After that Jesus went from Nazareth to the Jordan river to be baptised by John the Baptist, He was led by the Holy-Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, after forty days, He returned victorious to Nazareth. On his way, full of the Holy Spirit, He began to preach the Gospel in the synagogues of Galilee. In His home town, Jesus was known as the son of Joseph, the carpenter! On his return, as He attended the synagogue, an important prophecy would be fulfilled. As was His custom, he entered it but with a very different purpose, for as he stood up to read, the attendant handed to Him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Any other scroll could have been handed to Him but on that day, it had to be that of Isaiah and unrolling it, Jesus found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke: 4:16-19) Jesus knew the purpose of His mission, but for years He never spoke one word on it, for the time had not yet come to do so! For the best part of His life, he worked as the eldest son of Joseph the carpenter. There is no doubt that he visited many homes with his tool box, to do some repairs or improvements, or met them in his father’s shop; so, he must have been well known, as there were, at the time, only about two hundred citizens in Nazareth, he was known of all but none knew His real identity expect Mary and Joseph.

From the time that the Holy-Spirit descended from heaven and rested upon Jesus, as He came out from the waters of the Jordan, every detail of His life was lived in fulfilment of the plan of God, it is for this reason that Jesus returned to Nazareth, for the time had come for them to know who He really was, gathered with the people, the attendant had to give Him the scroll of Isaiah, He chose to read from it that which was prophesied concerning Him, some seven centuries before that day. As I mentioned it, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him, it was not by accident it was directed by the Holy Spirit, unrolling it, he read what I mentioned above m a portion found in Luke 4: 17-19 which he quoted from - Isiah 61:1-2 It was now the appointed time to reveal Himself, having read the verses quoted above, “He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, He sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him, and He began by saying to them: ‘Today is this scripture fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus said other things to that gathering, men He knew so well, but what Jesus had to say to them was not well received; I sense that His words got too near the bone, they alone knew exactly what he meant, because as it is written: ‘All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove Him out of town, and took Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But He walked right through the crowd and went His way.” How can a group of men gathered in a synagogue change so suddenly, so radically? Satan did not wait long to try and get rid of Christ before He really started His mission? But their purpose failed for Jesus had an important mission to fulfil, His time to die would come later! 

There are, in the New Testament, other references to ‘the time’ or ‘the hour’ which had

affected His life and the fulfilment of His mission. I only mentioned very few, to express the fact that the life of Jesus-Christ the Son of God was mapped out from eternity and that He was born to dwell with men for one purpose only, to fulfil His Father’s will which was, 1, to preach the Gospel, which is ‘the power of God for the Salvation of everyone who believes, whether he be a Jew or a Gentile’. (Romans 1:16) 2, to call into being His ‘Church’. From all His disciples He separated twelve, which were destined to take the Gospel to the world. 3, to die for Her, to redeem her, when completed by the Holy Spirit, she will be taken to Glory: “Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for Her to make her holy.” (Ephesians 5:25) He alone is the builder of it, He alone is its head, and He alone knows those that are truly HIS! Before Christ could turn a sinner into a son of God, He had to fulfil every detail of the covenant, the Holy Trinity decided upon together, before the creation of the world. This we must know, for it is paramount to the foundation of the Christian Faith! A Christian is a person that believes these things, which have to do with his beloved Master, hence, precious to him!