For Sunday, January 31, 2016 – Luke 4:21-30
Back in his home synagogue, Jesus reads Isaiah’s familiar words: “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.” He speaks with such commanding authority and spirit that they hear and see him as though for the first time. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they ask, not expecting one of their own young men to present himself so well.
As inaugural addresses go, this one is proving to be a rousing success. Hometown boy, now making a name for himself in neighboring regions as a healer and miracle worker, with rumors starting to swirl about being a possible messiah—what added stature and political perks might he generate for his hometown? Hey, Jesus, remember us? What have you done for us lately?
We all have thought it at some point, I expect—hey, thanks for everything, what have you done for us lately? What Jesus does for us on this particular day is remind us who God is. He reminds us how much God loves to lean in close to the most outcast, most isolated, most rejected—those we tend to ignore—and fill up their plates first. “Doubtless you will say, ‘Do here in your hometown what you are doing elsewhere.’ But no prophet is accepted at home,” he says. Remember how God took care of that foreign widow suffering from famine? Or what about that Syrian man with leprosy, how Elijah was sent to him before any of us?
We keep forgetting who God is, what God prefers. When we pray for blessing, we usually picture a flood of good gushing in on us. Maybe God pictures something else. Maybe God pictures those we step away from, those we deem unjustified, those we reject being given all they need. When we start to see the way God sees, the way Jesus is here to show us, we can either stomp off in a rage and threaten to kill the messenger, or we can join the coalition of the caring. We can start to speak and act even louder now that we know God’s inaugural platform.
