Third Sunday after Epiphany
I was in 9th grade the year I lost my appendix. Well, I didn’t lose it. But it did become enflamed nearly to the point of bursting, so it was removed by Dr. Thomas Wright, at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA. And I didn’t miss it. It was there one day, and the next day it was gone. Just like that.
For a long time, the popular consensus seemed to be that the appendix was rather useless. That it was the vestigial remains of something that once served a greater purpose, like thumb bones in whales. Of course, opinions and understandings change in the medical field just as they do in others. It was several years ago that I first read about how opinions regarding the appendix were starting to change. There are those who still believe that it serves no function. But there are others who theorize that it actually serves as a bacterial safety deposit box, so to speak. In the event that an illness should affect the digestive tract, resulting in a thorough “cleaning out” should we say, the appendix stores a deposit of the bacteria necessary for the functioning of the gut. hat which was long thought to be insignificant and unimportant, turns out to be, well, kind of important! To quote the apostle Paul: “22On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect;24whereas our more respectable members do not need this.” Granted, the appendix isn’t “indispensable”, but the idea holds.
One of the points that the author of Luke wants to make clear is that Jesus is genuine and authentic in his ministry. The vehicle that Luke uses to that end is the Holy Spirit. At Jesus’ baptism, which we heard about just a couple of weeks ago, we were told “21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” At the temptation of Jesus, Luke notes, “1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” And, again, in today’s reading we read, “14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.”
This is the first scene from Jesus’ public ministry, so Luke wants to make quite clear that Jesus comes filled with power. And Luke wants us to know what this kind of power looks like.
Luke gives us an interesting glimpse into the person of Jesus. We know that, even though he was the Son of God, he attended the synagogue regularly. 4:16: “16When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom.” We know that he had some education, because he’s able to read. 4:16, 17: “He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.” And we know he had knowledge of scripture because he opens the scroll and chooses what he wants to read. 4:17: “He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written” Jesus regularly participates in the religious life of his community; he is a reader who contributes to the reading of Scripture in worship; and he is a teacher (Luke 4:15). We also know that he prayed. And we know that he did the work of ministry.
To participate in the life of the Spirit we need to work at it. It’s not something that just happens by chance. Following the model of Jesus, it requires the work of the spiritual disciplines of: prayer, devotion to scripture, and doing the work of ministry.
Jesus chooses to read from Isaiah: “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.”
Jesus reads a quotation that refers to the Spirit of God. It’s that same Spirit who descended upon him at his baptism. It’s the same who drove him into the wilderness. And it’s that same spirit who brought him to Nazareth.
In Luke the Holy Spirit guides and empowers people for prophetic ministry. The quote from Isaiah illustrates for us what that ministry will look like in the person of Jesus: The poor hear good news, the captives are released, the blind recover their sight, and the oppressed are freed, all in order to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. It’s the jubilee year! Jesus himself, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, is the fulfillment of the Jubilee year!
The Jubilee was supposed to be a time of restoration and liberation. It was to be celebrated every 50th year. All Israelites were to return to their ancestral land. Those who became poor were not to be taken advantage of nor taken as slaves but rather treated as hired hands and released at the year of Jubilee. Debts were considered to be paid. Land, taken in exchange for debt, was to be returned to the tribe that rightfully possessed it. Isaiah 61 was interpreted in first century Judaism as a reference to the Jubilee and the restoration it envisioned. And most importantly, it was part of the original Covenant delivered by God through Moses. However, there’s little evidence to show that the Jubilee year was ever actually observed. It remained unfulfilled.
We need to realize, therefore, what a radical, audacious statement it is when Jesus says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” He is stating unequivocally that in him, God is achieving what hundreds of years of tradition and attention to the Law failed to do. Jesus himself will be the location for the fulfillment of this prophesy. In the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is the one who has been chosen to preach and proclaim the good news of God. And from here, Jesus will travel from town to town and wherever he goes he will teach and heal. He will live out the good news so that people can see the salvation that God offers.
