Adult Object Lesson: Epiphany 3 (Luke 4:14-21)
Luke 4:14-21
Being Part of Something Bigger
Stand before your people with your hand on a Bible.
Today’s message corresponds with the political activity of this week.
We inaugurated Barack Obama for the second time.
The oath of office was recited, hands on not one Bible but two, linking this moment, this time with what has come before. Martin Luther King Jr. used one of the Bibles. Abraham Lincoln the other. The lives and vision of these two men shaped our present reality. The next four years may shape a new reality for our nation, the effects of which we will not know, perhaps, for another generation.
What comes next?
The speech. President Obama proceeded to tell the world how he intended to live up to his oath, honor the legacy of the office and his campaign promises.
Jesus is doing the same thing. He has returned to his hometown. He attends his home temple. He reads familiar words and then he puts himself inside those words.
Compare the good things Jesus intends to do as fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy with the types of promises leaders make today.