Reflection on Luke 4:14-21

Luke 4:14-21

16 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: 

18 “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 set free those who are oppressed,   

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 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.”

Reflection

Who is Jesus?  And, what exactly is it that Jesus cares about?  I do not know if you have noticed, but Jesus has been thrust onto the national stage, with people quite forcefully claiming to know who Jesus is and what Jesus cares about.  Some present Jesus as a judger of sin and dealer of appropriate punishment.  Others present Jesus as the one who loves all no matter what.  Still others present Jesus as the one who instructed us to direct our devotion to the government, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” they quip, placing the government higher than Jesus.  And, others present Jesus as a myth whose time has passed, but whose name is still used by the ultra religious to suppress and abuse whomever they please.

So, who is Jesus?  What exactly is it that Jesus cares about?  It is amazing to me that there is so much debate about these questions (people ripping singular Bible verses off of the pages of scripture to support their own paintings of Jesus) when Jesus quite straight forwardly answers these questions himself.  The answers can be found right in Luke 4:14-21, right in the Holy Scriptures.

Who is he?  What does he care about? 

Jesus answers these questions just as he begins his ministry, preaching in a synagogue to the people of his own hometown.  Those who watched him grow up also have ideas about who he is.  Some see him as Joseph’s son, the prodigy of a handyman (Luke 4:22).  Certainly, others know him as the one who listened quietly and carefully in the Synagogue all of those years (Luke 4:16).  They are amazed to hear his gracious words when he finally speaks up (Luke 4:22).  And, still others wonder about the possibility of having a miracle worker standing right in front of them, having heard about all the wonders he did in Capernaum (Luke 4:23).

Like us today, they all have an idea of who Jesus is and what he cares about.  They have painted their own paintings of Jesus and carry those paintings along with.  All of us assume we know who Jesus is, carrying our own paintings, myself included, but how many of us stop and actually take the time to listen to Jesus and find out for certain who he says he is?

Well, on that Sabbath day when Jesus stands up to read the scriptures to the people of his hometown, he intentionally chooses the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, unrolls it, chooses the words that he will read in that scroll, and proclaims:

“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 set free those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

That was the scripture.  But, it is what Jesus says next that transforms this word from Isaiah into the defining text of Jesus’ life and ministry.  As Jesus sits down to teach, all eyes upon him, he says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).

And, what exactly did we hear?  We heard that God’s creating and life giving breath was blowing through him; “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Luke 4:18).

We heard that the Lord has poured the holy oils that designated the king and Messiah on him; “He has anointed me” (Luke 4:18).

That is who Jesus is.  Jesus claims to be the one filled with God’s life-giving wind, word, and Spirit.  And, Jesus is the one for whom the world has been waiting to deliver it from all sin and death.  Jesus is the Messiah.

I do not think that we can properly understand just how jarring a claim this would be to the neighbors who lived across the street from Jesus.  In today’s world we would look at this guy who just got up in the middle of the church service and spoke at the lectern and we would say to each other, “Hold on, you are telling me that the boy who grew up across the street, whose father fixed my toilet and had that same kid out of wedlock; that kid is God’s Son.  You gotta be kidding me.  Who does he think he is to stand up there and tell me anything?”  There is a reason the town tried to throw him off a cliff.

“And, though he is a good speaker, I’ll give him that, listen to what this scruffy, back alley, boy says he cares about.”  The accuser lists off the values of Jesus:

He announces God’s kindness to the leeches of the world; the poor, destitute, and powerless; “to bring good news to the poor.”

He preaches that those rightly in captivity will be forgiven and set free; “to proclaim release to the captives.”

He preaches that the blind (both the physically blind and the delusional in the head) will get their sight again; “and recovery of sight to the blind.”

Not only does he preach that these people will be released, but he preaches that he is the one sent to do it, to smash oppression and grant forgiveness; “to set free those who are oppressed.”

He says that he is here to proclaim that now is the time that God’s acceptance of the unacceptable, and forgiveness of the unforgiveable will begin; “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And, though it may seem that these are great values to live by, I am here to assure you that caring about the wrong people and forgiving the unforgivable will get your name trashed, will get you thrown off a cliff, and will get you nailed to a cross.  Love is all well and good, as long as we love the right people.  But, if you love and forgive the wrong people, well, love gets nailed to the cross each and every time.  Forcing people to look at the plight of struggling people will get you nailed to the cross each and every time.  Forgiving public enemies and allowing them to thrive will get you nailed to the cross each and every time.

I nail people to crosses in my head all the time.  I have a whole field of crosses in my head, just waiting for people to be nailed.  Am I alone in this?  “Listen, some people are not worth caring about,” I try to convince myself, preparing a cross for them, and for Jesus.  “Some people just cannot be forgiven,” I am so certain, preparing a cross for them, and for Jesus.  How many of you do this?  I cannot be the only one who kills off people in my head, and sometimes push them away for good in my life.

After-all, sometimes we do not actually want to see.  We do not want to see these people.  We do not want to care.  

Some people do not want their eyes opened to the ways of Jesus.  Some people do not want to actually listen to Jesus or consider caring about the people Jesus cares about.  And, thus, we have a huge assortment of paintings of Jesus that, upon close inspection, are much more filled with the brush strokes of the people who did the painting, than they do in actually recreating on the canvas the one they claim to paint.

But, Jesus directly tells us who he is and Jesus directly tells us who he cares about.  We can either be blind to him, or we can call out from the roadside, like the blind beggar in Luke 18, who realizes that without Jesus he has no chance, “Lord, let me see again” (Luke 18:41). 

When we sense our eyes turn away and feel our hearts harden toward someone who is lowly and powerless (not cared about by anyone) we can either happily live with the blindness, or we can cry out, “Lord, let me see again” (Luke 18:41). 

When the blood starts to boil in our veins and we close our eyes out of anger when the wrong people are given attention and the wrong people are released and forgiven, we can either turn away, living with the blindness and hard hearts, or we can cry out, “Lord, let me see again” (Luke 18:41). 

When we paint the Jesus that we want to believe in rather than the one who stands in front of us and proclaims “the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19), we can either hold up our own paintings of Jesus in front of us, staring blindly at our own divine creation, or we can throw them aside and cry out, “Lord, let me see again” (Luke 18:41). 

Because, when we cry out, “Lord, let me see again,” we will discover that Jesus, the Messiah, stops in the middle of his journey along the road, looks at us with love, and says to us, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.”  And immediately we will regain our sight and follow him (Luke 18:42-43).

When we follow, we will see that Jesus heals and frees those who are out of their minds, lost in horror and confusion (Luke 4:31-37); we will see Jesus heal and return to their families the destitute lepers who were cast aside (Luke 5:12-16 and Luke 17:11-19); we will see Jesus forgive and heal the poor and crippled allowing them to walk again (Luke 5:17-26); we will see Jesus feed the hungry in abundance (Luke 9:10-17); we will see the sinful son welcomed home (Luke 15:11-32), and we will see Jesus invite the thief who deserves punishment on a cross, into paradise for eternity, just as Jesus dies to save all of us blind, hurt, hungry, hard hearted, and confused people on his cross (Luke 23:39-49).

Who is Jesus?  What does he care about?  Jesus is divine mercy and love with feet and hands, who cares when no one else does.  And, Lord Jesus, on the days that I cannot see that, on the days when I am blind to you and your ways, give me the breath to shout out, “Lord, let me see again.”