A Spirit-empowered Messiah -- Lectionary Reflection for Epiphany 3C (Luke 4)

 

Luke 4:14-21 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

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.”

                ***

      On the day of his baptism, Jesus was “filled with the power of the Holy Spirit” (Luke 3:21-22), Having been empowered by the Spirit Jesus began his ministry in Galilee. Apparently, he was a good preacher because everyone was talking about his sermons and he was being invited to teach in their synagogues. It's possible that he was in demand because his message seemed fresh and empowering. 

       The Holy Spirit figures prominently in both the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. In Luke's later volume, the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit is the primary actor, as the Spirit moves the nascent community outward from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). According to the story of Jesus' baptism, the Spirit fell on Jesus and then pushed him forward into the world. Of course, this was a world that wasn't ready to fully welcome the good news he was preaching.

 

        I should note that the passage in Luke that immediately precedes this story of Jesus' appearance in the synagogue in Nazareth, is a key Lenten text. It's easy to forget that immediately after his baptism, according to Luke, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, where he faced a series of tests that were designed to derail his mission (Luke 4:1-13). It is only after the time of testing that Jesus began to preach the good news of the coming realm of God. While many people responded positively to his message, as people praised his preaching, as time passed and the message began to sink in not everyone would be quite so impressed. There will be opposition emerging, but we’re not there yet.

         In the passage designated for the Third Sunday after Epiphany, we read about the time when Jesus returned home to Nazareth. Since word had gotten out that he was a preacher, he got an invitation to preach in the local synagogue on the designed scripture reading for the day. Being that he had become somewhat of a celebrity, the people in Nazareth hoped he might bless them with a bit of his wisdom. The text for the day came from the Isaiah scroll. This reading came from Isaiah 61 and spoke of the ministry of the Spirit. In this reading Isaiah spoke of one who would be anointed by the Spirit to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed. In other words, the text spoke of the year of Jubilee. This Spirit-inspired message spoke of justice and mercy, of righteousness and freedom. When Jesus finished reading the text that spoke of this Spirit-empowered prophetic ministry, he sat down. Then, with every eye in the congregation focused on him, he announced: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” In other words, he told them: I’m the one Isaiah spoke of and I’m going to do these very things.

            The Third Sunday after Epiphany coincides with Martin Luther King Day. In 2022, this Sunday falls on the Sunday following the observance of Dr. King's birth. Over the years, we've done a good job as a country in sanitizing Dr. King’s legacy. We’ve learned to make him palatable and even popular by emphasizing a phrase from his 1963 speech about the "content of our character." Yes, color and ethnicity are meaningless. But in our attempt to make Dr. King a nice guy who everyone can like, have we miscast him as the dreamer of a "color-blind" world? In answer to that question, Christian ethicist David Gushee writes: 

At the time Dr. King was murdered on April 4, 1968, he was a deeply polarizing and unpopular figure. A minority lauded him as a hero, but to others he was a troublemaker and a rabble-rouser. People actually did cheer in many places in the US when the news broke that Dr. King was dead. 

But now everyone loves MLK. He was, after all, about “service.” He was about “a dream.” He was about “a color-blind America.” He has become a safe national hero. 

But people who are about service, dreams, and a color-blind America don’t get beat up, arrested, and murdered. [http://davidgushee.religionnews.com/2016/01/18/how-dr-king-became-safe/]

It's important to remember that Dr. King was inspired by Jesus. Like Dr. King, we've worked hard to sanitize Jesus as well. We’ve made Jesus nice. How could Jesus meek and mild be a trouble maker and a rabble-rouser? Of course, as with Dr. King, why did Jesus end up dead on a Roman cross? That is, why did the powers-that-be want him dead?

                Although Jesus wasn't a socialist or a revolutionary in the modern sense (remember that socialism is a modern ideology so Jesus would not have been so aligned), it was among the poor, the outcast, and the marginalized, that his message most resonated. He offered them hope, and not just for a better afterlife. He spoke of freedom in the present moment. 

