Readings
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Luke 4:14-21
Today we encounter Jesus after his sojourn in the wilderness. We hear that he’s been preaching in towns and villages throughout Galilee and his popularity is on the rise. Specifically, we hear that he is “filled with the power of the Spirit” which means that he likely has also performed some miracles at this point.
By the time he reaches his hometown we can imagine the level of buzz there must have been about this local boy who has made good. When he went to worship in the synagogue he stood up as was his right and took a scroll from the tabernacle and read a passage from the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and began to read Isaiah’s great vision for the children of Israel. Namely, it is a proclamation of jubilee.
Now jubilee was an ancient concept of the Israelites wherein each 49 years all the debt accrued by people would be forgiven and the wealth of the nation would be redistributed equally among the people. It was meant to be a time that restored the vision of how God’s people are to live together. Isaiah, however, took this a step further and proclaimed the jubilee of God, a time when all is made right in the world. It is a time when God will not only restore the fortune of the poor, but will restore and transform the lives of those who are imprisoned, ill, or oppressed.
By the time of Jesus most Jewish people anxiously waited for this to occur. They waited for the miraculous arrival of a messiah who would usher in such a reality. That person would vanquish the Israelites’ foes and restore the fortunes of the nation. That person would level the playing field and bring about for them a paradise on earth.
It is this vision that Jesus reads in the synagogue and then sits down. Sitting down meant that he was going to teach on the text he just read. You can imagine how the people around him waited with bated breath to hear what he would say. And then Jesus says the most amazing thing. He says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
We read this passage with the foreknowledge of what the rest of the Gospel and the other Gospels have to say about Jesus. But imagine, if you will, how surprising and shocking Jesus’ words must have been to the people who first heard him. Imagine what it might have meant to them. They would have been all too aware of the suffering and oppression under which they lived. They would have been well aware of the economic and social injustices that plagued them from all corners of their society and the Roman Empire. And yet, Jesus says that the scripture has been fulfilled. That the jubilee of God is now.
Even if we accept that Jesus is God, one has to ask, “how is that true?” How could Jesus proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor when so much hurt and wrong was occurring in the world? Well, it all depends on what we are expecting, doesn’t it?
Perhaps, Jesus wasn’t saying that everything is okay. Perhaps, just perhaps, he is doing something else. This may well be the beginning of his proclamation of the Kingdom of God. This may well be him outlining what he understands his mission to be. He is the one who is the proclaimer in this passage of Isaiah.
Following this, Jesus goes about Galilee healing the sick, forgiving sins, releasing people from the bondages of societal expectation, and effecting transformation in everyone he meets. In short, he embodies much, if not all, of Isaiah’s vision. He calls that vision “the Kingdom of God” and he regularly proclaims that it “has come near.”
This is the good news that Jesus proclaims to the people. It is a call to not wait for some miraculous deliverance in the future, but a call to recognize that Isaiah’s vision is all about us even now. This is how he can say “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” What he is actually saying is that, despite the brokenness and evil all about us, the wholeness and wellness that God intends for us is already breaking into the world and into our lives. Even as he calls us to be agents of the Kingdom of God, he is proclaiming the abundance that is available to us in the here and now.
One of the obstacles that we face in doing the work of God is our awareness of the brokenness in our life. It is easy for our pain, our illnesses, our suffering, our fears and the dangers we face, and our sense of scarcity to block everything else. It is all too easy for those things to make it difficult or even impossible to have an abiding sense of the presence of God and the wellbeing he pours upon us.
But, Jesus, in his words today tells us that the truth of our existence is the vision of Isaiah. We, in fact, live in a world in which the elimination of poverty is possible, both our own sense of scarcity as well as the scarcity of others. We live in a world in which transformation and liberation are possible for those who are oppressed and in prison. But not just those who are oppressed or captive physically, but also for us in the various things that weigh us down and trap us. We live in a world in which the love and the grace of God is an ever-present reality in our lives and in the lives of others.
Yes, as I have preached multiple times, we are called to make that vision a reality in our world. We are called to be the embodiment of Christ in our own day and carry out the in-breaking of God’s kingdom. But for today, I invite you to reflect on the abundance, the healing, the liberation, and the grace that is present in your life. Doing so is the first step in embracing the Kingdom of God and the grace that Jesus is offering.
Jesus proclaims to each of us today good news in the face of scarcity. He proclaims release to whatever we are captive to. He promises to open our eyes and heal our souls. He offers us freedom from whatever we find oppressive. He invites us into his jubilee that will restore our lives and transform our world.
Let us reflect on that and be empowered to do his work. Let us embrace the truth that today in our hearing, this scripture has been fulfilled.