Going Elsewhere

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 This is a series of reflections that I sent to my fiancee from my own Bible readings. I have posted them in this blog so that it is easier to keep track for future reflections. 
42 At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.  Lk 4:42–44

As we read in the Gospel accounts, there is a tendency for people to go after Jesus and hoard Jesus for themselves. It is almost similar to how modern Christians can sometimes just go for conferences after conferences by their favourite speakers and enjoy being in their presence. But the people in this particular passage missed one important point, that Jesus, and by extension His message, is not meant to be kept within but is meant to be proclaim from without.

By implication, this means that even if we try to do the most inward looking stuff and just try to disciple another person without reaching out to others, that particular discipleship move should eventually lead to the message of Jesus Christ being proclaim out to the world. But then, the simplest message from here is that we ourselves need to proclaim this messages wherever we go and we have to go.

There is yet another dimension about the Good News of Jesus which we often forget. When we read Romans, we realise that the Gospel is not just for pre-believers, but it is also for believers. The Gospel does not stop at receiving Christ but it continues into Christian living and hence Romans 8. Jesus preached to sinners as well as the people who claim to be His people as well. The message does not discriminate between believers and pre-believers.

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