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The Rev. Scott Murrey

Luke 4: 14-21　　Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 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, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

"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."　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. Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Local boy makes good. That's what the headlines should have said, but they didn't. In fact, after their astonishment at his gracious words, Jesus' listeners turned around and were ready to throw him off a cliff. That is how this story concludes in the following verses.

But Jesus begins his ministry with the song of Isaiah. But he is really only repeating the words of his Mother, echoing her wonderful song which poured from her when she met with Elizabeth.

I found interesting words by Richard Swanson about the Year of Jubilee (Lord's Favor).

"Swanson explains, for example, the "why" of Jubilee ("the year of the Lord's favor"): the practice--or at least the vision of the practice; it was the dream of God, after all--of restoring, every fifty years or so, land and possessions to people who had lost them. This restoration offends our capitalist notions of private ownership so much that I find Swanson's words helpful in describing the need and the "rightness" of forgiving debt and giving back land. He reminds us of the nomadic roots of the Jewish people, who wandered a long time before making their way into the Promised Land. When they arrived, they understood that the land wasn't really theirs but God's, and they lived on it as God's guests (we might say today that they were "stewards" of God’s land). (Kate Huey)
Jubilee is, in a sense, God's way of putting the balance back. Righting the wrongs, etc. so that those whose had didn't have too much, and those with little had enough.

I wonder what Jubilee might mean in the Middle East today? Can the nation of Israel see itself as stewards of the land? Might they not be willing to share, especially with other children of Abraham? If the Holy Land is God's land, should it not be shared?

So Jesus begins his ministry of Good News by speaking of healing. That's the bottom line, I think. God's presence among us is to be one of healing, or to use a broader term, reconciling. Reconciliation with God, with each other, and in ourselves. Wholeness, oneness. That is the work of every prophet.