The Message, January 26, 2025: "The Good News," Luke 4:14-21

Author: Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
January 28, 2025

 

“The Good News!”
A Message by Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
Luke 4:14-21

            I am going to be honest with you. (Not that I am normally dishonest.) This was not an easy sermon to write.

            There is the temptation to look ahead at what happens after Jesus spoke these words. At Bible Study Thursday evening, someone said, “And we know what happened next.” Yes, we do … but that is next week’s sermon.

            It is important that we focus upon Jesus’ message BEFORE we move on to the results or the reaction to it. But then the temptation is to go too far, or too deep exploring the background and the context of those eight verses. We spent an hour doing that on Thursday and my guess is that there are not many here that are looking forward to a marathon, hour-long message this morning.

            So … that is my challenge for today. Here we go. Start the clock.

            It is important that we do take a moment … a moment … to focus upon what was happening here. Luke decided to take a little liberty with the timeline of Jesus’ life and ministry and offered this event as the beginning of his ministry. Luke did mention that Jesus had been preaching and teaching in synagogues prior to this episode but decided to tell us what happened when Jesus returned to Nazareth.

            In your head, you might be picturing the scene. Jesus returns to the quaint little village of Nazareth. Children and sheep and smiling people were all running to greet him. But Nazareth was not a quaint little village. The region of Galilee was highly populated. The land was very lush and fertile, and it was situated in a place where three major roads came together. It is estimated that as many as twenty thousand people lived in Nazareth at the time that Jesus entered the synagogue.

            Jewish law dictated that any village that had ten families … ten men … residing there had to have a synagogue. The synagogue was the true center of Jewish worship and teaching. The Temple in Jerusalem was too far away, and most people only travelled there for required festivals. The Temple in Jerusalem was the place where people went to make their offerings, but it was too far to travel for weekly worship. The synagogue was the center of worship and teaching. It was disputes were adjudicated. The synagogue in Nazareth was likely quite large based upon the population of the city. So, Jesus was not preaching to or teaching a handful of country bumpkins. They were likely quite sophisticated and educated.

            It was common practice for the president or head of the synagogue to invite prominent people from the community to read scripture and also to select someone to teach. It was well within Jewish custom for Jesus to have been asked to read and invited to teach that day.

            (My wife, Renee, always tells me that I take too long when I give tours of the church, or the house. So, I am hearing her voice in my head as we take this little journey. “Your ten-cent tour is more like a DOLLAR tour! Keep it brief.”)

            Okay … what did Jesus say?

            The attendant handed him the Isaiah scroll, and Jesus opened it to Isaiah 61 then turned back to Isaiah 58. (It was the practice of that era that when reading from the prophets, one would read three verses at a time.)

            As we heard, Jesus read: “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.” (Isaiah 61:1-2, Isaiah 58:6)

            We can imagine that the people leaned in to listen. They had already begun to hear about his teaching and his preaching. The rumors had preceded him. And as Jesus taught, they were astonished.

            Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, cited Isaiah who was anointed by the Spirit to bring good news to the poor. Yahweh God had anointed the ancient prophet and sent him to deliver the good news. Injustice is offensive to God. The poor will be lifted up. They will be glorious among the nations!

            The terms used in Isaiah’s proclamation … the poor, the blind, the captive, the oppressed … were all synonyms. They referred to the righteous “poor” who had unjustly been kept from their reward. They referred to those for whom salvation had not yet occurred. And the prophet assured them that the “year of the Lord’s favor” was coming.

            The year of the Lord’s favor was a reference to Jubilee! (Leviticus 25) After seven sets of seven years, the fiftieth year was a year of jubilee. It was the year when “you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land of ALL its inhabitants.” (Lev. 25:10) Jubilee … debts were forgiven, fortunes were restored, and prisoners were set free. It was a time of restoration. It reset the balance of the community.

            The reading of the Isaiah scroll established the social concern that guided Jesus’ ministry and allowed all of those seated in the synagogue that day to understand that everything that Jesus did and said was the fulfillment of his anointing by the Spirit of God. In that same way the Matthew placed the Sermon on the Mount as the introduction and foundation of Jesus’ ministry, Luke uses this episode to say, “This is what Jesus is all about.”

            Isaiah 61 is referred to as a ‘Servant Song.’ It proclaims the coming of the Servant Messiah rather than the Warrior Messiah. When understood literally, the passage says that the Servant Messiah is God’s Servant who will bring to reality the longing and hope of the poor, the oppressed, the blind and the captive. The Anointed One will usher in the amnesty, the liberation and the restoration associated with the year of jubilee.

            And then came that powerful moment when Jesus told them, “The scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The moment is now! It is not a promise of some far off in the future fulfillment. The fulfillment begins now … today!

            The people gathered in the synagogue that day knew their history. They knew their heritage. They knew what they had, and they knew what they had lost. They knew what they had hoped for and prayer for. Release. Redemption. Restoration. Freedom.

            Scripture has been fulfilled in their hearing. Today! The age of God’s reign is here. The eschatological time when God’s promises are fulfilled, and God’s purpose comes to fruition has arrived. The conditions of the poor and the oppressed will change today. Your fortunes have been reversed! Community will be restored! Relationships will be made right. God’s justice will extend to all people. ALL people!

            Hallelujah! Right?

            It has been two thousand years. We must be living in Paradise! The poor have all received their reward. The hungry have all been fed. The homeless have all been housed. The oppressed have been released from their bondage. We are all good. Nothing more for us to do that just to sit back and enjoy … right?

            Not right. The poor are still waiting for their salvation. Therefore, the mission statement that Jesus set forth for himself and for his ministry is the same mission statement that has been passed down to us. When Jesus passed his Spirit to his disciples and sent them forth, we received the same mission; we share in that Spirit.

            Today … the scriptures are fulfilled in our hearing. And if we understand that we are called to be imitators of Christ, that would mean that the scriptures are fulfilled through US … our ministry in Jesus’ name!

            Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue is for us. Today. It challenges us. It challenges our interests and our agendas with the news and the promise of God’s grace.

            We have received this renewed call at a pivotal time. God is offended by injustice, yet we see injustice all around. God is offended by cruelty, yet cruelty seems to be at the top of the agenda for many in power today. God is offended by selfishness, yet there are a handful of people in the world that could solve homelessness and poverty on their own but choose not to do it. Jesus proclaimed freedom for all people, yet there are those who seem to believe that they know better than he does.

            How do we respond?

            Jesus told his disciples, “The poor will always be with you.” He was echoing the ancient Word found in Deuteronomy, “For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor and needy in your land.” (Deuteronomy 15:11)

            The “poor” will always be with us, but the names and the faces and the circumstances will change.

            The Spirit of the God is upon us. God has anointed us to bring good news to the poor. He has sent us to proclaim good news to the immigrants.
            He has sent us to proclaim good news to the LGBTQ+ community.
            He has sent us to proclaim good news to the widow and the orphan.
            He has sent us to proclaim good news to the homeless and the hopeless.

            He has sent us to proclaim the good news that there is no poverty in God’s empire; there is no exclusion. All of God’s children are valued and all life is affirmed.

            The Spirit of God is upon us. May the scriptures be fulfilled through us. May we offer the good news to those who need it most. Amen.

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