Jesus: The Anointed One
“There are things in life that hold us captive…. We need a liberator.” – Tony Walliser
Read Luke 4:14-30
Jesus: The Anointed One
Do you know any “groupies?” You know, folks who go out of their way to attend the concerts of their favorite singers or bands, as often as possible. Have you ever been one of them?
Almost as soon as Jesus began His public ministry, He became one of those famous individuals. Everyone was talking about Him, and when they heard Jesus would be anywhere near their region, people flocked to see and hear Him. Like lost sheep, they wanted to know who He was, what He had to say, and what He would do. Jesus, we might say, was the hottest ticket in town.
But fans of popular entertainers or sports teams can be very fickle. All gung-ho one day, but angry and disenchanted the next. Perhaps you can relate to that. In a similar way, many of Jesus’ followers proved to be very fickle as well. If He failed to meet their expectations or didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear, they turned on Him.
This is why Luke 4:28 tells us, “[they] drove Him out of the town…so that they could throw Him down the cliff.” Of course, that didn’t happen. The passage then says, “But He walked right through the crowd and went on His way.”
In another of the gospels we read that after Jesus had made some difficult statements, “From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him” (John 6:66). In their eyes, Jesus went from hero to zero.
“Well, I would never do that!” Easy to say when things are going well, but what about when things aren’t so good, when we’re confronted with unexpected challenges or adversity in one of its many forms? What do we do with Jesus then?
We know from the Scriptures that Jesus proved to be many things: a preacher and teacher, prophet, liberator, healer, and restorer. He’s all of that – and much more. Jesus went to the cross, died for our sins, was buried, and then came back to life so He could be our Savior, Redeemer and Lord.
Good news! But we find a word of caution in John 1:12, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” Have we truly done that – received Him and believed in His name to the point where we trust Him with our whole heart?
It’s easy to become satisfied with religion – doing good things and saying the right words – without really letting Jesus have all of us. But He doesn’t want just part of us. He doesn’t want our “religion.” He wants to have an eternal, life-changing relationship with us.
So, the question that confronted the hot-and-cold multitudes of Jesus’ day remains the same question we must answer today: What will we do with Jesus?