Jesus reads Isaiah

Watch on YouTube/ read online

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=046ZEKD20HA

Luke 4: 14-21

Context

Jesus has been baptised, when the Spirit came like a dove. Then the Spirit took Jesus into the wilderness. And now, full of the Spirit, Jesus comes home.

He usually went to the synagogue on the Sabbath (the day for resting every seven days) and he often taught; and on this particular day he reads from Isaiah. Luke writes carefully to tell us that the reading is important. We build up to the reading (Jesus stands up, is given the scroll and he unrolls it). Then after the reading we get a mirror image: Jesus rolls the scroll up, gives it back and sits down.

In Isaiah, it was the prophet who had received the Spirit, and the release of captives was about the people being allowed back home after exile in Babylon. But Jesus, full of the Spirit since his baptism, says it’s also about today. The word for “anoint” is where we get the words Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) from. The year of the Lord’s favour probably means the “jubilee” year (after every seven-times-seven years, so every fifty years) when slaves were freed and the land was shared out again. Jesus says this is also for today.

Plan

20250126 Jesus reads IsaiahDownload
Create

Refreshments are served!		/messages You have 20 minutes or so to build something in response to the story, either on your own, or team up with others.

Reminder – this is what Jesus reads (Contemporary English version):

“The Lord’s Spirit has come to me, because he has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor. The Lord has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners, to give sight to the blind, to free everyone who suffers, and to say, ‘This is the year the Lord has chosen.’”

Send a good news message to villagers – will you write a sign, build large letters in the sky, make a trail…
  • Create something for the villagers to celebrate this good news – maybe a water slide, or some music they could play
  • Write a book with instructions for what you think people should do to live a good life
  • God’s good news is for everyone! Gather as many different mobs as you can in one place, make them as different as you can – water and land – and shower them with good news messages (e.g. streamers/fireworks).
WonderWhile you are creating, think about these questions with the adults on your table.
 
I Wonder: 
  • which part of this story you like the best?
  • what part is the most important?
  • where you are in this story or what part of the story is about you?
  • if there is any part of this story we can leave out and still have all the story we need?
There are many other things that can make us WONDER – what are you thinking about?
Final PrayerWe’ll finish with a prayer
PlayBuild a single-block width bridge across the canyon to the other village and challenge each other to cross!

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