Part 7 (2/2)
He left the quiet countryside, and went back to the towns. The people who loved him were there. The people who needed him were there. And the people who were afraid of him, and the people who had begun to hate him--they too were there.
Jesus returned to the towns, where his friends and his foes were waiting.
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6. Friends and Foes
Jesus thought the time had come to visit Nazareth. Before he had gone away, there was n.o.body who thought that he was a person of any great importance. But he had become a famous man. The whole of Galilee was talking about him. And now he was at home with his friends and family again.
On the Sabbath morning he went to the old familiar synagogue. There was a full congregation that day, for everyone supposed that Jesus would preach. He had never preached in Nazareth before.
When the time came to read the Scripture lesson, Jesus walked up to the front. He took the roll from the minister, and found the place he wanted. It was in the book of the Prophet Isaiah. He began to read:
”The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor; he has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach liberty to the prisoners and recovering of sight to the blind, to set free those who suffer, and to say that G.o.d will be good to his people.”
Jesus stopped reading and handed the roll back to the minister. He sat down in the seat from which Jewish preachers always spoke to the people in the synagogue.
The whole congregation was very still, waiting to hear what Jesus had to say. That was an exciting lesson he had read from the Scriptures.
It made the people think of the Messiah. Someday a preacher would be able to say, ”This has all come true!” And that would mean that the Messiah had come.
Jesus looked around at the faces he knew so well. Thirty years he had lived among these people. Now he was back to tell them something that they had never known before.
He began to speak.
”Today,” he said, ”you are seeing this Scripture lesson come true.”
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A thrill ran through the audience. The Scripture had come true? The Messiah was really here? Could he mean that _he_ was the Messiah?
The people gasped. Some laughed. Others were angry. They started to talk among themselves.
”The Messiah? Him? Why, that's only Jesus! The carpenter's son!”
”Everybody knows who Jesus is! Lived down the street since I don't know when!”
”Who does he think he is?”
Jesus again raised his voice above the others':
”I know what you are going to say. You are going to quote that old saying, 'Doctor, cure yourself.' You are going to tell me to start doing the things I am supposed to have done in Capernaum. I'm not surprised. A servant of G.o.d never gets any honor among his own people.
The same thing happened to the prophets long ago.
”Don't expect me to do anything wonderful here in Nazareth. You wouldn't believe it if you saw it. Why do you think you ought to get any special favors from G.o.d?”
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