In our gospel reading for this morning, people are beginning to talk about this new preacher by the name of Jesus. A couple of months ago he was a total unknown and he was out in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. But now… he’s back! And he is “filled with the power of the Spirit” and his preaching has people talking.
Luke tells us that as Jesus travels and teaches “a report about him spread through all the surrounding country”. From Capernaum, to Tiberias and Galilee, to all the region of northern Israel, the word is spreading. And this in a world without text messages or Instagram or even telephones. People were doing what my old pastor used to call “gossiping the gospel”. They were talking about it at the grocery store and at the gym and at the pub and over the backyard fence. And everybody was saying how wonderful this new teacher was.
But fame is a fickle thing. Back then (just like today) there were (and are) people who, when they look at Jesus, see only a celebrity. They’re not seeing the Son of God, they’re just seeing a human being who happens to be famous; and every time a person is up on a pedestal there will be other people who feel a need to tear down the pedestal. Jesus will run into people like this throughout his life.
But celebrity is not what Jesus’ life is about. Jesus didn’t come to earth to be famous and start a fan club that would last for 2000 years. In fact there were many times when Jesus performed miracles and then told people “don’t tell anyone”. There were many times when Jesus avoided the crowds, so he be alone with God or spend some time with his disciples. Jesus was aware that, in doing what God wanted him to do – proclaiming the arrival of God’s kingdom – he would become known. But being famous for fame’s sake was never Jesus’ goal.
So in Luke’s gospel, on this particular Sabbath, after preaching for a month or two in towns in synagogues in the north of Israel, Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been raised. And, as he usually did, he went to the synagogue in order to teach there.
Having a guest preacher was relatively common in those days, and Jesus had a good reputation as a preacher, so it’s not surprising that Jesus would be asked to read the scriptures and share a word. He was handed the scroll of Isaiah: Jesus didn’t choose it, but I don’t doubt God had a hand in the choice that was made. The reading Jesus chose was in Isaiah chapter 61. It would have taken some time to unroll the scroll to that point, and we can imagine the anticipation building. At last Jesus finds the place he’s looking for, and he begins to read these words:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…”
We, as people hearing these words 2000 years after they were spoken, by definition will understand these words differently from the people back then. I think to our ears what this opening line says is that Jesus has the Holy Spirit inside him for the purpose of bringing good news to the poor; and that therefore by definition those of us who have the Spirit inside us are also called to bring good news to the poor.
This is a perfectly valid interpretation as far as it goes; but from the viewpoint of 2000 years ago there’s much, much more in Isaiah’s words. The word anointed in Hebrew is transliterated Messiah, which in Greek is Christ. So Isaiah’s words are about the coming Messiah. And in ancient Israel, anointing was a way of proclaiming a future king. You’ll remember in the Old Testament, the prophet Samuel anointed Saul to be the first king of Israel, and after him, David. In both cases Samuel poured oil over their heads as a sign of anointing. In Jesus’ case, the “oil” is spiritual; Jesus has been anointed with the Holy Spirit. But the implication is the same: Jesus’ anointing proclaims a future king.
But Jesus is going to be a different kind of king. Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew:
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants… It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28)
So the people back then would have heard a message about the Messiah, about a coming king; and they would also have heard that this message is good news for the poor. And they would have understood that when God speaks about the poor, God is speaking of many kinds of poverty. ‘The poor’ may be people who don’t have a lot of money; ‘the poor’ may be people who are unable to work and are forced to rely on the generosity of others. Poverty may include intellectual poverty, emotional poverty, spiritual poverty, the poverty of ill health, a poverty of power; a lack of anything; any of the kinds of poverty people may suffer from. God includes all of these when Jesus says “he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor”.
And there’s one more thing the people listening to Jesus would have heard that day. The people in synagogue that morning knew the passage Jesus was reading. They knew it well. When Jesus got up and said “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” it would have been like someone today getting up and saying “I Have a Dream…”. You wouldn’t have to hear the rest of the speech, because we all know it. We feel it in our bones. “I have been to the mountaintop and I have seen the Promised Land…” That’s all we need to hear to catch Martin Luther King’s vision of equality and whole-ness in our relationships across racial lines.
In the same way, Jesus didn’t need to read the whole passage. In fact he doesn’t. He reads a sentence here and a sentence there, just enough to get everyone’s attention fixed on him. They know exactly what he’s talking about. This is God’s promise, through Isaiah, that a king would come and restore the fortunes of Israel. A king who will put Herod and Pilate and all the Romans in their places and would take the throne as to the heir of King David. So Jesus read a few verses, and then rolled up the scroll and sat down, and said:
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
But there was a problem. In the verses immediately following the passage in Luke we heard this morning, we find that this Jesus is the Messiah people have been expecting. They start to say to each other: “Is this not Joseph’s son? Are not his brothers and sisters with us?” And they say to Jesus: “we heard you’ve been healing people in other cities. Do here in your hometown what you’ve done in other places.”
