“The Spirit of
the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for
the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”
(Luke 4:19).
We
can only find something and be excited about it if we have been looking for it
or are aware of the value/importance of our find. The whole idea is illustrated
in one of our Lord’s parables.
A
man found a treasure in a field. He knew its value. He sold all of his
possessions in order to own the treasure. “The
kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he
hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that
field” (Matthew 13:44).
“The first
thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the
Messiah – that is, the Christ” (John
1:41).
Andrew’s
action shows that the time spent at Jesus’ place was filled with talks about
Jewish hopes, which also revealed Jesus’ character.
When
Andrew told Simon “We have found the
Messiah” he knew what he was talking about AND Simon knew what Andrew was
talking about – because they both were expecting the Messiah.
The
popular expectation – the people’s hope – in Judaism at that time was that
Messiah will come as the great deliverer of the Jewish people from the Roman
occupation, bringing the kingdom of David to its former glory.
Jesus’
visit to Nazareth that day revealed that Jesus too knew what He was talking
about: who He was and what His mission was.
People
had high expectations of the Messiah. They got infused with a false hope of
liberation, restoration and earthly prosperity and glory.
They left aside the “how” will the Messiah accomplish all of that: by healing them; providing bread and fish; by casting out demons; by becoming popular or maybe by force. Nobody was expecting the Messiah to hang on a cross, bleeding and dying for their sins. Yet…