Declaration

Readings in Luke Continued – No.8

Lk 4:17-21 Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:   18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”   20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

There are those who rather foolishly say that that Gospels are entirely made up of wishful, “if-only-this-could-have-happened” thinking. They say that the whole of the Christian Faith is simply made up by men. Such men have obviously never read the Gospels. It was translator, J.B.Phillips, who wrote a small book called Ring of Truth because, as he translated the New Testament in the mid-twentieth century, that’s what he felt it had. I feel the same thing. Come to a passage like our one today which is packed full of detail which, if it were simply a made up story, wouldn’t have been included.

Having been given the Isaiah scroll he unrolled it and found the prophecy he then read. It seems he very specifically turned to it. Let’s stay with his behaviour for a moment. We saw previously that he stood. That’s what the reader always did. But now he rolls up the scroll and hands it back to the attendant and sat down. Teachers in the synagogue always sat down when they taught. His reputation now goes before him. Do you see how verses are linked: He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him, (v.15) and now there is an air of expectancy: The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. They are expecting him to speak, wondering what this newly famous teacher was going to say, and so he speaks, but what he says startles them as we’ll see in the next meditation. So let’s see what the passage said and why his response was so significant.

The passage he read was from Isaiah 61. It is a classic Messianic passage declaring what the Coming One from God will do. He will preach and he will proclaim freedom, recovery, and release, in that it is now the year of the Lord’s favour. In other words God has come in this man to do these things. Note in passing that Jesus stops at the beginning of Isa 61:2 and omits the second part, and the day of vengeance of our God. It seems he emphasizes, by doing this, that this present time is the time of God’s favour, and vengeance is for a later time when those who refuse to receive God’s salvation will be dealt with. Blessing is the order of the present day.

In this Jesus is declaring, I am the Sent One, the one spoken of by Isaiah and the other prophets. Now we need to be quite clear about this because, again, there are foolish people who say that Jesus didn’t know who he was and didn’t make any great claims about himself. John really goes to town over this in his Gospel, picking up on all the ‘I Am’ sayings but Luke does it with his initial account of Jesus at the age of twelve and now in this declaration here. There is no doubt that when Jesus says, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing, he is absolutely sure and is saying I am the promised one of the prophecies.

Remember that these meditations in this series are based on the material that is unique to Luke. This account comes up nowhere else in the Gospels. Matthew, possibly the tax-collector disciple, and Mark, believed to be writing at Peter’s direction, had been with Jesus and therefore focus far more on what took place after they joined the band. Luke includes things that his researches have unearthed that occurred before the disciples had been called and had joined Jesus (he himself had not been one of the disciples with Jesus). This happened in Jesus’ home town and so it would have been likely that some of the family would have been there on that day in the synagogue and that would have included Mary in the section for the women. Thus the family would remember this episode and thus pass it on to Luke as he carries out his ‘careful investigation’ (Lk 1:3). John, of course, didn’t bother to record this episode because Luke had already done it and John’s emphasis was more on the fact of Jesus as the Son of God, rather than on his role as Messiah.

Years later the apostle Paul would write to the church at Rome, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment.” (Rom 12:3). Humility means acknowledging just who you are, not putting yourself up or down. In these and other declarations about himself, Jesus is just simply speaking the truth: this is who I am.

In a day when many voices are raised against the Christian faith, can we declare to ourselves and to others who are interested, just who we are. I am a child of God, saved by the blood of Jesus. In Christ, God has declared me righteous. I am a temple of the Holy Spirit and He is working in and through me. Thus I know the guidance and enabling of God Himself. That is just how it is, this is who I am. Let our humility be genuine and that also means there should be no false humility. This is who God has made us to be. Let’s live up to it and also not be ashamed of it. Jesus spoke out the truth with grace and it wasn’t always well received. Ensure you speak with grace and then you need not be ashamed if the response is less than good. Be who you are, who God has made you to be!