And Jesus answers: “truly no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town.” And then he reminds them that in the days of the prophet Elijah there were many widows in Israel but Elijah was sent only to a widow in Sidon – a Gentile; and in the days of the prophet Elisha there were many lepers, but the only one who was cured was a Syrian – another Gentile. Jesus is implying that the Messiah’s purpose is bigger and broader and wider than they imagine: big enough to include even the Gentiles! And the people in the synagogue are enraged. They chase Jesus out of town, and take him to a cliff to throw him off; but he walks away, and continues his ministry in Capernaum, unable to minister in his hometown because of their lack of faith.
The story makes me wonder in what ways we today might be mistaking Jesus’ plans and purpose: how we might have a vision of God’s plan that, while it’s accurate as far as it goes, is too small, or too narrow, to hold what God has in mind?
But wherever we are, God doesn’t leave us there. The scripture Jesus read that morning was well-known to his listeners, but it’s not quite as familiar or as evocative to us. So let’s take a moment to look at what Jesus didn’t say.
Jesus left off with the words “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…”
The second half of that sentence reads “…and the day of vengeance of our God.”
God’s vengeance in this passage is not quite what we imagine. God is not vindictive the way humans can be. Rather this is statement that God’s justice and deliverance are about to come to pass. And as one theologian has put it: “what is deliverance for the righteous, will be condemnation for the wicked.”
God’s message continues:
“to comfort all who mourn” – to give those who mourn “a garland [of flowers] instead of ashes; the oil of gladness instead of mourning; a mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.”
Isaiah spoke these words to the people of Israel years after they had returned from exile in Babylon. They’d been back in the Promised Land for decades but life was still difficult. The crops weren’t doing well, and the rebuilding of the temple had stalled out, and the people were beginning to rebel again, and the promised kingdom seemed… nearly impossible. So God gave Isaiah these words to comfort and encourage the people that their hardships were not forgotten and that God was still with them.
We also, like Israel, live in a time when years and years have gone by since Jesus walked this earth, and life is difficult, and too many people go to bed hungry, and the building up of spiritual community (especially in the church) seems to have stalled out, and the promised kingdom of God seems… so very far away.
To the people of ancient Israel, as well as to us, Isaiah says: God will bring comfort to those who mourn. God will bind up the brokenhearted. God will bring justice. God’s people will be called “oaks of righteousness”, “the planting of the Lord.” Why? “To display his glory.”
And then: God’s people will “build up the ancient ruins… raise up the former devastations… repair the ruined cities…”
Every time I drive through towns like Aliquippa, or Braddock, or Tarentum (as I did yesterday) or any of our old mill towns that are still waiting for economic recovery after all these years, this verse comes to mind. God’s people will repair the ruined cities, the “devastations of many generations” as Isaiah puts it – rebuilding to God’s glory. That’s one of our callings.
So the comfort Jesus speaks of is for God’s people, as we need it (and we do need it). But it’s not just for us. God’s people – both then and now – are to be a light to the nations. We are blessed to be a blessing; we are restored to assist in the restoration. As people who have been saved – by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus – our role is to be a channel from God to the hurting, oppressed, and hopeless people of the world.
One thing we have that the ancient Israelites did not have is the gift of the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit wasn’t given to God’s people until after Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus said “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” and the Spirit of the Lord is upon us also, to continue Jesus’ work, as God leads, and as we are gifted.
God’s call on our life may lead us into working to bind up the broken-hearted, to set captives free, to comfort those who mourn, to rebuild what has been neglected or destroyed – any of these things, in any number of ways. Justice is God’s glory, and righteousness brings honor to God. We are, in our own way, a bit of God’s light in the world: each of us as individuals, and all of us together. However the Lord has called us, and however the Lord has gifted us, let our light so shine before the world that others give glory to our Father in heaven. AMEN.
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Scriptures for the Day:
Luke 4:14-21 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. 16 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, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18 “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.” 20 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. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
[The rest of the story: Luke 4:22-30 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'” 24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.]
The original Isaiah passage Jesus quoted: Isaiah 61:1-4 The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion– to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory. 4 They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Preached at Carnegie United Methodist Church and Hill Top United Methodist Church, 1/27/19
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