Made for a purpose!

Luke 4:14-22

14Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. 15He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written: 18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,19and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” 20He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” 22Everyone spoke  well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips.

Food for thought!

In this gospel reading something (un)usual happens. Jesus opened the Bible and the Bible opened Jesus; he read the Bible and the Bible read him; he read about himself in the Bible. The Bible told Jesus who Jesus is. It told him a number of things: to bring Good News to the poor; to proclaim that captives will be released; that the blind will see; that the oppressed will be set free; and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.

There is a question that everybody makes, consciously or unconsciously. This question is “What is my purpose in life?” Why did God create me? Why am I on this earth? Who am I? We all have a feeling that we were created for a specific purpose. As C. S. Lewis said, “If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe, and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never have known that it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning.” So the question we are all asking: “Is there a specific purpose or calling for my life?” And the answer is YES! You may not know it but it is there.

One of the primary values of the Bible is to settle the issue of meaning and purpose in life. The Bible is consistent when it declares that “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart for my holy purpose.” (Jeremiah 1:5); your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16); Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name (Isaiah 49:1); But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace (Galatians 1:15) The truth is that we are here to do something, a contribution that only each one of us can make. By ourselves we cannot find out who were are because it takes God’s help for us to find and live the life we were created to live. As Søren Kierkegaard once said, “Now with God’s help I shall become myself.”

This is what happened with Jesus. The gospel says that “filled with the Holy Spirit’s power.” It means that it was by the Spirit of God that Jesus opened that scroll; it was by the Spirit of God that Jesus’ eyes fell on that text that told him who he is. Jesus came with a mission, a purpose; so did you. The Spirit of God helped Jesus find his mission and purpose; so can it with you. The Bible helped Jesus know his mission and purpose; so can it for you.

Did you notice that Jesus’s purpose has to do with making difference in others’ life? (to bring Good News to the poor; to proclaim that captives will be released; that the blind will see; that the oppressed will be set free; and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come). Elton Trueblood wrote, “A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.” We want to live for something more than ourselves. Meaning and fulfillment are only experienced as our lives, in some way, touch another person.