Walking the Walk: Have a vision before you begin

Leaders have a vision before they begin

(Luke 4: 16-21—all quotations from The Message by Eugene Peterson 2002)

16-21He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,

God's Spirit is on me;
he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to
the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, "This is God's year to act!"
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, "You've just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place."

Jesus understood the importance of God’s vision for him, and his mission in the world, and chose to announce both on his home turf—the temple in Nazareth where he grew up. He also understood the importance of integrating the past, present, and future into his vision, and of announcing his personal and spiritual commitment to implementing that vision in the present.

Notice how Jesus communicates the “launch” of his incredible “venture”. First, he makes it clear that this is a personal “God thing” without explanation or apology: God’s Spirit is on me. Second, he lays out his mission clearly and simply: to preach…,to announce…, to set …free, and to announce…. No long speeches, no “go team, we can do this together” fanfare, no heavenly chorus, no miracles—nothing to distract from the simple elegance of this powerful announcement.

To put this in historical and social context, normally the traditional order of worship in the temple would lead to a sermon based on the prophetic text after the reading. Jesus limits his sermon to two short sentences, and then stops, further heightening the dramatic impact of his incredible announcement in front his friends and family. There is little doubt that a hypothetical headline in the hometown newspaper “Local Boy Makes Good” can’t even begin to describe the reaction of the hometown crowd to Jesus startling claim. To say that people were talking when they left the temple that day would be an understatement, I am sure. He knew that in this instance, less was certainly more.

Like Jesus, we all have a part in God’s big vision for the world, and a unique mission to fulfill in making that vision a reality. Our challenge is to be as attuned as Jesus was to our own unique missions and to be as trusting as Jesus was that the Father will provide us with the tools we need to be successful, even when we don’t know exactly what we should be doing or how to accomplish the tasks we know that need to be done.

But it all starts with a compelling vision.