What's Your Life Mission

’Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."’ (Luke 4:14-21)

I heard this story when I was young. It was about a carpenter family that had to work very hard to make ends meet. One day the wife was totally drenched in sweat after a half day of work and sat down and cried, “Why do I have to work so hard to make a living?” At that time the minister came to visit them. The wife complained to the minister, “It was just because of the stupid Eve and Adam, or we wouldn’t have to work so hard. If it wasn’t for them, we would all be enjoying life in the garden of Eden.”

The minister comforted her and invited the couple to dinner on the weekend. They came and the minister seated them on the table with all the dishes prepared. But one of the dishes in the middle was covered. The minister said, “Please enjoy the meal, but I have to run an errant, and please don’t open the dish in the middle until I come back,” and he left.

As the couple ate, the wife said, “What is that dish in the middle that the pastor does want us to eat? It must be something very good.” The husband seemed indifferent at the beginning, but later he said, “It’s got to be some thing really good, since the rest of the dishes are all good. Why don’t you open and take a peak?” Unable to control her curiosity, and prompted by the support of her husband, she lifted the cover to take a look. Suddenly, a mouse ran out from under the cover.

The minister came back in with a smile and opened the lid. The mouse was no longer there and he said, “It seems that Adam and Eve was not the only one that couldn’t resist the temptation!”

No one could resist the temptations all the time. Even the Apostle Paul admitted that he often failed to do what he wanted to do and did what he didn’t want to do. Even Benjamin Franklin admitted so. There is only one person in the history that was able to resist the temptation. It was Jesus. If you look at the genealogy of Jesus recording in Luke, you should see that, unlike Matthew’s version which starts from Abraham and down, Luke has it backward starting from Jesus and up all the way to Adam, the son of God. Since Adam was created by God and it was reasonable to be called the son of God. But that son of God failed when tempted by the devil and the human race has been enslaved by sin ever since. But, the Son of God, Jesus, was able the resist the temptation on our behalf as the beginning of our victory against sin and evil.

The story in today’s passage according to Luke happened right after Jesus came back from his victory against Satan’s temptation. He came back to Galilee and started preaching in the synagogues and the Bible says that he was praised by everyone. Luke gave us an example of what he preached at his beginning of ministry. Basically he was telling people about his identity as the Messiah and his mission on earth, quoting Isaiah 61:1-2,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

This is Jesus personal mission statement. Talking about personal mission statement, I would like to do a survey this morning. How many of you have written a personal mission statement? How many of you have lived with it? Years ago I read the book by Stephen Covey, “7 Habits of the Highly Effective People,” in which he encouraged and taught people to make a personal mission statement because that keeps our life highly effective. I did one for myself years ago and have revised it many times, but I had a hard time living with it.