A SECOND CHANCE

A Second Chance
(Kenneth "Tack" Chumbley)

Then He went out . . . and came to His own country.

Christ leaves the area around Capernaum and, for a second time since the start of His public ministry, returns to Nazareth —-- that “beautiful village in the mountain nest.”

The Jews were proverbially narrow and bigoted. Between them and the Gentiles was a wide gulf. Samaria was so accursed that Jews traveling between Galilee and Judea would cross to the east side of the Jordan to avoid being contaminated by Samaria.

But the spirit of Jesus was different. On His first return to Nazareth, He talked about how a Gentile widow in the days of Elijah received special blessings from God and how in the time of Elisha God passed over all the lepers in Israel to heal a Gentile leper. It was all written down in their Bible, but like many religious people, the Nazarenes didn’t pay much attention to things in their Bible. Christ eulogizing a Sidonian widow and a Syrian general so infuriated them that they tried to kill Him in a gruesome way (4.16–30).

But again Christ returns. You would have thought He would have shaken the dust of Nazareth off His feet, but instead, He’s back. And in this is revealed a great characteristic of our Lord: He had a love that believed in giving men a second chance.

One day Christ said to His disciples, “Let us go to Judea again” (Jn. 11.7), and the disciples couldn’t believe what they were hearing. “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You and are You going there again?” What are you thinking? They’ll kill You! But Christ was going back again because love gives men a second chance. Even after men throw us out of their synagogue, or over a cliff, or try to stone us, if our love is like our Lord’s, we’ll go back and give them another chance.
Here’s what I read: the Jews from Antioch “stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead” (Acts 14.19). But Paul gets up and goes back to Antioch (14.21). The city that tried to kill Paul is given another chance.

I along ago lost count of the chances I’ve been given. I who at times have thrown Christ out of my life, out of my home, and out of my church; I who have stoned Him, and sinned willfully and repeatedly against Him, keeps giving me another chance.

Is there anyone who needs another chance from you?

-kenney

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