Proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD

 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 filled 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 throughout 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, being filled with the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan [after His Baptism] 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.  We're tempted to see the word glorified as simply meaning hailed or praised.  But in the Scriptural context, it's important to remember that this word implies recognizing His true value, the glory of God at work through Him.

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."  As eternal Son of God, Christ didn't become the world's anointed Savior, says my study bible, but rather has always been our Savior from before the foundation of the world.  It was Christ speaking through Isaiah who said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me" (Isaiah 61:1).  Jesus' doesn't say "The Spirit has come upon Me."  Rather, when the Spirit of the LORD descended on Jesus at His baptism (see 3:22), it was a sign of revelation -- the revelation of an eternal, not temporal, truth to people about the identity of Jesus.  The acceptable year is the time of Christ's Incarnation, when the Kingdom of heaven has come into the world (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 filled 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 throughout 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 notes the double response of both marveling and rejection, which it says occurs frequently in those who encounter Christ (see 11:14-16; John 9:16).  Being rejected in His own country fulfills the rejection of the Old Testament prophets such as Elijah and Elisha (named here by Jesus), and foreshadows His rejection by the whole nation at His trial before Pilate (John 19:14-15).  Christ accepts death according to the Father's will, not that of the Jewish leadership.  But here, the hour of His Passion has not yet come (see John 8:20). 

Jesus is rejected in His hometown.  We must understand that without faith, there will be no wonders done, no miracles of the sort which these townspeople have heard Jesus has done elsewhere.  So important is the saying that no prophet is accepted in his own country that it appears in all four Gospels (see also Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4, John 4:44).  It at once intrigues us with a law of familiarity; that those to whom we've already grown used with a certain image of impression retain for us this identity.  But a prophet's job is precisely to remind people of what they've forgotten, to tell them the truth they'd rather not be reminded of, to bring them back to faith and out of the convenience of their own thinking.  Jesus calls people not only to the identity that is truly His, but to a recognition of truth that outsiders can grasp about Him.  He reminds His own townspeople of the prophets of the Old Testament who were able to perform wonders for outsiders, foreigners (like the widow of Sidon, or Naaman the Syrian).  But He will not perform wonders in order to be "glorified."  Faith comes in a different way, and does not depend upon proofs in order to compel a response of love and acceptance.  Jesus will say, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" again in a reference also found in Isaiah. The lesson we can take from today's reading is about familiarity and complacence.  When we're used to things a certain way, when we have a fixed idea in our minds, it's easy to be deaf and blind to God's surprising work and presence in our lives or in the lives of others around ourselves.  We always need to be called back to the surprising "good news."  Sometimes the good news doesn't seem like good news at all.  It shakes up our world, it calls for us to change, and to change our perceptions, which in turn may wind up changing all kinds of things we're not always prepared for.  That is the nature of a truth we've forgotten, or don't want to acknowledge, something that can be like news from a doctor we'd rather not do anything about.   When Jesus suggests that His townspeople wish to say to Him, "Physician, heal yourself!" it's in reference to one who must cure his own faults before criticizing others -- in this case, a way to respond to the prophetic call for change with an accusation and facile criticism.  Prophets themselves were unusual people, to say the least, often called "out" of the society to serve God.  In such a way, then, we can see Christ in His hometown as the fullness of prophecy, the One come into the world to call us back to God, but even more -- the revelation of God Himself.  He cannot just be "Joseph's son" and whatever that means to the townspeople of Nazareth.  He is representing something much greater, a gift one must have open eyes and ears to grasp and realize and value properly.  Such will always be the nature of God at work in the world.  Let us be attentive!

Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe

 Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee.  For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.  So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast.

So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine.  And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.  When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.  Then Jesus said, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."  The nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!"  Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives."  So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.  And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!"  Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better.  And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."  So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives."  And he himself believed, and his whole household.  This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

- John 4:43-54

Yesterday, we read the second half of the story concerning the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.  (See the first half here.)   At this point His disciples came, and they marveled that Jesus talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with her?"  The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did.  Could this be the Christ?"  Then they went out of the city and came to Him.  In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."  But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."  Therefore the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?"  Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.  Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'?  Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!  And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.  For in this the saying is true:  'One sows and another reaps.'  I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors."  And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did."  So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.  And many more believed because of His own word.  Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves  have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world." 

Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee.  For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.  So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast.  Jesus' "own country" is Galilee.  He was on His way there from Jerusalem (in Judea) when the encounter with the woman at Jacob's well took place in Samaria.  In Jerusalem He attended Passover.  This was the first of three Passovers that occur in John's Gospel, and there He cleansed the temple (see Zeal for your house has eaten me up).  There He performed many signs, as the Gospel tells us, but "Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man"  (John 2:24).    My study bible says that while the Galileans received Christ having seen His signs, St. John Chrysostom gives greater credit to the Samaritans (see the previous reading, above) for accepting Christ based on words alone without accompanying signs.

So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine.  And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.  When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.  Then Jesus said, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."   This admonishment is to the people in general (the "you" is plural both times in the last verse that quotes Jesus).  It's not just a word for the nobleman, and it reinforces the information about the Galileans who believed only because they saw Jesus' signs (or miraculous works) at the Passover in Jerusalem.  My study bible says, "Faith based on miraculous works alone is insufficient for salvation; this kind of incomplete faith quickly turns to scorn should the miracles cease (19:15)."

The nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!"  Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives."  So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.  And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!"  Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better.  And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."  So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives."  And he himself believed, and his whole household.  This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.  The nobleman's emphasis is on the urgent need for his son.  My study bible says that his faith in Christ is weak, although he pleads for help.  He doesn't understand that Christ is Lord over illness even from a distance, nor does he grasp that Jesus would have the power to heal even if the child were to die.  The nobleman inquires about the time of the healing, still not completely trusting the authority of Christ.  My study bible says, "Only after all is confirmed do he and his whole household believe.  Thus, in healing the child from a distance, Jesus heals not only the body of the child, but the soul of the nobleman."

We are given further information here about God, what God is, what God is like, what qualities God has.  In the understanding that neither time nor space are an obstacle to the healing power of Christ, we are given a deeper and fuller measurement (or non-measurement, if you will) of God:  God's power and authority and how it works.  Even death is not an obstacle to this power!  We've already discussed the reality of the heart as the place of faith and of the Kingdom, in the earlier reading in which Jesus taught the Samaritan woman that "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."  Here's another stretch of what that means and how that works.  Jesus explained to the Samaritan woman that the worship of God doesn't take place in a fixed spot; He doesn't enter into the argument about where the correct location for temple worship is.  Instead, He reveals things about God and gives us what our worship is about by doing so.  In today's reading, we're taught two important things:  that faith from works (or belief in signs) isn't really the kind of faith He's looking for.  It's the trust that marks the real relationship with God that the faith of Christ is all about.  The second thing we're given is the lack of boundaries on God's power:  neither space nor time have anything to do with how it works.  If you think about it, the signs themselves declare this about God, revealed through the power of Christ in the Incarnation.  But neither do time and space (nor death) keep us from relationship, closeness, and the life of the Kingdom.  God is present to us, Christ is present to us.  The saints are present to us and pray with us.  We worship together with the angels in heaven.  There are no barriers to the kind of faith He calls us to:  and this is part and parcel of the revelation of Christ as the Incarnate Lord Jesus.  So we have to think about what all that means for us and about us, now.  Wherever we are, He's there.  (See Matthew 18:20.)   And the One He calls the Comforter is also by our side when we call.  See John 14:26.   In fact, in that verse, the word Jesus uses is "Paraclete" in the original Greek.  This word has and can be translated as advocate, intercessor, consoler, comforter, helper.   It was also a word commonly used at Christ's time for attorney -- or for one who'd give evidence that would stand up in a court.   But the literal meaning of that word is compound:  it describes one who is close beside ("para") when called ("kaleo").  And this describes the working of God.  Nothing is dependent upon conditions that determine where we are exactly, or when this happens.  This is the Comforter, our Advocate, the One who stands up and gives us the solid advice we need for our own best interest.  And that's really where we are taken in today's reading.  We're given a deeper sense of what it means to have faith in God.  It means to trust.  Trust is a reality of the heart that withstands all things and can see us through our lives no matter what.   The faith Christ asks of us is something that goes far beyond just whatever outcome we want right this minute.  It's a trust that is there in the heart, always with us, close beside whenever we call, even if everything is against us.  That's a "tough love" we can always use, that we always need, and that we can truly count on to tell us what is what.  Let's remember our boundless God who is always with us, the Friend who tells us what we need to hear.  Through Christ's Incarnation, we take the steps closer to love as He reveals Himself, to the one thing that's truly necessary for our well-being.