So much for filters

Last week (in Luke 4:14-21) Jesus stopped reading the scroll before things got messy and anger-inciting.  But the filter lasted about a second.

In this week’s Bible reading from Luke 4:21-30, Jesus followed up his reading of the Scroll of Isaiah (where he said this:   
"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, {19} to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Jesus continued with mildly provocative words: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in our hearing.”

That didn’t stir up folks too much.  The people spoke well of him.

And then Jesus really turned off the filters. It went sort of like this:

“You don’t really respect me. I’m going to say stuff that is going to make your brains hurt and that will make you angry. You think that you’re the ones who are the oppressed? You’re the oppressors! You don’t get it! Just because there are people being healed and there’s a whole bunch of people following me, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to somehow become rich or powerful. Quit thinking of yourselves and notice that I’m talking about God’s good news for the whole world!”

And the people who were just speaking so kindly tried to throw him off a cliff.

I think there are better ways to address conflict.