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In my devotions this week, I was reading a very familiar text in Luke chapter 4. In this chapter, we see the temptation of Jesus. Of course, this event always fascinates me in so many ways. If we continue in this chapter, we read of Jesus stepping into a Synagogue and revealing to those there His ministry. It didn’t take long for the religious to want to throw Jesus down a cliff.

We would read later in chapter four of Jesus delivering people from possession of unclean spirits and the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law. With all of this going on, there arose a huge crowd. They wanted to hear Jesus teach, watch Him heal, and yes, deliver people who are under the possession of unclean spirits.

This brings me to a simple but important concern that is shown in verses 42-43 of chapter 4: “When day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them. 43 But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” You probably see where I’m getting at today. The people of this town wanted to keep Jesus all to themselves. Now, we can probably understand this desire, but we must also see selfishness in this desire as well. There were so many people who needed to meet Jesus, to hear Him teach truth with love and compassion, to be healed from sickness and pain, and to be delivered from the grasp of the evil one.

Yet, the people of Capernaum wanted to keep Jesus for themselves. This is a challenge to the church, but more importantly to individual believers who have been saved and really don’t care a whole lot if others get the chance to meet Jesus. We just want to keep Jesus to ourselves.

We must realize that people are hurting just like we are; they are lost and heading toward an eternity without Christ and Heaven. It leaves us with an eternal choice. We can ignore the lostness of others and keep Jesus to ourselves, or we can let Jesus go to others. Let us look inside ourselves and ask the question, “Do I let Jesus go from me to others so they too can know Him, to experience salvation, or am I going to be selfish and just keep Christ and what He can do to myself?

I don’t think any of us really want to deprive others of hearing about love, forgiveness, and eternal life. So let's buckle up and get out there in the world and let Jesus go.