For hundreds of years, the promise of the Jubilee year was something that floated before the people of Israel. Seemingly just beyond their reach. And now, suddenly, This!! Suddenly this audacious and bold promise that in this one person, the promise of the Jubilee is fulfilled! Jesus himself was a life-changing experience. And we’ve been claimed by a life-changing God.
Jesus’ sermon in his hometown of Nazareth is not only a life-changing sermon, it’s also a life-changing act. God has now entered the world as flesh so that no human can be overlooked. No one can be left in a place of oppression. No one is unworthy of God’s good news. To say that something or someone is life-changing is a radical claim. When your life is altered, transformed, reborn, well, that’s a big deal. We need to take seriously what we mean when we say something, some event, or someone, is life changing. A life change isn’t banal. It’s not deciding to wear a different pair of socks. It asserts a new way of being. A way that, for many of us, probably seems outside the realm of realistic possibilities: release from our captivity, sight when we have been blind, generous when we have hoarded, belonging when we have known isolation.
But honestly, what’s realistic about someone being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. What’s realistic about that same person claiming to be the fulfillment of a law that remained unfulfilled for centuries? What’s realistic about claiming that this same person was crucified, died, was raised again, and then ascended into heaven?
Jesus rips asunder the hegemony of “realistic”. Jesus shatters our expectations of what’s normal. Jesus destroys the tyranny of low expectations.
Take a look at the world around us. Take a look at the lives of the people living around you. How many of them are suffering from mental health, physical health, or emotional health issues? How many of them are desperate? Desperate to hold on to their home, maybe their family, maybe their job. And what about the people we don’t see? The ones who live at the edges of society. The hungry, the working poor, people who are only one missed paycheck away from being kicked out of the motel room where they’ve been trying to scrape by for the past couple of weeks. Living in motel, because nobody will rent to someone who doesn’t have a credit history. How about the undocumented, so desperate to improve their situation and escape the hell where they are living that they’re willing to risk everything, and I mean every last thing they possess, in order to try and find a better life here. A life where they and their children actually stand a reasonable chance of physically surviving and dying a natural death. They don’t need a better life, a rehabilitated life, an improved life. They need their lives to be turned upside down! But in a good way!! They need to know that God sees them. They need to know God loves them. They need to know that God looks with favor upon them. Because when that happens, it is life changing.
When you are poor and oppressed, when you are disregarded and discriminated against, when you are regularly rejected and reviled you don’t need a stack of self-help books and a plan. You need a radical reorientation. And that’s what the Gospel is all about. And that means that we need to be willing to allow Jesus to change our lives just as radically. We cannot expect to embody the radical love and compassion of Christ; We cannot expect to embody the freedom and liberation of Christ; We cannot expect to embody the radical justice of Christ; We cannot expect to embody the boundless transformative power of Christ without allowing ourselves to be changed, as well. It’s simply not possible. We must be willing and able to allow ourselves to be transformed by the radical empowering love of Jesus.
The status quo is the status quo for a reason. Because it’s very comfortable when things remain the way they are. There’s a reason why the Jubilee year was, in all likelihood, never observed. And that is because the powers-that-be didn’t want it. Because God’s justice isn’t easy and God’s righteousness isn’t cheap. And that’s why the radical action of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ was necessary. Jesus’ sermon in Nazareth is not for those who merely want to make their lives a little better, but for those who need to be set free to live the life God wants for them. And each and every one of us that has been claimed by God and ordained for ministry in the waters of baptism, is called to see to it that, to the best of our ability, we claim our role in making that happen.
In the Kingdom of God, nobody is excused from doing ministry. All of us are necessary. Each of us has unique gifts that must be brought to bear upon the world around us if we truly want to realize the radical vision of Jesus in the world today. “18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many members, yet one body.”
If one part of the body fails to do fulfill its role, the entire body falters. And if we fail to address the suffering in the world, then the whole world suffers for it. “But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”
In other words, your gifts matter. Your gifts make a difference. But only if you use them. God has already equipped you for ministry, so that your ministry can make a difference in the world. But only if you actively pursue it and fulfill the calling with which God has blessed you.
The world needs to change. I don’t have to tell you that. And the world is changed only by people who have been changed. 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 let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Let us stand with Jesus, as the Body of Christ, and with him say, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”
AMEN