Day 278

A couple of things are happening in today’s reading:

• The temptation of Jesus
• The calling of Jesus’s first disciples
• Healing of the sick
• Casting out demons
• Taught in the synagogue
• Jesus’s rejection at Nazareth
• Jesus accused of blasphemy
• Jesus judged for eating with sinners

One of the things that kept coming to my mind was that since Jesus was God (in human flesh), shouldn’t he have simply bypassed certain things? Then something dropped in my spirit — how would you have shown the process? The process we humans go through. I sometimes forget that he needed to go through the process, which is a good reminder for me on this journey of life.

Another reminder today from the life of Jesus is to learn to withdraw to that quiet space to shut the noises out. We are told Jesus withdrew to a lonely place and prayed. Noises in the form of distractions — including devices. I think this applies to prayers and anything else we want to focus on.

Jesus chooses different people from different backgrounds and works of life as his disciples. Looking back at God’s pattern in the old testament, he used the unqualified often. Jesus also associated with people a ‘messiah’ shouldn’t be associated with and the religious rulers has a major issue with that. Quite an unexpected approach. But Jesus shows us here he came from everyone.

Finally, I want to touch on John the Baptist’s self-awareness. He knew his identity and could defend it when asked if he was the Messiah and why he baptised people. He wasn’t trying to make himself something that is not. he knew his role was to make the path for Jesus the Messiah.