Luke 4:18–19 (NASB95)
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, 19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
Gospel to the poor.
Sight for the blind.
Set free those who are oppressed.
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.
Everybody was all in.
Luke 4:22 (NASB95)
22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”
So then Jesus said this.
Luke 4:25–27 (NASB95)
25 “But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; 26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 “And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
Sidon and Syria had long been enemies of Israel. The Jews hated them and they hated the Jews. And Jesus, in his inauguration speech says. “Get ready, I am about show the love of God to a bunch of people you don’t even like., that you think God doesn’t love. But He does.” They tried to kill him, but it wasn’t his time.
Have you predetermined who is and who is not worthy of God’s love and salvation. Are there people that you have excluded from the good news of the gospel, the freedom of oppression of the gospel and the year of God’s favor. Let us each ask God to see with new eyes. His eyes. To see people the way He sees them and let us not write off anyone as being too far from the kingdom.
God loves people you don’t even like.
He ain’t wrong.
I love you, Pastor Randy