ve got a lot on my plate.  For the last year, Ken Raney of Clash Creative has been negotiating with Voice of the Martyrs to do a series of graphic novel adaptations of some of the stories of triumph that have come from Christians who have endured persecution in closed nations.  I was asked to participate in this project, and a few weeks ago, they finally gave the go-ahead.  Needless to say, I have a lot of work ahead of me in laying out, penciling, inking and hopefully coloring said project.  Ben Avery wrote a compelling script…which has had me in tears multiple times as I’ve tried to convey this story through pictures.  Pray for me if you think of it…I need to learn how to draw and fast….I want, with all my heart, to do this story justice.

This Sunday we’ll be looking at Luke 4:1-13.

It’s a fascinating passage about the temptation of Christ in the wilderness.  It provides us food for thought concerning our own struggles with temptation…but it also gives us an amazing insight into just what kind of Messiah Jesus intended to be (and IS).  Jesus had to break with many of the expectations concerning the messiah in His day, and we see that the break from accepted patterns wasn’t just a public thing…it was initiated in the most private of times, alone and unobserved.

Here’s something interesting: if you get the chance, read Deuteronomy 8 and then read Luke 4:1-13 right after it.  What connections do you see?  Do you think there was a point being made in the nature of the temptations recounted in Jesus’ story?  Beyond that, what do we learn about the nature of temptation in general?  If we describe it as settling for less…less than what?  What do we learn about how to resist temptation from Jesus’ story?

This should be an interesting study…hope to see you this Sunday!