Sermon on Luke 4:14-21
Pastor Jennifer Garcia
This story is where Jesus tells us what he’s really about.
It’s right at the beginning of his ministry in the Gospel of Luke. He was baptized, and then he spent many days fasting in the wilderness. Now, he’s back home, he’s been doing some teaching, and he’s in the “synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom.”
He’s doing what he always did, but he has a new energy about him, a new sense of purpose. People have been paying attention to his teaching, and he’s being noticed.
And then, that particular sabbath day, he gets up to read from the scriptures. And he starts reading from Isaiah. The passion in his voice and on his face captivates everyone in the congregation. The whole room holds its collective breath.
Not a sound while Jesus rolls the scroll back up and sits down.
Then, his voice once again fills the room, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Wow. That’s bold! Even for Jesus, especially this early in his ministry.
At first, the people are impressed.
Then, they start having questions: “Is this not Joseph’s son?” As in, we know this guy—how can he claim to be the Lord’s anointed? Is he really saying he’s the one who will usher in the year of the Lord’s favor? Come on! We saw him in diapers!
Jesus notices that others are willing to listen…but only if he does “the things we have heard you did at Capernaum.” They want him to jump through hoops to prove himself to them.
Ultimately, the people gathered there start getting mad. They’re mad that Jesus is claiming that he’s been anointed by God, chosen to bring in God’s Reign. They’re mad enough to drive Jesus out of town. Mad enough even to drive him to the edge of a cliff, so that they could throw him off of it!
This might not seem like the best start for a budding rabbi.
But ultimately, Jesus knows what he’s about.
In his baptism, Jesus is clear in his call—he is chosen by God.
In the wilderness, he faced the very embodiment of evil and was not defeated.
Now, he knows who he is, whose he is, and what he’s about.
We can almost see this passage from Isaiah as Jesus’ mission statement:
“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.”
This new sense of energy and purpose Jesus has is not, in fact, new, but rooted in the scriptures and tradition of his faith.
The year of the Lord’s favor is encapsulated in the concept of the Year of Jubilee, laid out in the law given by God to God’s people. It was a time every fifty years [Lev. 25:10] when:
1. land would be returned to its original family,
2. enslaved people would be freed,
3. debts would be forgiven, and
4. there would be joy, peace, and celebration among God’s people.
There’s not much in the way of evidence that the Year of Jubilee was ever practiced. We, human beings, fall short of the law of God once again. But by God’s grace, Jesus has come to fulfill the Year of Jubilee, the year of the Lord’s favor, the Kingdom of God, the Reign of God.
And it was only after the confirmation of his identity in God in his baptism and the resilience he gained during his time of wilderness that Jesus became so rooted in his mission that he could withstand his neighbors trying to throw him off a cliff.
We have been in a wilderness time, too.
Our COVID wilderness time is not over, unfortunately, but we’ve spent enough time in this wilderness to learn from it.
COVID has made us examine our priorities. When our reality shifted under our feet, we had to decide what was most important to us. Whose job is really essential? Who are the people we most need to protect and care for?
Jesus’ time in the wilderness clarified who he was there to serve:
1. those who are impoverished,
2. those who are imprisoned,
3. those who are visually impaired (which when you look at the many healing stories in the Gospels probably included restoring people with many chronic conditions to the support and inclusion of their communities),
4. and those who are oppressed.
And our wilderness time during COVID has clarified what’s important to us. From talking with Pastor Greg, it sounds like one of the things you all were most concerned about was how the people in your community were going to be fed. Caring Hands is a huge part of this congregation’s mission and passion, and it was important to you that the people who are a part of this community through that ministry would continue to have the food they need.
That is such a powerful testament to the fact that you know what you’re about. You know how the Holy Spirit is moving you to serve your community and make Earth a little more as it is in heaven. Your mission, like Jesus’ mission, is rooted in scriptures like this. You are participating in the tradition of God’s mercy and justice that goes back for millennia.
When we know what we’re about, what God’s calling us to, it’s a lot easier to withstand the pushback we receive along the way, like Jesus did in this reading. Jesus could have been like, “I almost got thrown off a cliff today—maybe I need to pull back. Maybe this isn’t what God is calling me to after all. Maybe I misunderstood. Maybe the world isn’t ready for this right now. Maybe I’ll just go back to carpentry for a while.”
But he didn’t. He stayed true to his mission. He stayed true to what God was calling him to, even to death.
And even that didn’t stop him.
Now, we are the Body of Christ. We are God’s hands and feet in the world, carrying on Jesus’ mission to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor—the Year of Jubilee that brings God’s mercy and justice to our hurting world.
You know what you’re about: you feed people—body and soul, you care for people who are so often overlooked, disrespected, and mistreated—but who are, in fact, beloved people made in the image of God.
What you’re about is in line with what Jesus is about, and that’s a fantastic place to be. You are following in the example of our Savior, and no matter what wilderness places you walk through or what resistance you meet from the world, you can hold firm in your identity in baptism and calling from God.
So be bold, be loving, and keep feeding your community, because when you do that, you are following the example of Jesus and sharing the good news of our loving God with the world.