All this week between the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord, the readings concentrate on who Jesus is. Who is this Prince of Peace, this Christmas Christ Child born rejected, persecuted, and poor in a barn and placed to sleep in a feeding trough for animals? The readings focus on Jesus’ great miracles to show us clearly who he is.
Today we hear of the beginnings of Jesus’ public ministry. He went to John for baptism and then went deeper into the desert where he experienced a victory over the temptations and defined his ministry. He returns to his hometown and synagogue. The text tells that the Holy Spirit led him to those experiences. In the synagogue, he reads from the prophet Isaiah. The prophet had a vision of a new time, a time of good news, a time of jubilee. Then Jesus preaches on that vision. What Luke records for us about that first preaching is a very short summary: Today this Scripture is fulfilled. Then the text says the people were amazed. Everything else that Jesus does in the Gospel after that is an expansion on that first preaching or announcement.
What did Jesus say or do that Saturday in that synagogue that caused the people to believe that the ancient hope for liberty, health, the end of oppression, and a continuous jubilee year had been fulfilled right there before their eyes? What caused them to be amazed?
The jubilee year was celebrated once every 50 years in Israel. It was a year of forgiveness, mercy and pardon, a time for renewing the relationship between God and Israel. The land was to lay fallow, slaves were freed, depts were annulled, and property was returned to families. Today we would see this as the promotion of divine ownership of all, social justice, fair distribution of goods and wealth (as opposed to the concentration among certain families), and open access to redemption and freedom.
All this would happen only once every fifty years. Here Jesus is proclaiming a new way of living together amongst ourselves (human/human) and a new way of living our relationship with God (human/divine): a permanent jubilee. Not just a special event of one year, once every fifty years, but rather a new form of living every day. He is saying that the Isaiah’s vision has come true. The hopes and visions of their ancestors were fulfilled. They had become a reality. That is what was so amazing to the folks in the synagogue so long ago.
Jesus is the beginning of a new permanent jubilee time for us. The Incarnation is a for us the Good News of a time of constant renewal, mercy, and openness in our relationships with each other and with God.
Take time today to reflect on your hopes and visions for yourselves and your family. Are you living as joyful signs that all those visions have been fulfilled already in your life? Are you living as amazed and joyful participants of the jubilee?
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me …
Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.
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