Luke 4:14-21
14 Then Jesus,
filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about
him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their
synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16 When he came to Nazareth, where he
had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his
custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given
to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18
"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, 19 to proclaim
the year of the Lord's favor." 20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it
back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were
fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has
been fulfilled in your hearing."
"Today this scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing."
·
Do you ever wonder what the Kingdom of
God is like? Jesus answers that question using parable in a number of places in
the Gospels. Of course, those parables are not always easy to understand.
·
In today’s reading, Jesus says that the
scripture passage from Isaiah he has just read in the synagogue in Nazareth has
been fulfilled in your hearing.
The reading tells of the coming of God’s kingdom into the world. It promises
release to captives, sight to the blind, freedom from oppression, good news to
the poor, and the Lord’s favour.
·
If Hollywood were to depict the coming
of the Kingdom, I imagine it would include the sky splitting open, armed and
armoured angel hosts descending with vengeance in their eyes, volcanos
erupting, and masses of people fleeing in terror.
·
But how would Jesus depict the Kingdom?
We see in today’s reading that it includes the righting of wrongs, the healing
of pain and suffering, and freedom for those in bondage. He described it in parables, those small stories
that can carry so much weight and meaning. “The Kingdom of God is like a
mustard seed.” “The Kingdom of God is like a woman searching for a lost coin
who throws a big party when she finds it.” “The Kingdom is like a man who
watched for his lost son all day every day and ran to welcome him when the boy
was seen.” There are many other parables and I’m sure any of us here could
think of some that would be appropriate.
·
These parable teach unfamiliar things in
familiar images – things of domestic home life, image taken from the farm and
the pasture. There are times when the parables go against the common wisdom. We
might question why a shepherd would leave a flock of 99 sheep in the wilderness
in order to seek out one single lost sheep.
·
Well, parables teach things that make
sense in the parable and turn thing upside down for the hearers. The challenge
the hearers to see things differently and to change their ways of thinking.
·
This seems so radically different from
the possible depictions of the coming of the Kingdom in movies or comic books.
The Kingdom of God will not be what we expect. And the scripture announcing its
coming was fulfilled in what we’ve heard Jesus saying in today’s reading. No
angelic regiments. No natural disasters. No earthly uprising of the Kingdom’s
supporters. Just Jesus saying Today
this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
·
Maybe, just maybe, we can change our
thinking on what the Kingdom will be. If Jesus said that the scripture was
fulfilled, then it has been fulfilled and is still being fulfilled. It is still
being fulfilled around us now.
·
Of course, it will not be what we
expect. It may be coming to fulfillment in small, seemingly insignificant ways,
every day, little by little, bit by bit. Lives are being changed, slowly but
surely.
·
Here’s an example I found in my study
for this sermon. In one of the southern states in the USA, a Christian seminary
has set up a satellite campus in a local prison. A number of the inmates are
taking classes with a view to becoming ministers after serving their sentences.
The group received permission to have a vegetable garden and together they
considered what they’d do with the crop they raised. Many of the inmates were
convicted of violent crimes against the women in their lives – wives,
daughters, girlfriends. As a way of beginning to change their attitudes and in
a spirit of atonement, they decided to give all the produce to the women’s
shelter in the nearby town. In small ways, they were changing how they thought
about women and relationships… and about themselves as well.
·
Small acts, yes. Meaningful, but not earth
shaking in the 11 o’clock sense. But world changing though for those who gave
and those who received. From such acorns, mighty oaks grow. Or is it a mustard
seed? Though it is the smallest of
all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a
tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches. (Mt. 13:32)
·
When we hear things like this, we know
Jesus is right.
"Today this scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing."
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