Readings: Isaiah 61; Luke 4: 14 – 21
Imagine the scene. The Junior Choir are all settled down quietly – as they always do of course – and they’re waiting for the practice to start. One of their number hasn’t been around much recently. Their singing career has suddenly taken off – they’ve been in demand all over London singing in all the good church choirs. Rumours of a recording contract have been flying around. They’re going to be the next big thing, people are saying.
And then this person turns up, one Thursday evening, just as usual. And David turns to them and says – OK then, would you like to sing something for us?
Imagine the expectation in the air as this person stands up to sing. What will they sing? Are they really as good as everyone else seems to think?
Well, that’s the kind of atmosphere there must have been in that little synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus’ home town, as He stood up to read and to comment on the scripture of the day. All the adult men in the community were allowed to read and preach on the scriptures in the synagogue, so it wasn’t so remarkable that he was asked to do this. But he hadn’t been around much recently in Nazareth. He’d been travelling around to other villages nearby and getting quite a reputation for His preaching. He was fast becoming a celebrity.
So Jesus stands up and reads the passage set for the day – from Isaiah 61. We heard all of the Chapter for our first reading this evening. We don’t know exactly when it was written. We do know that God’s special people, the Jews, needed encouraging. They may have been in exile in Babylon, or they may have already returned in which case they were struggling to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. It didn’t all go smoothly. So the prophet speaks to tell them that God is on their side. They will become a great nation again, so much so that they will be an example of righteousness and justice to other nations.
But the passage has another meaning too. It speaks of the Messiah, God’s special anointed leader who will bring about a new and glorious future for his people. In Jesus’ time God’s people were suffering again. Their land was occupied by the Romans, and while they were allowed to practise their faith, life was especially hard if you were poor. Many people were hoping and expecting that this might be the time when God would, at last, send His Messiah and rescue them.
So – imagine what it must have felt like when Jesus stood up and read those words:
“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 favour.” (Luke 4: 18 – 19)
A spine-tingling moment, I think.
And then Jesus sat down – preachers generally did in those days, and he started his sermon. He just said “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled as you listen.” Putting the words out into that atmosphere of expectation. He might as well have said. “By the way, I am the Messiah. I’m here, now, with you.”
Luke presents these few lines from Isaiah 61, which Jesus spoke, as His manifesto; they sum up the core values of His ministry. Jesus has come with a special concern for the poor, for prisoners, for the blind and for those who are bullied and kept down by others. There’s an echo here of the Beatitudes which begin with the poor in spirit, those who mourn and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
The “year of the Lord’s favour” refers to the year of Jubilee which we read about in Leviticus. This was a radical social idea whereby every fifty years all property owned within the people of Israel reverted to its original owners. At the same time the land would be left fallow, no crops would be grown; it was a kind of sabbatical year for everything. This was a way of ensuring social equality amongst the people of Israel. We don’t know whether they ever actually did it. But there’s an echo of it in Mary’s song, the Magnificat, which we’ve just sung. “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:52 – 53) The Messiah brings new hope not just to individuals but to the whole of society.
As the story of Jesus’ ministry unfolds we see His concern for the poor and the marginalised. It was also such people who were most immediately attracted to Jesus. But there is a secondary meaning to Jesus’ manifesto. He’s as concerned with spiritual as with physical poverty, with captivity to anything which takes us away from God as much as literal imprisonment. He has as much to say about spiritual blindness which keeps people far from God as about the physical blindness which He cures.
We didn’t hear the end of the story of Jesus’ visit to Nazareth this evening. They liked what He said to start with; it’s good having a local celebrity – and He spoke well – but in the end it was just too challenging and they tried to lynch Him.
How, then, do we respond to Jesus? Do we believe Him; is He who He says He is, our Messiah, our Lord and Saviour?
And if He is, how do we then serve Him here in Hampstead? One way, of course, is by raising money for charity by events like our wonderful Spring Fair yesterday. But in this privileged part of London, who are the poor, the blind, the oppressed? This is a question for our church, but also for each one of us. What is God calling us to do?
Which brings us back to finish where we started our service this evening. The introit, sung so beautifully by the combined choirs. This was one person’s response to Christ. Mother Theresa of Calcutta.
ere are the words again:
“I heard the call to give up all, and follow Him into the slums to serve Him amongst the poorest of the poor, purely for the love of God, purely for the love of God”.
Amen