August 17, 2025 "Freedom For The Captives"

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This is one of my favorite - if not my favorite story about Jesus. It's not a healing - it's not miraculous - it's Jesus' first sermon. In it, he pretty much frames what his whole life has been and will be all about. I'm going to help us visualize the story by describing in detail what things might have looked like. Let's talk through the movements - the scroll, the attendant, the pointer, the Moses Seat. I like it. Jesus reads from Isaiah, and says that this scripture is fulfilled in their hearing. He's claiming the whole freedom for the captives, setting prisoners free, sight to the blind stuff as what his whole life was going to be about - essentially because that's what God has been up to all along. His hometown people like what they hear but they're skeptical. Jesus moves on - and essentially preaches a sermon that condemns his own people - they should have been about this the whole time - but they haven't been. Then, the people try to kill him. Yeah, like whaaaat? Some thoughts here. First, sometimes God chooses to speak to us in unexpected ways - ways we sometimes reject. Next, sometimes anger and violence and compromising integrity are the last defense of those who have to face the truth of their crooked religious affirmations. Finally - and we talked through this in our The Bible...Really? class. Sometimes we have to read the Bible creatively. Jesus quotes Scripture - but he cuts some of it out. He leaves the violence and destruction out of it. He reads Isaiah within the context of the whole Bible, which leads to God not destroying the world, but healing it. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 4:14-30 http://bible.com/events/49478832

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