GLORIFIED

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

Luke 4:14-15

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It wasn’t an easy start to Jesus’ life, post-baptism. Not at all.

As we have been looking at the sparse accounts documenting Jesus’ early life, we have seen both Matthew and Luke leave out rather large swaths of years, not covering Jesus’ life between somewhere around 2 and 12 and between 12 and His early 30’s when He started His adult ministry and emerged on the scene near the Jordan River where John had been preparing the way for Him and baptizing believers who wished to repent from sin. In fact, we know that John even baptized Jesus by His request, receiving the Spirit of God and these words from His heavenly Father: 

“This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.”

It was quite a moment, one that you may have thought would bring great celebration and fanfare. God’s Son had come, the promised Messiah predicted by the prophets, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world, as John would proclaim.

But that’s not what happened, not even close. For there wasn’t some great baptism celebration party thrown after Jesus emerged from the Jordan. Rather, He was ushered into the wilderness by the Spirit where He would spend 40 days and 40 nights fasting, an undertaking that the scriptures tell us left Him hungry Matthew 4:1-2). It was at this point that Satan came upon Jesus to tempt Him, the first of which involved…you guessed it…doing something to take care of that hunger problem, something like a challenge to turn stones into bread.

Well, Jesus warded off this advance by His enemy and two other that followed. The sum of all the enticements coupled with the 40 day fast left Jesus exhausted and in need of attention. God sent that to His Son in this way:

Then the devil left Him, and angels came and attended Him. Matthew 4:11

And attend to Jesus they did.

For when they were through, Jesus was rejuvenated, recharged, and ready to get to work…and there was a lot of work to be done. Jesus had received the Spirit at His baptism and now in the power of that Spirit He would set out and continue to carry out His Father’s business.

This brings us to our verses from Luke today, two verses that serve as a summary of what Jesus did next after being cared for by the angels. Look again at these words here:

Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.  Luke 4:14-15

Matthew adds that while in Galilee, Jesus preached in Capernaum, calling for repentance as John was imprisoned at the time by Herod. And while He was along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, He began to hand select His first trusted disciples: Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John. This was followed by a ton of amazing work as Jesus went through Galilee as He taught and proclaimed the good news, healed every disease and sickness, and even drove out demons from those who had been possessed.

What was the sum impact of all this?

Go back to our passage for today. We are told that Jesus was glorified by all. Not just some, but all.

OK…but what does it mean to be glorified?

A trip to the dictionary reveals these meanings:

1. to cause to be or treat as being more splendid, excellent, etc., than would normally be considered.

2. to honor with praise, admiration, or worship; extol.

Synonyms for glorified include “praised, worshiped, and celebrated”.

This is what the people brought to Jesus, their deepest devotion and admiration, their greatest degree of adoration and worship. All of the people praised Him because He was more splendid and excellent than anything or anyone they had ever experienced before. By a long shot.

With all this momentum on His side and the attention of the people firmly fixed on Him, Jesus moved to His instructional pièce de résistance, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), and provided the base teaching and preaching He would build upon over the remainder of His ministry years.

So what does this mean for us today?

It’s simple. For we are to make sure Jesus continues to be glorified, glorified by the way we live, glorified by the way we share Him with others, glorified by the way we worship Him as we do all things as He did, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the end translation, there is no one who has ever lived who is more worthy of all our glory than our Savior Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God for the gift of His Son!

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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