Luke 4:14-21

In last Sunday’s lectionary text, we see Jesus formally announcing his mission—a proclamation that the time of God’s fulfillment had come and that Jesus is the one to fulfill it! The passage Jesus references in this Mission Reveal is from Isaiah. It is this passage that is meant to be a prophetic passage of hope for God’s coming restoration of Israel when God would come to bring hope and salvation to ALL. It’s a powerful passage and rendered Jesus’ listeners absolutely speechless.
But the speechless reaction of his neighbors (remember this is his hometown) didn’t last long, as some were amazed while others became angry and indignant. While some found this to be very Good News indeed, others found it quite threatening! But, regardless, everyone from this time on knew the name of Jesus. His identity and mission have now been revealed. This event announces who Jesus is, what his ministry is about, what his church will be and do, and what the response will be to both Jesus and the church.
Jesus went home to reveal his mission. In my reading last week, I was reminded that home is not only a place, but a people. Home is where our imaginations took flight and our dreams began. Maybe coming home also means coming home to ourselves…seeing things as they really are and figuring out where we fit. For Jesus, it is recognizing his mission and maybe even how he no longer fits into the old order of things. For us, maybe it is allowing what we see in our family, our community, or maybe our country, to affect us in ways that bring clarity and transformation.
Whatever we take to be the heart of the gospel will be the shaping force in our life of faith. The author of Luke instructs us to place this text as the central concern and even plumb line of Jesus’ teaching. It is so important that the implication is that if we are going to study, interpret, and follow the gospel, we ought to keep coming back to this text to measure our work. To know our mission and to understand what God has given us to do are as important to us now as they were to Jesus then.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
When Jesus utters the words, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” he says so with courage and conviction, because he knows there is no turning back. The prophet who uttered this new way of living, this new way of being, was crucified by the powerful of the day. Why? Because he was speaking truth to power. He spoke of justice for the powerless. He spoke of feeding the poor, of welcoming the stranger, of housing the homeless…of mercy.
The mission hasn’t changed.
Rev. Dr. Debi Powell-Maxwell
1/26/2025
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