Good News To The Poor

Someone once said the best sermon is not one which is preached, but one that is lived. In these words of Jesus at the synagogue, he is saying just that. Today, God’s grace is fulfilled through a person, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is putting God’s word into practice.

Jesus is putting God’s word of salvation into practice in our world, too. This is a passage of hope and salvation for us.

Jesus is reminding us that no matter what we experience in this world He is there for us. Jesus is God’s incarnate word in this world of brokenness.

Jesus is talking about God’s plan of salvation for the whole earth, instead of just the nation of Israel. Jesus is saying that through him, God would bring salvation to all people. Jesus is saying that through him salvation would come even to us today. Salvation is here for us because Jesus has fulfilled this passage.

This salvation is seen very clearly in this passage. Jesus says that part of his salvation is to preach the good news. The good news is that God is with us, God cares about us. There is forgiveness, there is hope, there is renewal. Jesus knew that in a world where people find only the bad news, where sin, death and the devil are alive and well, we need some good news. We need to know that God has not abandoned us.

Jesus wants us to cling to that hope. Jesus wants us to cling to the good news of His salvation.

But some don’t.

It is like the bees in the following:

As I finished washing the dishes, I glanced out of the window and saw my 8 year old brother dangling a long pole in the swimming pool. His tangled brown hair hung in his eyes, and his clothes were splashed with water. He always managed to avoid helping with the chores, and today was no different. I watched as he carefully steadied the pole in the water, lifted it and tapped it on the concrete deck.

"What’s he doing?" I wondered. I decided to go outside and see what time~wasting activity had kept him from helping me.

"What are you doing Ben?" I asked as I walked over to where he stood.

"Saving bees," he replied. I could see now that each time he steadied the pole, it was beneath a bee. He then lifted the bee out of the water and placed it on the warm concrete to let the bee dry it’s wings and fly away.

"But some of them won’t hold on." He continued. "I try to save them, but they just keep trying to swim and won’t grab the pole."

"Great," I thought. "One less bee to sting me." I began walking back toward the house, determined to waste no more of my time.

Then Ben spoke again. "It’s like Jesus," he said.

I stopped and walked back to my little brother. "What do you mean?" I asked, confused by that comparison.

"I try to save the bees from drowning, but they have to choose to grab the pole. I can’t force them," he explained. "And that’s like Jesus and us. He wants to save us, but we have to choose to accept the atonement. He can’t force us." And with that simple analogy, Ben went back to saving the bees.

As I thought about what he said, I realized how much I was like one of the drowning bees. When I faced a struggle in my life, I was prone to battle it out alone, convinced I was strong enough to make it. Trusting the Saviour enough to stop ’treading water’ was difficult. But as I watched Ben patiently pull each bee out of the water, I began to understand how willing the Saviour is to help me.2