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Preaching Notes / Part 2 of 3 (Luke 4:14-21) – 3rd Sunday Ordinary Time (January 25, 2025)

Sunday’s Gospel jumps from Luke’s “thematic statement” opening (Luke 1:1-4) to the first public event in Jesus’ life when He returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit with news of Him already widespread throughout the region (Luke 4:14-21).

Jesus returns from the desert (where He is tempted by Satan) to His hometown of Nazareth. There Jesus enters the synagogue on the Sabbath day “according to his custom” (Read: He was a good Jewish person) (v. 16).

In the synagogue on the Sabbath day, Jewish people having completed what today is known as a “Bar-Mitzva” were permitted to read from the Law (Torah) and the Prophets. Unrolling the scroll handed to Him, Jesus finds the place where Isaiah wrote about the “jubilee year.”

Jesus stands in the middle of the synagogue scroll in hand and, as is proper for the reader of the scroll, all eyes are fixed on Him (v. 20). He proclaims a prophetic text that announces the coming of God’s Messiah. Earlier in Luke’s Gospel, the Spirit of the Lord dramatically is seen at Jesus’ baptism, then the text continues with His having been anointed. Jesus is the Messiah, the Hebrew word for “Anointed One” [in Greek, “Christos” or Christ]. In the Spirit, the Anointed One of the Lord God proclaims that He will fulfill His Messianic mission by bringing hope to the hopeless.

This is not the usual understanding of God’s Messiah! Jesus will not charge into Jerusalem atop a spectacular warhorse brandishing a fiery sword to vanquish the enemies of Israel and restore the Davidic Kingdom. Instead, Jesus will exercise His Messiahship by bringing good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, to give sight to the blind, to set the downtrodden free and to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor.

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