Title: Good News

Text: Luke 4: 14-21

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  NRSV

After his time in the wilderness, where he spent 40 days being tempted by the adversary, Luke tells us that our Lord returned to Galilee, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. The news about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in the synagogues and was praised by everyone. He came to Nazareth, where he was brought up. And, as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath.

     In the synagogue, they met to pray, sing and study the Torah. In the synagogue, the proper observance of the law was emphasized. In the synagogue, action and language took on great divine meaning.

     In this place, Jesus stood to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. There were seven readers in the synagogue every Sabbath; the first a priest, the second a Levite, the other five were members of the synagogue.

     We find Christ preaching in other synagogues, but never reading, except in this synagogue at Nazareth, of which he had been a member for many years. Jesus was familiar with this place and these people. He was doing nothing new, nothing radical, nothing different. It was his custom to participate in the worship of this his home synagogue.

    He unrolled the scrolled. Isaiah 61:1, 2 was the appointed lesson. This is what he read: “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.”

     This text gives us a full account of the work Christ came to accomplish in the world of human affairs. Not only that, it also reveals the work the church has been called to do as well. In my view, these words represent the clearest and most concise mission statement available to us in the New Testament. It outlines our identity, our purpose and our calling. We have not been formed as a community merely for our own benefit and spiritual comfort, but also to extend ourselves into the world – to be examples by the faith we exercise, the words we declare and the deeds we perform.

     In this passage from Isaiah, read by Jesus in the synagogue, three ideas appear to rise from the page, demanding as it were, our undivided attention.

The first is the idea expressed by the word proclamation. “He has anointed us to bring good news to the poor.” In our national debate, there is much discussion about the poor. There is much wrangling over definitions and labels. For example, at what point on the economic scale do we designate people as poor. There is much division over policy options intended to assist the poor. Our national debate is concerned largely with income and numbers. The church however, must be concerned, not only with income and numbers, but with the larger issues of poverty as well. For people can be materially wealthy but spiritually impoverished. Our mission is therefore to seek out all who are impoverished, whether by income, or education, social or spiritual deprivation, and offer them the Good News. He has anointed us to bring the Good News. The Good News is – “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The Good News is – “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.” The Good News is – “Nothing can [now] separate us from the love of Christ.” The Good News is – we are loved by an eternal God whose love is completely unearned, unfailing, and always forever unending.   

     God loves us always and under all circumstances. God loves us when we are weak. And God loves us when we’re strong. God loves us when we make mistakes. And God loves us when we are able to bask in the glow of good and right decisions. God loves us when it seems that we can do nothing right. And God loves us when it appears that we can do nothing wrong. God loves us when stumble and stagger in the valley of despair. And God loves us when our hearts are filled with hope and our feet are light with joy. God loves us when we’re afraid – like children in the dead of night when the nightlight goes out. And God loves us when our limbs are filled with courage, brave and valiant we stand. 

     Our message to the world is this: God loves the world and all who abide therein. God loves us today. God will love us tomorrow. And God will love us always. It is that simple. But in its simplicity, we also find its power.

     The second idea is expressed in the phrase, “and recovery of sight to the blind.” To recover the sight of the blind is its meaning. Just as Christ was sent, we have also been sent to recover the sight of the blind. Our mission is to assist others in their efforts to cast off the works of darkness, in order that they might enter God’s glorious light. Our mission is to assist those who have been blinded, blinded by ignorance, blinded by ambition, blinded by failure, blinded by disappointments, blinded by tragedy, blinded heartache and heartbreak, blinded by a crisis of faith. Our mission is to assist them in finding their way into the light of a brand new beginning, a brand new day.

     We must believe that through the power of the Spirit, what we have lost can be restored.

     We must believe that through the power of the Spirit, what has been broken can be healed.

     We must believe that through the power of the Spirit, what has been shattered can be repaired.

     Finally, Jesus says, “He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives…to let the oppressed go free.” This is the message of liberation – a message that runs from Genesis through Revelation. God has set us free, and it is this freedom we are called to proclaim to the world.

     This freedom however, is a freedom that we must choose. We can be free, but only if we choose to be.

     Free from our addictions and our obsessions.

     Free from our fears and the angst that often bedevils us.

     Free from negativity and the negative influences in our lives.

     Free from the powers that seek to make us less than we are.

     Free to devote all that we are and all that we hope to be, to the liberation of humankind from those forces that seek to place limits on our imagination and limits on our dreams.

      Free to live life to the fullest.

     This is our message. This is the bread we offer to hungry souls. This is the living water we offer to those who thirst. This is the saving truth we offer the world.