Sunday’s Gospel reading from Luke (Luke 4:14-21) is a hard text to get your head around from preaching. There is no dramatic story for me to break down, no wise and confusing parable for me to explain, nor is there a dramatic miracle that takes place that I can talk about. This is a simple short story about Christ’s first sermon.
This Gospel takes place at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Remember, He had been baptized by John and then was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days of prayer and struggling with the devil and his temptations. Jesus comes back from his baptism and desert experience – filled with the Spirit – and suddenly understands his purpose. He understands why he is here on earth, and then he wants to go out and tell the world. So he returns to Galilee and begins teaching in the synagogues in the surrounding communities. Now at this time in Luke, Jesus had not healed anyone, hadn’t cast out any demons, and hadn’t multiplied any loaves and fish. All he had done was teach, and that teaching according to Luke, was pretty impressive and caused people to praise him. So Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth, and this occasion seems to be the official launching of Jesus’ public ministry. So on the Sabbath, Jesus stands up to read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has annointed me to bring to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and he sat down. Presumably this means he sat down to preach, as was the practice, on the preacher’s chair which was located at the front and center of the synagogue. And everyone was looking at him to hear his sermon. And then he said,
“Today, this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
And that was it! The sermon was over. Jesus returned to his pew, presumably having broken the record for the shortest sermon ever! Jesus claimed to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah and in doing so, he identified himself as the long-awaited Messiah.
The key in the Gospel is that Jesus was filled with the power of the Spirit, and that’s when it hit him! He knew in his heart that what he was doing was something he was called to do. He knew that when that scripture was read that it was really about his life and what he was sent to do on this earth. He was sent to give sight to the physically and spiritually blind. He was sent to release the oppressed and not just those who were socially oppressed, but all of us who fall victim to that little thing called sin. He was sent to proclaim that all are set free and that there is now a path to heaven. Jesus saw the path that he was to take, and he started to walk it.
St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians talks about the community of Christians as one body. He tells us that we are all created differently, but we are part of one body, the body of believers, the body of Christ. Since we are a part of that body, we are supposed to do our part for that body. In other words, we are all created differently so we must do what we are created to do, to do what we were made to do.
We are a part of that body of believers. Amongst us are hands, feet, hearts, lungs, eyes, ears, mouths and brains. We are all created differently, all with different gifts, but all of the same Spirit. We are to follow the example that Christ gives us and go out, filled with the Spirit and do the work of God that we were called to do. We must name it, claim it, and attain it. We must name our gifts, otherwise it remains unknown. We must claim it, or take ownership of our gifts. And then we must attain it, or do it or achieve it. What good is it to have a gift if we do not use it to help others, and to bring glory to God?
This is not easy to do, and I, myself am struggling with this right now. I was laid off from my job last Thursday. Now I have to look within and pray that the Spirit directs me where I need to be, to where my gifts will be best used. It’s hard, but I know that when a door closes, God will open a window! (I just need to find the room where that window is located!) But God will give us everything that we need! All we have to do is to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to be with us, to fill us with the power of the Spirit, and to live within us.
Jesus could not do it without the Spirit, and neither can we. Jesus needed assurance that this was what he was called to do, and that is what the Spirit gave him – and that is what the Spirit can give us. All we have to do is to listen, pray, and invite the Holy Spirit into our daily lives.
