Luke 4:14-21
Jesus goes to preach to the hometown crowd, and so often this story is tied to what comes afterwards, with his own wanting to kill him and we forget to look at why these words from Isaiah would be this powerful. Let's take a look at those words today. Let's see why this particular interaction means that those who knew him best would want to be rid of him.
First of all when I preach there are certain things you expect. You expect the gospel to be read before, you expect it to be processed, you expect that I will stand when speaking, now some even still expect us to be in the pulpit and some of us don't stay there and that makes some people uncomfortable. Jesus takes it a step further, he sits. He sits as an equal, or as a teacher having a conversation and he's making a proclamation.
If I sit next to you what does it do, especially if I continue to speak? I think you would be uncomfortable, most of you wouldn't be able to see my face, some wouldn't be able to understand me clearly, so there would be rumors about what I was speaking. Lastly, I'm just one of you and Jesus is saying something more than just being one of them. Jesus is proclaiming a year of freedom, a year of forgiveness, a year of reconciliation because this is what a year of Jubilee is.
A year of Jubilee meant slaves in a Jewish household were set free. If there were lands taken because of a debt, they were returned to the family of origin. Now place this proclamation against being enslaved from Rome. There is no restoration of lands because Rome took them, also put Jesus' words into this context, today, not sometime down the road, toady it has been fulfilled. They must have thought this was preposterous. Today they are under Rome, no Jew is free. Today they know whatnot means to have their lands stripped from them, today they know what it is to have neighbors who inform on them if they step out of line with the Roman state, or if a neighbor wants something to strip it away from them. This is what today is.
Yet this today opens a door before them and before us. Today we have heard these words, so what difference do they make? Do we hear Isaiah's words and think they are irrelevant to us today? Today are there not people who need to be set free? Today are there not some seeking forgiveness? Today aren't there some people who are blind to what is going on around them, or in their own lives and they need sight? Sometimes we take the words way too literally and don't look at other ways in which these words can be interpreted.
Today we can see how we might set people free. Today we might see how we might grant forgiveness or forgive ourselves so we might be a freer person. To live life more fully. A few years ago Desmond and Mpho Tutu wrote a book on forgiving and they did an online guided meditation which ran though Lent. It's still available today, it was a very profound way to be guided through the way of forgiveness and the freedom it can give you. There are also ways in which we need to be opened to seeing. Seeing what we've been blinded to in forgiving, in interpretation, in making the gospel too concrete instead of full of light and life.
This is what Epiphany is about, discovering those things which have been hidden to us. Opening our hearts and minds to new possibilities in the word, in our symbols, in what we are familiar with. This is also why the crowd eventually wants to kill Jesus. In becoming open to the word of God, open to new interpretations, open to new possibilities in our walk with God it is hard. We sometimes wish to ignore it. For things to remain ever the same. Yet for us, for Christianity as a whole, we are headed in a new direction. We find ourselves needing to open ourselves us to these new ways of being because Christendom is not what it once was.
So be opened to these words and all the other words which follow. Let us seek out a new way forward. Let us not die in an old way, in our concrete expectations. Because Jesus came to breathe life and freedom and peace. May we be not afraid to walk forward in those ways. Amen.
Jesus goes to preach to the hometown crowd, and so often this story is tied to what comes afterwards, with his own wanting to kill him and we forget to look at why these words from Isaiah would be this powerful. Let's take a look at those words today. Let's see why this particular interaction means that those who knew him best would want to be rid of him.
First of all when I preach there are certain things you expect. You expect the gospel to be read before, you expect it to be processed, you expect that I will stand when speaking, now some even still expect us to be in the pulpit and some of us don't stay there and that makes some people uncomfortable. Jesus takes it a step further, he sits. He sits as an equal, or as a teacher having a conversation and he's making a proclamation.
If I sit next to you what does it do, especially if I continue to speak? I think you would be uncomfortable, most of you wouldn't be able to see my face, some wouldn't be able to understand me clearly, so there would be rumors about what I was speaking. Lastly, I'm just one of you and Jesus is saying something more than just being one of them. Jesus is proclaiming a year of freedom, a year of forgiveness, a year of reconciliation because this is what a year of Jubilee is.
A year of Jubilee meant slaves in a Jewish household were set free. If there were lands taken because of a debt, they were returned to the family of origin. Now place this proclamation against being enslaved from Rome. There is no restoration of lands because Rome took them, also put Jesus' words into this context, today, not sometime down the road, toady it has been fulfilled. They must have thought this was preposterous. Today they are under Rome, no Jew is free. Today they know whatnot means to have their lands stripped from them, today they know what it is to have neighbors who inform on them if they step out of line with the Roman state, or if a neighbor wants something to strip it away from them. This is what today is.
Yet this today opens a door before them and before us. Today we have heard these words, so what difference do they make? Do we hear Isaiah's words and think they are irrelevant to us today? Today are there not people who need to be set free? Today are there not some seeking forgiveness? Today aren't there some people who are blind to what is going on around them, or in their own lives and they need sight? Sometimes we take the words way too literally and don't look at other ways in which these words can be interpreted.
Today we can see how we might set people free. Today we might see how we might grant forgiveness or forgive ourselves so we might be a freer person. To live life more fully. A few years ago Desmond and Mpho Tutu wrote a book on forgiving and they did an online guided meditation which ran though Lent. It's still available today, it was a very profound way to be guided through the way of forgiveness and the freedom it can give you. There are also ways in which we need to be opened to seeing. Seeing what we've been blinded to in forgiving, in interpretation, in making the gospel too concrete instead of full of light and life.
This is what Epiphany is about, discovering those things which have been hidden to us. Opening our hearts and minds to new possibilities in the word, in our symbols, in what we are familiar with. This is also why the crowd eventually wants to kill Jesus. In becoming open to the word of God, open to new interpretations, open to new possibilities in our walk with God it is hard. We sometimes wish to ignore it. For things to remain ever the same. Yet for us, for Christianity as a whole, we are headed in a new direction. We find ourselves needing to open ourselves us to these new ways of being because Christendom is not what it once was.
So be opened to these words and all the other words which follow. Let us seek out a new way forward. Let us not die in an old way, in our concrete expectations. Because Jesus came to breathe life and freedom and peace. May we be not afraid to walk forward in those ways. Amen.
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