“Anointed & Fulfilled” Colchester Federated Church, January 26, 2025, Third Sunday after Epiphany (Luke 4:14-21)

After Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in the waters of the Jordan River, after Jesus is tempted in the wilderness for forty days and perseveres—Luke tells us that Jesus “returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.”[1]  News about Jesus is spreading throughout the countryside.  Jesus teaches in synagogues and everyone praises him.  Then Jesus goes on to Nazareth—his hometown.  On the Sabbath, Jesus goes to the synagogue as he normally did and stands up to read.  The synagogue assistant hands Jesus the scroll from the prophet Isaiah.  Jesus unrolls the scroll and finds the place where Isaiah wrote:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to liberate the oppressed,
and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.[2]

Jesus rolls up the scroll and hands it back to the synagogue assistant.  Luke tells us that Jesus sits down and “every eye in the synagogue was fixed on him.”[3]  Jesus explains to all those gathered that this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.

There’s a lot of compelling aspects of our Gospel story.  We can keep in mind that this is all happening in Chapter 4 of the Gospel according to Luke.  This is happening near the beginning of the story.  Last Sunday, Pastor Jack preached about Jesus’ miraculous sign of turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana in John’s Gospel.  We could understand that Jesus’ sign helped us see something of the glory of God.  We could ask ourselves what signs help us see something of the glory of God.  In a similar way, this Gospel story of Jesus preaching in the synagogue tells us more about Jesus—about who Jesus was and how Jesus understood himself in the context of his community. 

Going back to Systematic Theology in Seminary, we often differentiated between the historical Jesus (the person known as Jesus of Nazareth who lived and walked among us) and the Christ of faith (what Christians came to believe about the historical Jesus).  What we can say about Jesus as a historical figure is that he was born to a Jewish family around 4 C.E. and grew up in Nazareth, a hill town of maybe 2,000 people tops.  Jesus and his family were likely part of the laboring class.  He was baptized by John the Baptist and began his public ministry when he was around 30 years old.  The hallmarks of Jesus’ ministry were: its itinerant and charismatic nature, a focus on fellow Jews in Galilee from the peasant class, prophetic sensibilities, preaching about the Kingdom of God,a concern for the destitute and oppressed, breaking social boundaries, miraculous activities like healings and exorcisms, and symbolic actions.  Jesus experienced conflict with some of his fellow Jews.  And Jesus of Nazareth died under Roman rule; died a Roman death by crucifixion.  Crucifixion was reserved as punishment for runaway slaves and political insurrectionists.[4] 

Though Jesus’ crucifixion was not the end of the story.  Some scholars like Marcus Borg would talk about the pre-Easter Jesus (the historical Jesus) and the post-Easter Jesus (the Jesus of the Christian tradition or Jesus as a “divine reality”).[5]  All of this to say that it is puzzling when some folks criticize clergy or churches or whole denominations for getting “too political” when we talk about Jesus’ concern for the poor and oppressed.  Because this concern was one of the hallmarks of Jesus’ ministry.  We can be certain that caring for the poor and oppressed remains one of the most important teachings of Jesus that we, the followers of the post-Easter Jesus, are called to live out. 

Remember that Jesus preached, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.”[6]  Jesus taught, “It’s very hard for the wealthy to enter God’s kingdom!  It’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.”[7]  These are not teachings that New Testament scholars and theologians wrote about Jesus after he died.  These are the teachings of Jesus, the words of Jesus.  Some of us may have Bibles where Jesus’ words are written in red.  Blessed are the poor, it’s very hard for the wealthy to enter God’s kingdom, [God] has sent me to preach good news to the poor—those are teachings from the mouth and heart of our Lord, our Teacher and Friend, Jesus the Christ, the man of Nazareth—our crucified and risen savior.

The heading of today’s text in the Common English Bible (written by translators, granted) is “Jesus announces good news to the poor.”  Because that’s what Jesus came to do in part—announce good news to the poor.  I appreciate the translation of this passage from the First Nations Version as Jesus explains, “The Spirit of Creator has come to rest on me.  He has chosen me to tell the good story to the ones who are poor.  He has sent me to mend broken hearts, to tell prisoners they have been set free, to make the blind see again, and to lift up the ones who have been pushed down—to make it known that Creator’s Year of Setting Free has come at last.”[8]  If this is “too political” for our liking, we can always take it up with Jesus.  Blame Jesus because he had a lot to say about wealth and power and how we treat one another, and it got him into a whole lot of trouble!  That’s why we sometimes talk about the joy and cost of discipleship.  

Today we can remember that Jesus was part of the laboring class along with his family.  He grew up in a humble town that wasn’t even mentioned in the Old Testament.  We can look at what Jesus did in his hometown synagogue near the beginning of his ministry.  Jesus takes the scroll from the prophet Isaiah, and that is not an accident.  Isaiah himself once proclaimed in Isaiah Chapter 10 verses 1-3:

Doom to those who pronounce wicked decrees, and keep writing harmful laws
to deprive the needy of their rights and to rob the poor among my people of justice;
to make widows their loot; to steal from orphans!
What will you do on the day of punishment when disaster comes from far away?
To whom will you flee for help; where will you stash your wealth?[9]

Jesus, like the prophet Isaiah before him, looked out for the lost and the least.  He looked out for the needy and the poor.  He looked out for widows and orphans.  Because there was recognition that due to their economic vulnerability widows and orphans could easily be deprived of justice.  Yet another way was possible.

How do we know that another way is possible?  We can look to Jesus standing up in the synagogue in his hometown.  We can look to this man who was part of the laboring class.  We can look to Jesus reading from the prophet Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to liberate the oppressed,
and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.[10]

Perhaps this message makes us want to shout from the rooftops.  Amen!  Hallelujah!  Praise God!  Perhaps it makes us feel uneasy.  Perhaps we don’t quite know what to think.  But make no mistake, Jesus took those words from Isaiah and made them his own.  Jesus declared to all those gathered in that synagogue that God’s spirit was upon him and that God anointed him.  Jesus declared that God sent Jesus to preach good news to the poor.  God sent Jesus to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind.  God sent Jesus to liberate the oppressed and proclaim the year of God’s favor. 

This message of hope and liberation so that abundant life could be experienced by all people is what Jesus came to preach and teach and embody.  And just as it wasn’t always popular in Jesus’ day, it’s not always popular now.  But somebody’s got to walk in Jesus’ footsteps—why not us?  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Luke 4:14, CEB.
[2] Luke 4:18-19, CEB.
[3] Luke 4:20, CEB.
[4] Dr. Benjamin Valentine, Systematic Theology II, Andover Newton Theological School, Spring 2008; Marcus J. Borg, Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written, 17.
[5] Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, pg. 146.
[6] Luke 6:20-21, NRSVUE.
[7] Luke 18:24-25, CEB.
[8] Luke 4:18-19, First Nations Version.
[9] Isaiah 10:1-3, CEB.
[10] Luke 4:18-19, CEB.

Photo by Rev. Lauren Ostrout.