Nehemiah
8: 1–3, 5–6, 8–10; Psalm 29; I Corinthians 12: 12–31a; Luke 4: 14–21
This
is the homily prepared for St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Gene
Tucker on Sunday, January 27, 2019.
“TODAY, THIS IS FULFILLED”
“Today,
this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus
uttered those words immediately after having read a portion of the prophet
Isaiah, chapter 61, verses one and two, which reads:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind. To set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (ESV)
Luke
alone, of the four Gospel writers, records this incident in the synagogue at
Nazareth at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Luke’s account gives us a
very small glimpse into worship in the synagogues 2,000 years ago. For example,
we know from Luke’s report that the prophets were part of the readings offered
in synagogue worship (though we do not know if there was an appointed cycle of
readings that was similar to our lectionary cycle in use today). We also know,
from this account, that someone in attendance was asked to be the reader.
Perhaps, because Jesus was back in town in the synagogue, someone in charge in
the synagogue asked Him to read because He had been away for a time. (We don’t
know that for sure, either.)
It
would be a good thing if our Gospel text for this Sunday were to be extended a
bit to include the reaction of those who were present in the synagogue that day
to Jesus’ application of the Isaiah passage to Himself. Since we don’t hear those
following verses, we might summarize what happened in response to Jesus’
comment that the Scripture He read had been fulfilled “in their hearing”, and
it had been fulfilled “today”.
Here’s
a summary of their reaction: 1. All in attendance “spoke well of him and
marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth”; 2. Then they
asked, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”’; 3. Following Jesus’ rebuke (at their
apparent disbelief), they take him out to the edge of town, and prepare to
thrown Him over it (but He escapes).
What
might these Sabbath worshipers have objected to? The possibilities are many:
The
audacious nature of Jesus’ claim:
The
reactions of those in attendance that day in the synagogue seem to confirm that
Jesus’ linking of the phrase “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (italics mine) with “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in
your hearing” seem to confirm that Jesus was telling His audience that the
passage referred to Him specifically. The
question, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” seems to confirm the onlookers’ reaction
which implies that Jesus isn’t some spectacular figure, but is just an ordinary
person.
Proclaiming
the Jubilee Year: Jesus’ comment that He had been appointed to
declare “the year of the Lord’s favor” seems to point toward the requirement,
found in the Law of Moses, that there be a Jubilee Year once every fifty years.
We must turn to Leviticus 25: 10 for its provisions. Among those provisions was
the requirement that Israelites who had sold themselves into indentured service
were to be released. With this requirement, we see the opportunity for liberty
for those who weren’t free.
It’s
possible that Jesus’ hearers were offended because He referred to the Jubilee
Year, when, in fact, the Jubilee Year wasn’t due to come up on the calendar.
Perhaps some of His hearers thought He was going to try to change the calendar,
or to proclaim the Jubiliee Year on His own authority.
“Today”: Another reason for the reaction might be to
Jesus’ reference to the present time, or “today”. The impression we get from
the Gospel accounts is that God’s people in the time of our Lord’s earthly
ministry were either living in the past, or were living in some far-off future.
They didn’t seem to be living “today”.
For
example, many of God’s people in those times longed for a return of the
glorious days of Kings David and Solomon. Expectations of a coming Messiah
often fit into such a political and military mold as that of these two
monumental figures from a thousand years earlier in history. Part of the desire
for a return to former glory was connected to a desire to overthrow the
oppressive Roman occupation. (The Jewish party of the Zealots advocated violent
overthrow of the Romans.)
But
others among God’s people had some sort of a “pie-in-the-sky” image of a coming
time when the Messiah would come. This view of a coming Messiah shared some things
in common with those who yearned for a return to the great age of David and
Solomon. Many who longed for the coming One probably didn’t expect such a great
thing to come to pass in their own lifetime. Perhaps many thought that such an
event was in the far-off future. But we might be able to say with some
certainty that most of those who heard Jesus that Sabbath day didn’t believe
that anything so wonderful could happen “today”.
How,
then can we apply today’s appointed Gospel text to our own lives? After all,
that’s always a question that should be in our minds and in our hearts whenever
we encounter Holy Scripture. We ought to be asking ourselves, “What does this
mean for me today?”
The
three points we’ve made above can be applied to our answer:
Jesus’
audacious claims:
That our Lord Jesus Christ is “King of kings and Lord of lords” is
undeniably true, and such a claim is true primarily because of the evidence
that our Lord and the Father are one. Proof lies in the resurrection of our
Lord on Easter Sunday morning. There, we see God the Father’s hand at work in
the raising of His Son. Jesus’ miracles underscore the audaciousness of His
claims, but the principle basis for believing our Lord’s claims lies in the
truth of the resurrection. The power to make create new life, which is the
basic understanding of the meaning of the resurrection, is a power that can
create new life for anyone who asks for it.
The
Jubilee Year:
Jesus inaugurates a new calendar, one in which each and every year is
the year of Jubilee, the year of release, the year of new life. So this new
proclamation of freedom isn’t dependent upon the occurrence of a fifty year
period of time. That new life is available to all persons who ask for it, not
only in any year, but on any day. Ultimately, the liberty that Jesus promises
us and which leads to true freedom is available on the basis of God’s great
work, accomplished in Jesus Christ and received by us on faith.
Today:
It’s been said that “Today” is the gift we have before
us, a gift that we are called to make the most of, today. Surely, the past
informs where we have been as believers in Christ, and the future promises of
God which involve the eventual return of His Son give us hope for the future
and the strength to realize that the present reality we see around us isn’t all
there is.
But
the past and the future come together in “today”. Some Christians may be
tempted to live in the future, turning their eyes heavenward in expectation
that the trumpet will sound and will signal the Lord’s Second Coming. It’s an
important truth to hold and to maintain, that the Lord’s eventual return is a
certain reality. But it can’t be the only thing we focus in on. The early
Christians in Thessolonica were apparently doing just that, so St. Paul has to
warn these Thessalonians that they are not to be sitting around, waiting for
the Lord to return. Instead, they are to be about working, doing productive
things, in order to be able to provide for themselves and to be able to give
toward the needs of others.
Still
other Christians today might be tempted to live in the past, glorying in some
prior age which has been elevated to mythical status. Yes, it’s important for
us as mature Christians to be aware of our past, to be thankful for it, to
preserve the best of what the past brings forward to us today, and to allow the
past to inform where we are as Christians in the contemporary world.
But
the truth is that God’s work and God’s will are being worked out “today”.
Often, that work and that will are fulfilled in small, almost unnoticed
interchanges between people, acts of generosity and kindness, words offered in
support of others in times of need, and prayers sent upward on behalf of
others.
Our
Lord’s call to action is for “today”, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled “today”,
that God’s will might be “done on earth, as it is in heaven”, as our Lord
taught us in the prayer He gave us, known as the Lord’s Prayer.
AMEN.
