Reflecting on Luke 4:14-30
"The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor." (Luke 4:18)What was Jesus’s sense of purpose and mission?
Here Jesus uses Isaiah to explain what God’s purpose for Him is.
The Spirit of God is given to Him to do something specific.
* To proclaim good news to the poor.
* To proclaim freedom for the prisoners.
* To restore sight for the blind.
* To set the oppressed free.
* To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
To make the blind see and release the oppressed seem more like actions.
To proclaim seems more like an announcement, not an action.
But Jesus is announcing God’s action.
Help for the poor, freedom for the prisoners.
And above all, the beginning of the season of God’s grace and favor.
Jesus Himself is the action of God to accomplish all these things.
“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)
In Jesus, all these things begin to happen.
In Jesus the season of grace/favor has begun.
It is striking that Jesus only reads what He does.
He stops halfway through the sentence, and drops this:
“And the day of vengeance of our God.” (Isaiah 61:2)
Some people see this to mean that God will only be nice.
That there is no judgment involved in Jesus’s coming.
It is true, Jesus did not come to judge us (John 12:47).
Yet Jesus does say that His coming will result in judgment.
“For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” (John 9:39)
Here Jesus shows that His anointing has a double effect.
He does bring good news and grace, but not everyone welcomes it.
Those who reject God’s favor end up missing out on it.
Not because God withholds it, but because they refuse it.
Those who reject God’s mission of compassion do not receive it.
God is actively loving, blessing, forgiving all people.
God through Jesus is extending excessive, abundant mercy.
Jesus represents the fullness of God’s love for all people.
Those who welcome and embrace grace will also show it.
They will eagerly long to be kind, compassionate, merciful, etc.
But those who do not remain under the judgment of sin.
The judgment of sin (hate, cruelty, selfishness) is death.
The consequence of not loving is losing out on love, life and God.
God’s vengeance is not against all people but against oppressors and abusers.
God’s vengeance is the bad news people, who make life hard on others.
God’s wrath/anger is against those who refuse and resist grace.
This goes for both non-religious and religious people.
Which is why Jesus warns the religious leaders about being blind.
“Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, ‘What? Are we blind too?’ Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.'” (John 9:40-41)
They were refusing grace, remaining blind to God’s compassion.
They were the oppressors, not the oppressed.
They were the ones imprisoning and oppressing the poor.
They were withholding God’s mercy, and not letting Jesus share it either.
As Jesus followers, we are saved by grace in order to be gracious, good news people!
God’s compassion to us is meant to become God’s compassion through us.
If we are not loving, kind, merciful, compassionate, etc, ‘our guilt remains’.
We are blind to what grace is all about, if we are not more and more gracious.
As Peter explains…
“If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.” (2 Peter 1:8-9)
We have been anointed too.
Not to judge sinners, not to establish a political system, not to enforce laws.
We are anointed to bring and to be good news, freedom, healing and favor.
If the compassion of God is not showing through us, we are resisting the Spirit.
And we show that we are still blind to what the good news and grace are all about.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, open my eyes to see the wonder of God's goodness, grace and favor to me. Open my heart and hands to extend this wonderful goodness, grace and favor to others. I want to be a good news person for all, especially for those who are poor, oppressed, blind, imprisoned by human hate and hurt.
Today’s reading reminded me of the prayer of St. Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.