Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
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Luke 4:16-30
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
This story takes place at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. He had been baptized and tested in the wilderness, and then had begun to travel around preaching and teaching, and had been gaining a reputation as an insightful and charismatic rabbi. Today’s reading tells us about an occasion on which Jesus visits his childhood hometown of Nazareth, where he preaches in the local synagogue on the Sabbath.
Most people who consider themselves Christians know this story took place, but I’m not sure most of us know why it’s supposed to matter to us. We’re told that Jesus starts out by announcing that he is the fulfillment of a prophesy in Isaiah as an ‘anointed one.’ (That’s the meaning of the word messiah.) That might seem like a surprising thing for a local boy to say, but apparently nobody took offense at it. Luke tells us that the people of the congregation ‘speak well of him,’ and that they’re “amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.”
But then people become hostile in a hurry. Jesus seems to perceive that the people of the Nazareth synagogue want to see him do miracles, as they’ve heard he’s done them in other places. But Jesus reminds the congregation that two of the most important Old Testament prophets performed miracles for gentiles instead of their own people. The crowd definitely takes offense at that – in fact, they decide to drag Jesus out of town and throw him off a cliff. Of course, that’s futile, and Jesus just walks away.
The rejection by Jesus’ hometown folks is the part of the story that catches our attention, but I’m not sure that’s the real heart of the story. It seems to me the important part is that Jesus identifies himself as the Messiah – and the fulfillment of the ancient prophesy from Isaiah. In making that claim, Jesus is setting out the meaning of his ministry.
What the Spirit has anointed Jesus to do as the Messiah is “to preach good news to the poor,” and to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.” All of these assignments to Jesus relate to concrete action in the world. In a sense, they involve the announcement of ‘practical’ actions, not just spiritual ones.
Some Christians say that followers of Jesus aren’t supposed to be getting involved in “social causes,” but rather are just to worry about “saving souls.” Those who think that way usually claim that Jesus was just concerned about the “poor in spirit,” and not about the materially poor.
But that’s hard to square with the gospel accounts as a whole, and especially with the Gospel of Luke. Luke frequently quotes Jesus expressing concern for the poor – and not just the poor in spirit, but those who are actually, materially poor. This passage seems to express the understanding that Jesus’ ministry in this world would mean good news for those who were suffering poverty, disability, imprisonment and oppression here on earth.
Church history says that the world really started to take notice of the followers of Jesus when people saw them reaching out to embody that good news for the sick, the needy and the oppressed. The followers of Jesus risked their lives to nurse the sick during the great plagues. They used their own money to feed the hungry. They reached out in friendship to the unclean and the outcasts. That’s when the world first noticed that there was something different about the Jesus movement.
And if Jesus was anointed to that mission, then his followers are, too. We are anointed by the Holy Spirit to preach good news to the poor – not the news that they wouldn’t be so poor if they were as righteous as we are, but rather the news that our master has commanded us to share generously with them. To work tirelessly for the relief of the oppressed and imprisoned. To make nursing the sick and the disabled our personal responsibility.
At the end of the passage from Isaiah, it says that the anointed one will “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” That was a reference to the ancient year of Jubilee, each 50th year, when all obligations were forgiven and slaves and prisoners set free. It was a year of grace, extended to the worthy and the unworthy alike. We followers of Jesus understand ourselves to be saved through God’s grace rather than through our own virtue or righteousness. So as people saved by grace, we have no choice but to extend gracious help to the poor, the sick, the imprisoned and the oppressed in his name – whether they’re worthy or not.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for coming into this world to bring good news to those who face trouble here. By the same Spirit that anointed our Master, touch the hearts of people like us, who are so blessed in the things of this world, and move us to be agents of good news in the lives of others, too. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 81 and 116; Esther 7:1-10; and Acts 19:11-20. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.org, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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