The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor

 

 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.  And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.  And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.  And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.  And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,

Because He has anointed Me 

To preach the gospel to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."  

 

So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.  And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"  He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself!  Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.'"   Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine thorughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."  So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.  Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

- Luke 4:14–30 

 

 Yesterday we read that Jesus, after His Baptism, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil.  And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.  And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."  But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'"  Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours."  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan!  For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"  Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.  For it is written:  'He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you,'" and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"  And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"  Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

 

  Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.  And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.  These brief verses tell us of the beginning of Christ's ministry, and how quickly news of Him spread as He taught in their synagogues, and was glorified by all.

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.  And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.  And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.    This passage (verses 16-22) is read in the Church on September 1st, which is the beginning of the Ecclesiastical New Year.  It is by tradition considered to have taken place on what is now called Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (Leviticus 23:24, Numbers 29:1). 

And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:  "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor . . ."  My study bible comments here that Christ, being the eternal Son of God, did not become the world's anointed Savior, but has always been our Savior from before the foundation of the world.   In the Church, we understand it as Christ speaking through Isaiah who said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me" (Isaiah 61:1).  Note that Christ does not say, "The Spirit has come upon Me."  My study bible adds that hen the Spirit of the LORD descended on Jesus at His baptism (3:22), this was a sign which revealed an eternal, not temporal, truth to people about Christ the Son.

 

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."   The acceptable year is the time of the Incarnation, when the Kingdom of heaven has come to earth (see 2 Corinthians 6:2).

 

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."  So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.  And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"  He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself!  Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.'"   Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.  But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine thorughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."  So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.  Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.  My study bible comments on the double response of marveling and rejection.  It is one found frequently with those who encounter Christ (see 11:14-16; John 9:16).   Jesus being rejected in His own country is a fulfillment of the rejection of the Old Testament prophets such as Elijah and Elisha, who are mentioned here by Christ.  It also foreshadows Christ's rejection by the whole Jewish nation at His trial before Pilate (John 19:14-15).  My study bible adds that Christ accepts death according to the Father's will, not at the will of the religious leaders or the crowds whose passions they whip up.  Here, Christ's hour has not yet come (see John 8:20).  

Jesus' statement, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country," is so important in His story that it is found in all four Gospels (see also Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4, John 4:44).  Of course, it is central to the story of Christ.  Here, by tradition at the start of the new year (a time for blowing the horn), Jesus goes to His hometown, and declares Himself.  His identity as Son is revealed at Baptism (see Tuesday's reading), but in today's reading He is essentially announcing Himself as the Christ to His hometown, as the "anointed one" which the passage from Isaiah declares.  But at this announcement, His townspeople bridle.  They envy His learning and His gracious words.  How can He be one who so rises above His station?  Isn't He Joseph's son, as they know Him?  But, in this frame of mind, He can do nothing of His great works, because those require faith.  They can't accept Him in the role revealed here.  There is witness of Him elsewhere; we're told that He is glorified by all in the surrounding regions.  But in His hometown, they need proof, and proof no one is going to get.  They already have Him pegged as the person they knew and once thought He was.  Right from the beginning, right here in His Galilean ministry, Luke introduces to us the problems of authority which Christ will have right through to the Passion week, to His Crucifixion.  How can He prove He has authority to speak and to teach?  Sometimes in life we will find that we are judged only by what others understand of us.  Yet, in the sight of God we are more than we appear to others.  It is God who knows the heart, and who understands the things of which we might be capable, in God's sight, and with God's help.  We may be capable of transcendence as was Christ, overcoming our own circumstances to find a greater meaning than is presented in a worldly sense.  We may find ways to express great love that others can't see, or compassion we didn't necessarily learn in our homes, a patience God helps us to learn with our own cross, a loyalty others have not shown to us, forbearance learned through experience and through prayer.  All of these things can be gifts of God, and fruit of the Spirit.  As Christ's real identity is from His own relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, so our own deepest identity comes from our relationship with God, and especially in that deeply intimate place where God knows us better than we know ourselves.  As we pray, we not only pray to Father, Son, and Spirit, but also with all the saints and angels, those saints who have been there with us walking through life in this world and through a depth of relationship with God, the angels who help us and encourage us unseen along the way.  This is the place where we find ourselves.  Christ is who He truly is, and none of the naysayers of His hometown can change that.  But neither can He do the miraculous things He's done elsewhere, without their faith first.  There's an odd reflection of our own lives in that, as so often we are simply unable to "prove" who we truly are to those who just don't want to see it.  Christ gives us hope, for He's been there already before us.  Let us take heart from His choice to be there first, and take our direction also from Him and the faith He asks of us.   In today's reading, Jesus reads the words of Isaiah:  "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."    Today we must remember that these words have meaning for us right here and right now, especially when we feel poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind, or oppressed -- and right now is always the acceptable year of the LORD.