Our Gospel message comes to us today from Luke the 4th chapter, beginning at the 14th verse.
Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 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: “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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 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.” (Luke 4:14-21, NRSV)
All mighty God, we thank you for your word and the way that you in it revealed to us who you are and what you've done for us in Christ. Now as we open that word we pray that your spirit may be present, that all thoughts of worry or distraction may be removed and that the Spirit will allow us to hear your voice. And so, oh God, fill us with your spirit through the reading and proclamation of your word this day. We pray in Jesus name. Amen
“Salvation Is Here”
During this season of Epiphany, the baby who was born in the manger on Christmas comes alive for us. During this season, we see who this child really is. We see Jesus in many different ways during this season. Last Sunday, we saw that he was concerned about His mother and wedding party he had attended. Jesus spent some time in a social context, he spent time with His family and with His friends. He spent days, not just a few moments of time that was His supposed duty, but Jesus valued the time he spent with His family, getting to know them, getting to see them as people and as friends. And in today’s gospel lesson, we see Jesus in a different light. We see him in the synagogue and it was His turn to read. He turns to a passage on Isaiah which is our first lesson and reads it. Then he sits down and begins to explain the passage, to bring the passage alive for the people.
To fully understand all the significance of this passage, we must first understand the Jewish synagogue system of worship. In the synagogue, sacrifice was not done. The synagogue was a place for teaching and reading. The temple in Jerusalem was the place for the priests to offer sacrifice to God, but in the synagogue, men came to learn. Another difference between the synagogue and the temple was in the temple the priests were in charge, but in the synagogue there were no priest, no preacher. Each man had an opportunity to participate in the time of reading and learning. A man would volunteer to read a passage from the scrolls of the Old Testament, and then afterwards, he would sit down and explain what those passages he read meant to him.
So on this day, Jesus was taking His turn in the synagogue to read the lesson and then to explain it. He picked a lesson that was very familiar to the Jews, a lesson that stirred up the hearts and the passions of all Jews. This passage from Isaiah was a passage of hope, a passage of deliverance, a passage that reminded the Jews that God was indeed still with them, still caring for them. This was a great passage to read, because it was one of the favorite passages from their ancient traditions. Then Jesus hands the scroll back to the attendant to put away, returns to His seat, the eyes and the minds of the men present follow him, for they know that he will now explain the passage, he will teach this passage to them.
Jesus sits, and he begin to speak, and speak he does. He begins His sermon with the most amazing sentence, He really grabs their attention by saying, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Jesus is saying today he has fulfilled this scripture, today he is God’s salvation to the world.
Our text stops with this first line of His sermon, but next week we will have the rest of His sermon and the reaction of the men in the synagogue to His preaching. But today, we dwell only on Jesus’ first line, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Jesus is dropping a bomb shell on this congregation. He is shaking them up. He is telling them that he is God’s salvation in the world. Through him God’s deliverance, God’s promise of hope, God’s promise of freedom has come to His people. Jesus is revealing something about himself, he is making clear His mission, His calling, His task as he goes about His ministry on this earth. Jesus is setting the scope, the limits, the horizons of His ministry.
I think as we look at this text for us, as we try to see how this text fits our situation in life, we need to dwell not on the fact that Jesus surprised His synagogue with this remarkable statement, that he was God’s salvation, nor do we want to look ahead and see the reaction of those people to this statement of Jesus, for we will deal with all of that next week, but today I think we need to concentrate on what it means that Jesus is our salvation. What does it mean that he has fulfilled this passage in Isaiah for His time and for our time.
I think the best way to get a handle on this is to first look at this passage as Isaiah said it to His people many years ago. The people had returned from captivity in Babylon. They were trying to rebuild their ruins, but things weren’t going very well. The people were getting discouraged, they thought God had abandoned them. Times were hard, food was scarce and hope for the future was in short supply. The people were so desperate so full of mourning that they even covered their heads with ashes, and wore sackcloth, the garment of mourning. But Isaiah comes and says to all of this God is here, He will deliver, He will save, He will make you a mighty nation. Through you, God will keep His promise to bring salvation to the world. This passage is one of hope, of freedom, of release, a passage of salvation.
