For the third Sunday in Epiphany (Series C readings), the three assigned passages are Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:13-31a and Luke 4:16-30. Chosen for the sermon text is Luke 4:21, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
What has Jesus being rejected in Nazareth have to do with hearers of this event today? The purpose of every sermon is to get people to think as God does. God’s plan is that every passage of Scripture is to be used to move people to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and therefore freely receive spiritual life. This reading is chosen as part of the season of Epiphany so somehow it manifests and discloses the true nature of Jesus Christ. After Jesus quotes from Isaiah 61, He concludes that what Isaiah is speaking of is finally fulfilled today.
What Jesus quotes is the passage about the One Who has come to preach the gospel to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, free the captives and so on. The first response of the people is to marvel at the gracious words He used in explaining the text. What gracious words? Once more we need to get into the shoes of the Palestinian hearers who had been taught by Judaism that you earned God’s grace by following the Law and particularly the ceremonial law. Whatever Jesus said, it must have been in line with the rest of the Gospel promises that Isaiah is talking about a salvation that is freely given by God Himself.
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Reading chapters 60 and 61 of Isaiah will quickly reveal that the Savior Who is coming is God Himself. By Jesus proclaiming that this passage is fulfilled today, He is revealing and manifesting Himself not only as the promised Messiah but as God Himself. It is most ironic that though He will not do a miracle as He did in Capernaum, He ends up doing a miracle by simply “passing through the midst of them” (verse 30) when they attempt to “throw Him down over the cliff.”
Part of the gracious revelation that Jesus does speak of is how the Gentiles (those in the town of Capernaum, the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian) are also incorporated into this new kingdom which the Messiah is ushering in. This is radical theology and must have been shocking to those listening to His sermon. For such gracious words had rarely been taught in the way that Jesus explains them. To become a child of God through no effort of your own and without any contribution to the process was totally out of sync with the teachings of the new religion called Judaism. (For more info on Judaism, check elsewhere on this blog by using the “Search” mechanism above.)
The application of this message is that the gracious words spoken by Jesus to His own hometown folks are also addressed to us today. We, who are accused by the Law of attempting to get right with God by our church attendance, offerings and good works need also to be condemned for such manipulation of God. For those outside the faith, there will be anger directed toward Jesus even today that our own works, words and thoughts have no bearing as to whether or not we are saved. Instead, the Holy Spirit takes the same words spoken by the Word Himself and creates a new heart and new spirit.
We therefore rely (trust) on the gracious promsies of the Gospel to be saved rather than the efforts we attempt to do in order to get reconciled with God. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the God/Man, God is already reconciled to the whole world. Through the preaching of the pure Word of God and the proper administration of the holy sacraments, man becomes reconciled to God. Now that is a gracious message to a world burdened as it is today in so many ways.
Name:Tom Baker