        We might call Jesus a charismatic messiah, as he was filled with the Spirit. Being Spirit-empowered, he stayed strong and kept preaching despite opposition from the political and religious leadership. The message for the church today is that Jesus passed on this mantle to his disciples and all who follow after them. Regarding Dr. King, let us remember that he was first and foremost a preacher, and as a preacher, he called upon those who have this calling to take up his mantle. In his last message, offered the night before his assassination in Memphis, Dr. King declared:

We need all of you. And you know what’s beautiful to me, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It’s a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and say, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Somehow, the preacher must say with Jesus, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor.” [Martin King Jr, (2013-08-20). The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings (King Legacy) (Kindle Locations 2856-2859). Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.].

What a beautiful sight it was, seeing people who are inspired by the Spirit ready to proclaim and embody the Gospel. This assignment calls on those who are filled with the Spirit, that is, those who are truly charismatic, to challenge the systems that enslave and oppress.  I believe that Martin Luther King, Jr., though like all of us, an imperfect vessel, was Spirit inspired and empowered. As such, he followed the path laid before him by Jesus of Nazareth, the one who fulfilled the promise of Isaiah. 

        As I think about Jesus’ sense of call as expressed here in the Gospel of Luke, I must ponder how that translates into our contemporary world. Since Luke lifts up the presence of the Spirit, my thoughts go to the Azusa Street Revival (1906), which launched the modern Pentecostal Movement. It is often forgotten, especially since Pentecostalism has become rather mainstream, that in its origins at Azusa Street, this movement of the Spirit broke down existing ethnic and gender barriers. The leader of the revival was an African American preacher named William Seymour. As the revival crossed ethnic,  racial, and gender boundaries it drew in the poor, empowering them to take hold of their own lives so they could experience true equality. It also saw women being empowered and inspired to preach, teach, and participate in ministries of healing. Azusa Street was like nothing that anyone had seen before. 

         As we read this word from the Gospel of Luke we're reminded that the Spirit of the Lord will not be contained by forces who seek to enforce the status quo. While the early Christian community attracted some from among the wealthy sectors of society,  it mostly attracted those living on the margins. Jesus healed people who had been cast aside by polite society. His ministry of exorcism was in essence an act that freed people from the bonds that prevented them from participating in society. His message of the kingdom offered an alternate realm of life, but it was not a realm existing in the clouds. Instead, it was a realm that challenged the realities of the present age. As Grace Ji-Sun Kim puts it: “As a poor Jewish peasant teacher from Nazareth, Jesus’ teaching would have been heard as hope for the poor, while being a threat to the Roman Empire. Jesus understands his identity and mission as a continuation of the prophets of Israel (Mark 8:27-28; Luke 234:19; Luke 13:33-4). While the Hebrew prophets anticipated God's coming reign of righteousness, Jesus announces that God's reign is here and now, and is manifested when people treat the deepest needs of the disinherited as if they are holy” [Embracing the Other, p. 123-124].

          In other words, Jesus’ Spirit-empowered ministry was not going to be well received by the powers that be. It will evoke resistance. Dr. King’s message did as well. I was reminded at a Martin Luther King Day event that Dr. King as assassinated just as he was at work organizing an effort that would take on the constant challenge of poverty. King was trying to unite all the poor to take on the powers, to march on Washington and demand an equitable disposal of resources would be made. That would not have been well received. Justice reform in our day is not well received. The reminder that “Black Lives Matter” is not well received by the Powers. Divide and conquer, that has been the method of dealing with those who press for change. Is that not the message of white Christian nationalism?  

                So, where is the good news?  Jack Levison writes of the message of Isaiah 61: “There’s no stopping the Spirit. Better yet, there’s no stopping a leader, whether a messiah or a servant or a prophet, whom the Spirit of God anoints” [40 Days with the Holy Spirit, p. 93]. Indeed, they nailed Jesus to a cross, but God said no to their efforts and raised him from the dead! Then the Spirit fell on those early followers of Jesus, and empowered them to preach the good news of God’s realm. That same calling remains with us to this day!  The mantle has been passed on to us.