Luke 4:14-21
Then Jesus, filled with the Spirit, returned to Galilee and word about him spread throughout the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and everyone spoke well of him. When he came to Nazareth, the place where he had been brought up, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. When he stood up to read, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has
anointed me to bring good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight
to the blind, freedom for the oppressed and to
proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
When he said this, he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
This is going to be a sermon in two parts. You’ll get the first part of it all today. And I’ll have something more and different, I suspect, to say next Sunday, the Gospel for which begins right where we just left off – with everyone staring at Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth.
But for now, though, I’m going to pretend what we just heard stands on its own, even though it doesn’t and even though it probably shouldn’t. Those of you who opened your Bibles, just now, and looked ahead or who know your Scripture and the Gospel of Luke, know that today’s reading is a prelude to something more for Jesus – and it ain’t pretty. So, you’ll have to come back, or tune in again next week, to see what I mean.
But today, this chunk of Scripture – plucked out of everything that surrounds it anyway – is nothing but good news. And I’m going to leave it at that. This morning there’s no catch. Today there’s no “gotcha.” I have no twist on this good news. Maybe you’ve heard that good preaching is supposed to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” which is often my goal, but not today. Jesus said once that “today’s trouble was enough for today,” and I’m thinking we need good news to just be good news right now. (Next week, though, the “it-shay is going to hit the an-fay” for Jesus, just so you know.)
So, I went looking for something I thought would help illustrate my point about all of this and stumbled across a thing, totally by accident, and found it perfect for the occasion. It’s an old bit Jimmy Fallon used to do called “I’ve got good news and good news.” Check it out.
So, this morning – like we just heard from Jesus – I’ve got good news and good news and I’d like to just revel in the Gospel goodness of that.
Because when we meet up with Jesus today, he is filled with and inspired by the Holy Spirit, following his baptism. He has also just duked it out with the devil in the wilderness – and won. So, after being dunked in the Jordan river, declared God’s beloved child, and having resisted some pretty mighty temptations from Satan, he is apparently riding a spiritual high as he makes his way around Galilee preaching and teaching and impressing the people with is wisdom and understanding, with all of his council and might – so much so that he’s the talk of the town and the talk is all good – everyone was speaking well of him in those days.
And why wouldn’t they be? Why shouldn’t they be? At least this morning – and that day in the synagogue in Nazareth – Jesus let the scripture do the talking. With the words of the prophet Isaiah, he promised good news for the poor. He proclaimed release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind. He declared freedom for the oppressed and the year of the Lord’s favor. And then he just sat down, leaving the crowd to stare at him, probably itching for more; probably waiting for him to hit them with some of that wise and wonderful teaching they’d been hearing about around town.
But, his only interpretation of it all – at least in that moment for those in Nazareth, and for us here this morning – is that the scripture had been fulfilled, just like that. In other words, the poor had been promised good news. The captives had heard declaration of their release. The blind would or could see again – or maybe for the first time, ever. Those who had been oppressed were now free. And, apparently, the year of the Lord’s favor had come to pass, too.
Hallelujah… Praise be to God… and, amen! It was nothing but good news on top of good news with a side of Reese’s peanut butter cups. It was partly cloudy with a chance of dancing in Nazareth that day.
And if this good news is true, like those first worshipers in Jesus’ home town, all we can do is wonder, what does this mean for us today, here and now? If we buy the notion that those words from Isaiah really have been fulfilled in our hearing, how could these things be? As a people who long for good news… who’ve been waiting for some good news… who have been hungry and thirsty for and needing some good news for a change… what does any of this look like for us?
What does it mean that today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing? In my hearing? In our hearing, together?
Well, not only is Jesus suggesting that he’s the anointed one, the one called to preach and proclaim and promise all of these good and holy things on God’s behalf, but Jesus is saying that it has already been accomplished – good news has been proclaimed to the poor… release has been declared for the captives… recovery of sight has come to the blind… freedom has been delivered for the oppressed.
And, if what Jesus is saying is true, then there must have been some poor people in that synagogue; there must have been some captives in that congregation; there must have been some blind and oppressed people listening to him in Nazareth on that very Sabbath day.
And if the Word of God is a living Word that speaks to us, still, then that must be true here, too, for you and me … now … just the same. So, who are the “poor” among us? What holds the likes of you and me “captive?” In what ways are we “oppressed?” How are you and I “blind,” I wonder?
We have to acknowledge that most of us aren’t any of these things when compared to so many out there in the world – poor, oppressed, captive or literally blind, I mean. But if this is to be good news for us … if this Scripture is somehow fulfilled, simply in our having heard it … how do we find and embrace and celebrate that good news for ourselves and with each other?
What I mean is, we may not be financially poor – and, again, most of us by comparison with the rest of the world, are not poor – so today we’re called to wonder what it is we’re missing that God’s good news provides? Are we poor in spirit? Are we low on hope? Are we lacking self-esteem or self-worth or validation from someone we love? Are we poor, you and I, precisely because we have so much stuff, so many things, so much money at our disposal, and because we’re confused by a world that pretends it can buy our happiness?
And, we may not be behind bars, most of us, but that doesn’t mean we’re not tied up or locked down or bound by something. A job – a relationship – a regret from our past – some fear about the future. Each and every one of us is bound by the sin of something done to us or bound by the sin of what we have done or left undone, ourselves.
And none of us may actually be blind, either, but isn’t there plenty we can’t see about ourselves or others; plenty we refuse to see about ourselves or others. Isn’t there plenty we hope no one sees when they look in our direction?
And wouldn’t we all – in this country and among God’s children everywhere – like to see this year finally be the one that’s full of God’s favor? A year without fires and floods, earthquakes and tornadoes, I mean… A year where gun violence in synagogues, schools, and in the streets of our cities disappears… A year without political unrest and racial division… A year without war and insurrection… the year where this pandemic finally runs its course… the year where people of all faiths find common ground and solid footing in our love for one another and care for our neighbor?
So, I wonder, what if we let it be, this good news on top of good news that we hear from Jesus today? What if we lived like it were true? Not with our heads in the sand, but with our hope resting firmly enough in God’s promises that it’s possible and that it could – by the power of an unfathomably divine grace and mercy – actually come to pass?
This morning – and every day we can manage it – let’s let the Word be the Word. And let’s let the Word of God’s grace be enough. Let’s hear its promise. Let’s receive and share its forgiveness. Let’s hold onto the fullness of its hope. Let’s roll up the scroll – or close the book – and let’s sit down and let’s sit still with the Truth of this Gospel’s good, good news.
And let’s realize that God is talking to us, you and me – that God is speaking our language. And that that these words – these promises – all of this good news about release, recovery, vision, freedom and forgiveness – this is all we need and everything God intends for us, today and every day.
What if today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing?
Amen
