Monday, August 31, 2009

Imagine

Imagine being there in the place and the moment described by today's Gospel (Luke 4:16-30).

How wonderful it would have been to be sitting there in the synagogue as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ stepped up and read that great prophecy.


He came to Nazareth,
where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.


He stood up to read
and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.

He unrolled the scroll
and found the passage where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim

a year acceptable to the Lord.

Rolling up the scroll,

he handed it back to the attendant
and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue

looked intently at him.

He said to them,
“Today

this Scripture passage
is fulfilled in your hearing.”

(adapted from an earlier post)