Here's the Plan

January 26, First Lutheran Church of Throggs Neck, Bronx, N.Y.

Luke 4:14-21

Jesus addresses the synagogue in Nazareth and, like a good manager, outlines his goals and objectives for the next three years.

But to most of his audience, he is nothing special. He’s a familiar face because, as Luke notes, it “was his custom” to go to the Synagogue on the sabbath. He’s Jesus from the block. The carpenter’s son whose calloused hands are like the hands of most of the people sitting there. 

And, like many in his audience, he is an educated, literate man with an impressive familiarity with Holy Scripture. In my Baptist Youth Fellowship days we’d play a game called “sword drill;” someone would mention a bible verse and the first to find it and read it aloud was the winner. 

Although it’s a bit more cumbersome to unroll a scroll than to flip through pages, Jesus knew exactly where verses could be found. When he was handed the scroll of Isaiah, he unrolled it and went directly to the passage he wanted them to hear.

Mitzi J. Smith, professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, says she likes to “Imagine that Jesus read the text passionately, boldly, and with conviction, bringing the text to life.”

That could well be because when he sat down, “the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.” (Luke 4:20)

They would have recognized and appreciated the prophetic words of Isaiah who lived in a time of poverty and oppression. They would have immediately applied these words to their own difficult time.

Professor Smith writes that “Synagogue attendees included ordinary folks, synagogue leaders, Pharisees, and other religious leaders, Gentiles, men and women, people with various diseases, and those considered possessed by demons or unclean spirits (Luke 4:16–33, 44; 6:6; 12:11; 13:11; Acts 14:11). Some scribes, Pharisees, and other leaders and wealthy people occupied privileged seats in some synagogues (Luke 11:43; 20:46).”

Regardless of who they were, each would have welcomed Isaiah’s reminder that God promised to bring them good news, release, and freedom. They were probably amen-ing and nodding approvingly as Jesus sat down.

Until, that is, Jesus said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21). 

And when Jesus noted that they would reject his words because “no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. Then their approval turned to murderous rage.

Certainly their ire was stimulated by Jesus’ declaration that God’s spirit is on me, he has anointed me, he has sent me. 

They could not accept that mere Jesus of Nazareth had the authority and power to bring Isaiah’s prophecy and God’s promises to fruition.

We can understand. Sometimes it’s difficult for us to accept Jesus’ authority when we apply his words to our day.

What is Jesus saying to us on January 26, 2025?

“He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” (Luke 4:18)

Knowing that our hands are called to do God’s work, what has that to do with us?

As we read scripture we can’t miss the fact that God and Jesus love the poor and have anointed each of us to help alleviate their suffering. 

We can begin to help by giving alms and contributing to the Red Cross and philanthropic organizations.

But how far are we willing to go? Do we bring good news to the poor when we advocate raising the minimum wage to a point where workers can afford to live? Do we bring good news to the poor when we advocate better benefits for SNAP – the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps? 

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives. (Luke 4:18)

As we look around us, we realize captivity takes many forms. People are held as prisoners by warring nations or as political prisoners by Russia, Israel, or Gaza. People are captive to their economic status, their age limitations, their mental health. People are captive to their lack of education, to their ignorance, to their prejudices. 

And, of course, there are literal captives, people who have been convicted of crimes and are in prison. Is Jesus advocating their immediate release? Certainly not.

But perhaps Jesus is calling on us to see the realities of the prison system in the U.S. which has five percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, the U.S. incarcerates its citizens more than any other country. Mass incarceration disproportionately impacts the poor and people of color. Our spending on prisons was $87 billion in 2015 and has dramatically increased since then. 

And recovery of sight to the blind (Luke 4:18)

Jesus made healing blind people look effortless. How are we supposed to do that?

My mother was born with scarred cornea and she was legally blind by the time she was 20. When corneal transplants became available in the 1960’s, my father joined the Lion’s Club to support people with poor eyesight and to help make it possible for my mother to receive the grafts. There are many different ways to bring sight to the blind.

Do we bring good news to everyone who requires expensive treatments or complicated surgeries when we advocate a single payer health care system which is supported by all our taxes and brings health care to all? And, incidentally, takes profit-oriented health insurance companies out of the game?

To let the oppressed go free (Luke 4:18)

Who among us is oppressed? 

Oppression, perhaps, is a matter of degree. Persons of color who are prevented from having equal educational and economic opportunities? Women who receive 75% of the pay of men who do the same job? LGBTQ+ people who are subject to society’s meanness and prejudices? Persons who are banned from bathrooms matching their assumed gender in the U.S. Capitol? Working people exploited by non-union businesses, including Amazon? Here in the land of the free it is sometimes difficult to focus our eyes on oppression. But we recognize it when we see it.

To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:19)

The year of the Lord’s favor, or the Day of Jubilee. Juneteenth is Jubilee Day in the U.S. as it marks the end of slavery. Jubilee is as old as Leviticus, an unambiguous commandment of God, has never been followed, and never will be.

The Day of Jubilee occurs every 50 years. It is a time to forgive debts, free slaves, and return land to its original owners.

You see the problem. If your bank has to forgive your mortgage on the Day of Jubilee, the whole fiduciary industry will collapse. So would the lender of student loans. On the other hand, the house you worked all your life for will, on the Day of Jubilee, revert to the previous owner. If your brother-in-law owes you 50-bucks, you can kiss it good-bye. 

There have been some efforts to at least pay lip service to the Year of the Lord’s favor. For some, it is a time to re-establish relationships with God, each other, and creation (Giubileo 2025); a time to restore identity, especially for the poor (tearfund.org); and a time to address the tendency of debtors to become hopelessly indebted.

In the Nazareth synagogue two millennia ago, and in our hearing today, Jesus has set forth his goals and objectives, his mandate from God the Father, for his time on earth.

He has also presented his mandate for us, God’s workers on earth, for 2025.

Luke 4:14-21, gives us a general idea how that mandate should be carried out. 

For the details we turn to God in prayer.

For it is God’s mandate and it is imparted to us through Jesus himself:

“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Amen.