Luke 4:14-21; Epiphany III

"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.

16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
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,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’"

A one paragraph summary connecting all four Lectionary readings for the week is here.

An Unexpected Homecoming

Luke 4:16-30 (next week we consider Luke 4:22-30) presents Jesus' inaugural sermon. Luke, uniquely among the Evangelists, gives a detailed description of the Scripture Jesus cited, his interpretation of it and the ensuing conflict with the people. Though the story appears at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, it functions as the dramatic center of Luke's Gospel. This passage tells us who Jesus is as he launches his ministry; it provides Jesus' self-understanding as he embarks on his work. Luke 4:14-15 speaks in general terms of Jesus' teaching ministry, but Luke 4:16-30 gives a specific example. And, in addition, as we dissect 4:16-21 more closely, we see that the Isaiah quotation is the place to which all signals point. Compare the "flow" of language in 16-17 and 20. In 16-17 Jesus stands, he is handed the scroll, and he unrolls it. In v. 20, in reverse order, he rolls up the scroll, hands it back to the attendant and sits. The literary structure makes us look directly at 18 and 19 (the quotation from Isaiah), as if 16 and 17 are "ramping up" to it and 20 is "ramping down" from it.

Three important points from this text are: (1) Jesus and the Spirit; (2) Jesus and Isaiah; and (3) Jesus and the Fulfillment of Scripture. I will consider each briefly in turn.

I. Jesus and the Spirit

Luke, alone among the Evangelists, stresses the importance of the Spirit in the early days of Jesus' ministry. It descended on him "in a bodily form" at Baptism. Then, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for his testing. Now, we see that he returns from that testing "in the power of the Spirit" (4:14). The first words from Isaiah's words are "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.." Actually, the words from Isaiah are the first recorded words of Jesus given us by Luke. The first words out of Jesus' mouth, therefore, are "pneuma kuriou" ("Spirit of the Lord"). Jesus lived his life in the realm of the Spirit. Certainly he will be among the most engaged of people; he will touch palsied limbs and interact with religious authorities; he will train disciples and, ultimately, be crucified by people. But we miss the point of Luke's entire Gospel if we don't realize that Jesus is bathed in, enswathed in, the Spirit. Just as his earthly parents wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, so his Heavenly Father wraps Jesus in the care of the Spirit. Jesus' life in the Spirit makes us long to discover how that kind of life is possible for us today. How does one get to the place where we are led by the Spirit and return to our work in the power of the Spirit? Perhaps by realizing that the promise of the Spirit is already ours, and that we need only to appropriate our baptismal vows.

II. Jesus and Isaiah (4:18-19)

What conduct befits a person living in the power of the Spirit? Well, he/she opens the Scripture, like Jesus, and reads. Augustine responded to the inner direction (or was it the children playing?) of "Take it and read," and his response changed his life. So, Jesus took up the Scripture and read. We are not told if Is. 61 was the so-called "lectionary" text of the day or whether Jesus just turned to the passage he desired. In any case, it was an appropriate one, one in which Jesus is telling us, the reader, that he will take on the "Isaianic" role for his life--(see my comments on Jesus baptism here) he will be a servant of God to the people. The quotation from Isaiah 61 is fascinating not just for the content that you can read in Luke 4, but for what it drops from and adds to Isaiah 61. You can tell a lot about a NT quotation of an OT source when you see what is taken over, what modified and what dropped.

The words dropped from Is. 61 are "and the day of vengeance of our God" (Is. 61:2). After proclaiming the year of the Lord's favor, Isaiah preaches the divine judgment. But Jesus doesn't do so at the beginning of his ministry. This is interesting because John the Baptist, perhaps jumping the gun on Jesus' ministry of judgment, had said that his winnowing for is already (present tense assumed) in his hand (Luke 3:17). But perhaps Jesus had thought deeply in the wilderness on the Isaiah passage from which the divine words came in 3:22. That Isaiah passage was Is. 42, and Is. 42 emphasizes the tenderness of the servant's ministry. "A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench," (Is. 42:3). Thus, as he begins his ministry, Jesus will focus on affirmation of life rather than on imminence of judgment.

Then, Luke has Jesus add some words to Isaiah 61. The central word that is added is "release" or "go free." The addition of these words tells us that what is on Luke's mind as he portrays Jesus is a person who understands himself as bringing some kind of release to people. That word, I would contend, is a most powerful and welcome one for us and our world today. And, in the Gospel of Luke, it has a three-fold significance. It can refer to a release from sins--and thus is best rendered "forgiveness" (e.g., Luke 1:77; 3:3; Acts 2:38; 5:31, etc.). Second, it can suggest a power of freedom in opposition to the power of evil. This may manifest itself especially in Jesus' healings throughout the Gospel. Then, third, there is one interesting reference to another kind of release in Luke's Gospel--in the Lord's Prayer (chapter 11). You know the verse, "forgive us our debts/trespasses." And, if you consider that the context in which the Isaiah quote is taken (Isaiah 58-61 assume the idea of the Jubilee of God, where debts are forgiven), the implication of Jesus' "release" in the economic sphere is challenging. Jesus' Jubilee presence in some way releases us from debt. What can that mean?

III. Jesus and the Fulfillment of Scripture (v. 21)

Let's hasten to the end. After reading the words from Isaiah and sitting down, he simply said, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." What words are these!? The tense of the Greek word is the perfect, which means that it is an action that already has begun but which will receive its consummation or fulfillment in the future. It is the same tense used by Mark to describe Jesus' words that the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near (Mk. 1:15). Luke 4:21 is Luke's "reading" of Mark, I believe, but Luke chooses to frame the inauguration of the Kingdom as a fulfillment of Scripture. But this word of fulfillment is unexpected, and it will evoke extreme reactions from his hearers (see next week). It is an incredibly bold statement, a confident one, a recognition that the release to captives, the proclamation of Good News, the presence of the Spirit-inspired Son has already commenced and will now be put in full display. It heightens our expectation and makes our heart skip quicker. Energies are released, and we can hardly wait to see and hear this person in action. That, friends, is the full meaning of Christ's Epiphany. He now will be shown forth fully to the world.

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