Now when Jesus said, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" He was saying the same kind of thing to the people of His day. God will deliver. God will restore. God will keep His promises to you, that through your salvation, deliverance, freedom will come to the peoples of the earth. But Jesus went beyond Isaiah, he didn’t mean that one nation would be restored, he didn’t mean that the physical restoration of the temple would take place, because that already had happened. But Jesus was talking about the spiritual restoration instead of a physical one. Jesus was talking about God’s plan of salvation for the whole earth, instead of just the nation of Israel. Jesus was saying that through him, God would bring salvation to all people. Jesus was saying that through him salvation would come even to us today. Salvation is here for us because Jesus has fulfilled this passage.
This salvation is seen very clearly in this passage. Jesus says that part of His salvation is to preach the good news. The good news is that God is with us, God cares about us. There is forgiveness, there is hope, there is renewal. Jesus knew that in a world where people find only the bad news, where sin, death and the devil are alive and well, we need some good news. We need to know that God has not abandoned us.
And isn’t that true for us. We need to be reminded over and over again that God is with us. This passage reminds us he is. God is still here amidst of all the bad news, amidst all the violence of our world, God is still here. The good news of salvation needs to be proclaimed in our world. Jesus saw that people needed to hear the good news about God because there was enough bad news in their lives. We need to hear over and over again the good news of God too, because of all the bad news in our lives. As we experience the brokenness of this world, as we live among all the violence , all of man’s inhumanity to man, the good news of Jesus Christ needs to be proclaimed loud and clear. There is still hope, there is still God. He is here amidst all that is wrong with our world, He is still here amidst all the killing, all the hatred, all the abuse we pile upon one another, God is still here. That is the good news, that is our hope. that is our deliverance.
Jesus also says in this passage there is release, for the captivities.. Isaiah was speaking about those people still in prison, those people who had not been set free by the Babylonian, but Jesus is going beyond that. He is saying there is release for the captivities of this world, those captive by sin and their own selfishness. We can be made new creatures because God can release us from ourselves from our sins, so that we might be a service to him and our neighbor.
There is a poem that speaks to our situation of selfishness and sin that all of us at one time or another get caught up in.
"I had a little tea party this afternoon at three.
It was very small, you know – Just I, myself and me.
Myself ate all the sandwiches, while I drank up the tea
It was also I who ate the pie and passed the cake to me."
Jesus says he will release us from our sin of self, forgive us our wrongs, so that we might be free. For in freedom there is the possibility to risk, to give of ourselves. In our freedom from sin, we have the opportunity to give ourselves to God. To turn over to him our lives, our souls and our hearts. Jesus releases us from the captivity to self, which is really what sin is all about, so that we might be free to respond to him.
Finally, Jesus says that salvation means to give liberty to those who are oppressed. Isaiah was speaking to those people who were slaved, who had been captured by the Babylonians and put to work, but Jesus is going beyond that, He is speaking to all those people who are oppressed because of either disease, lack of food, shelter or clothing, those who are discriminated against because of race or creed, those who are even oppressed by their sex. Jesus is saying that salvation frees people from the oppressions of this world.
As we walk with Jesus through His ministry in Luke’s gospel this year, we will see that according to Luke, Jesus pays special attention to those people who are oppressed. There are more healing miracles in Luke’s gospel, there is more concern about woman who are second class citizens in Jesus' day, there is more concern about food and the hungry than in any of the other gospels. Jesus is not only concerned about our freedom from sin, but He is just as much concerned about being set free from those things that hinder a life from being whole, that hinder of life from having quality.
Even today, Jesus is concerned about those same kinds of thing in our lives. He is concerned and it is His body, the church, that is the caring agent in this world. We don’t have Jesus walking the earth today, reaching out to touch the diseased, to give food to the hungry, to bring comfort and courage to the oppressed, but we do have His church, His body in this world doing the same thing. We, the body of Christ, who are the hands of salvation to bring, healing to the diseased, food to the hungry and comfort to the oppressed. We do that for people in and outside of our community.
Jesus said, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in our hearing." Today salvation has come to you. Yes, God’s salvation is here, it is present in our world. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray:
In you, O Lord our God, we find our joy, for through your law and your prophets you formed a people in mercy and freedom, in justice and righteousness. Pour your Spirit on us today, that we who are Christ's body may bear the good news of your ancient promises to all who seek you. Amen.
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The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.
In today's text, Jesus is revealing something about himself, he is making clear His mission, His calling, His task as he goes about His ministry on this earth. Jesus is setting the scope, the limits, the horizons of His ministry.
