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Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany – January 23, 2022
Luke 4:14-21
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
There is no shortage of bad news these days: Omicron is generating plenty of bad news as schools struggle to stay open due to staff shortages and hospitals struggle to provide care for the same reason. Inflation has hit a 40-year high, making it increasingly difficult for people to make ends meet. Many people were saddened recently when America’s grandma, Betty White, died just shy of her 100th birthday. Add to this the steady stream of more personal bad news we hear from family members and friends and brothers and sisters in Christ here at church about people who are sick, people who have lost loved ones, people who are hurting in one way or another. They say bad news travels fast, and bad news from all over the world and all over our community is delivered more quickly and constantly than ever, right into the ever-present smartphones in the palms of our hands.
How wonderful it is, then, to hear some good news this morning! As we heard in our gospel reading, Jesus was back in his hometown of Nazareth, the town where he grew up. He was the guest preacher at his hometown synagogue. He took the scroll containing the words of the prophet Isaiah, found his place, and read to the congregation:
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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Then Jesus rolled the scroll back up, sat down – which was the customary position of the preacher in those days – and Jesus gave what might be the shortest sermon in history. He simply said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” That was it. Thanks be to God, amen.
It was a short sermon, but it was good news indeed! It was good news because the Messiah long promised by God had arrived. The savior whose coming work was so powerfully described by Isaiah was now present and ready to fulfill those promises. The written Word of God was now being spoken by the Word made flesh. Jesus was the one who had come to do all the things Isaiah said the Messiah would do! This was good news back then, and it is good news today too!
Jesus is the one who has come to bring good news to the poor. This certainly means those who are economically poor. It means the hungry and homeless. It means those on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder. Jesus has come to lift them up. He has come to fill them up through the generosity of his followers. He has come to assure them that God loves them and that their lives have dignity. But this good news is for people who are poor in other ways as well. This isn’t something you have to qualify for by proving a low income. This isn’t like Medicaid or Pell grants for college. Jesus has also come bringing good news for the poor in spirit, for those who are in despair, for those who hunger and thirst for God’s love. Jesus has come to fill up every human heart which is empty and groaning for the presence and peace of God.
Jesus has come to proclaim release to the captives. Just as God worked through Moses to bring his people out of slavery in Egypt, guiding them through the wilderness and into the Promised Land, so too now God is working through his Son to bring all people out of every captivity – our captivity to death, our captivity to the devil, our captivity to our sinful selves. Jesus has come to deliver us out of our captivity so that we might be free and fearless as we make our way through the wilderness of this life in our way to the Promised Land.
Jesus has come to give sight to the blind. Jesus helps us to see what was hidden from us before. He has come to give us eyes of faith that can perceive God’s work in our lives, so that we can see God’s gifts given to us in Word and Sacrament, so that we can see the truth of who God is. Jesus has come so that we can all sing with joy, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”
Jesus has come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. This could be a reference to the Jewish year of Jubilee. Every fiftieth year Israel was to release everyone from their debts. Indentured servants were set free from their contractual obligations. Everyone’s slate was wiped clean. Historians can’t find a lot of evidence that this was actually practiced widely in Israel, but it was a nice idea! Well, Jesus has come to proclaim the true year of the Lord’s favor, the true Jubilee. He has come to forgive our sins, our debts to God. He has come to set us free from the oppressive burden of the law. He has come to wipe our slates clean and give us a new life. In Christ, there is true Jubilee as we daily experience God’s favor, God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s love.
I am not Jesus. Sometimes our preschoolers get confused about that, but I am not him. I am not your Messiah or your savior. (Yeah, no kidding, some of you are thinking.) But I am here today to proclaim this good news to you. I am here to proclaim to you that TODAY this scripture has been fulfilled in YOUR hearing. As you hear God’s Word, as you hear Jesus’ short, mic-drop sermon, this scripture is fulfilled! It happens also when you hear the absolution. It happens when you hear the words, “This is the body of Christ, broken for you, the blood of Christ, shed for you.” TODAY, through all these means of grace, this scripture is fulfilled in YOUR hearing.
St. Luke tells us it was Jesus’ custom to go to worship on every sabbath day. It is our custom too. If it isn’t, make it your custom! You’re already here, so you’re off to a great start! We come to worship on the sabbath day because it is here that we meet our Lord Jesus. It is here in worship that scripture is fulfilled as our savior comes to us with good news. It is here that we are released from all that holds us back and weighs us down. It is here that we are given eyes of faith to see God’s work. It is here that we are freed and forgiven and favored by our gracious Lord.
Don’t be overwhelmed by all the bad news you hear. For today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. And it is good news indeed.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church