Progressive reflections on the lectionary #50

Monday 20th January 2025

Luke 4: 14 - 21 Jesus' first sermon

I don’t know what the average length of time that people spend on writing sermons is, in fact I’m not sure how you’d even know. I start my prep at the start of a week, and finish it at the end of a week - which means that there’s a bit of thinking time in the middle.

Whatever the length of time boils down to, I still don’t tend to talk for very long - however, I’ve never had the nerve to preach for just one sentence.

In this passage, though, we get to hear Jesus’ first sermon: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

And Luke gives us, in the next verse, the reaction of the congregation: “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.”

The sort of feedback that tends to come my way after a service (tbf, I’m less of a preacher more of a ‘teacher’) doesn’t tend to be quite as effusive, and that, I have to admit is fair enough. “You made me think,” is what I’m generally aiming for rather than “you amazed me with the graciousness of your words.”

I’m not, of course, making the mistake of assuming that Luke records events ‘as they happened’ - rather, this is his story-telling approach at work. He’s telling a story which shifts from Jesus’ preparation in the ‘desert’ through the hype that surrounded his return to the rapturous reception of Jesus’ one line sermon and consequently an attempt at putting him to death from which he escapes. Talk about drama.

The big shift from rapture to displeasure takes place as people digest his words, this shift happens, I think ‘Luke’ wants us to understand, as the ‘weight’ of Jesus words begins to make itself felt.

He has just read from the book of Isaiah, not that he needed to read, of course, he would have memorised the passage long before.

“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 set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

It’s a clear reference, as pretty much everyone will tell you, to the ‘year of Jubilee’ - an Israelite concept which (whether it was ever fully enacted or not) was intended to restore the fortunes of those who had fallen into hardship, debts were to be forgiven, power structures were to be dismantled. A massive reset button, effectively.

It’s one of those concepts, the Jubilee, which sounds good so long as you’re not the one who’s going to have to set people free, give up land, or give back money. Its all very well dismantling power structures unless you’re the one with the power. (Side note: power structures are where, I think, ‘sin’ is to be found. While we take it, generally, to mean something individual, I think sin is structural. Perhaps that’s for another time.)

And Jesus reads these words, in Luke’s story, and like a criminal mastermind about to pull off a heist in a Hollywood film says: “Today. This is going down today.”

As sermons go it’s not only short, but it’s gutsy. “Ok everyone, time to give stuff back. Time to redistribute, time to unlock. It’s today!”

And the initial reaction is positive, until the truth sinks in.

Luke’s gospel is one of good news for the poor, for the marginalised and the oppressed. And good news for those people means bad news for the wealthy, the ‘marginalisers’, and the oppressors. You can’t make an equality omelette without breaking some wealth eggs.

Whoever it was that wrote ‘Luke-Acts’ clearly had that bias, the idea that the writer we call Luke was a ‘physician’ indicates that he may have actually been an enslaved person, a household ‘servant’ trained to practise medicine. Whether he was enslaved or not we can be certain that enslaved people were involved in the copying, transmitting and editing of the work, just as they were in all the other parts of our bibles so they probably managed to get their say from time to time.

So Luke’s presentation of Jesus is one which leans towards justice for the poor and the marginalised, but that, of course has consequences. Once we start redistributing stuff, we get in to the territory of winners and losers.

That’s fine, unless you’re on the losing side. Unless it’s your stuff which is being redistributed. If only Jesus’ sermon had been: “Tomorrow, this scripture will be fulfilled…” scarcely less gracious, but considerably less controversial.

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