“Inaugural Address”
January 19, 2025
Luke 4:14-21
David A. Shirey
Heart of the Rockies Christian Church
We’re in the season of Epiphany. An epiphany is an “Aha!” moment. Seeing something in a new light and understanding it more fully. The season of Epiphany seeks to understand Jesus more fully – who he is and what his purposes are – he who was born as good news in the days when bad news Herod was King, he who when he was baptized heard from on high, “You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.” This morning we ponder Jesus’ first sermon preached in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth. What epiphanies does it offer us?
I think there’s an epiphany to be had in his choice of Scripture. What does it say about Jesus that of all the Bible verses he could have read for his first sermon, he read from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (61:1, 2). I’m curious: If you had your chance to preach just one sermon, what would you preach about? What scripture would you base your remarks on?
You say, “My goodness, there are all sorts of things I’d like to say.”
And I say, Choose one.
“But how can I decide?”
Prioritize. Choose your #1 most important thing. What would it be? John 3:16? Micah 6:8? Deuteronomy 6:4? Exodus 20? Romans 8:38? Matthew 5? Matthew 25? Philippians 4:13?
Jesus chose to read from Isaiah 61:1-2. But get this: he omitted the last half of the last verse. Jesus read “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” End of reading. But Isaiah ends with “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God.” What do you make of the fact that Jesus quoted Isaiah verbatim except for the bit about God’s vengeance which he left out? This is a defining moment. It’s Jesus’ first sermon. He is putting forth his personal mission statement. It’s his inaugural address. What does it mean that he omitted mention of God's vengeance? Piggybacking on Isaiah, he says, “I’m going to do all this (good news to poor, release to captives, etc.) but not that – not exercise vengeance.
I asked myself as a wannabe follower of Jesus, Have I deleted a wish for God’s vengeance from my personal mission statement? Or do I in fact harbor a desire for God’s vengeance on certain folks? As Jesus’ life unfolded, he really did delete God’s vengeance from his mission and he taught his disciples to do the same, saying, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). On the night when he was betrayed, he served the bread and cup to his betrayer right along with everyone else. From the cross he prayed, “Father forgive them” (Luke 23:34). Jesus deleted a wish for God’s vengeance from the Scripture he read and the life he lived and we ought to do the same. Mark Twain said, “It's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that worry me. It's the parts I do understand.” Like Jesus telling us to delete a desire for vengeance from our thoughts and our lives.
Food for thought: Jesus felt free to delete/ overlook/ ignore certain passages of the Bible! In his insightful reflection on the way Jesus read and used Scripture, Richard Rohr[1] wrote:
“Jesus never once quotes from nineteen of the books in his own Scriptures (our Old Testament). In fact, he uses a very few favorites: Exodus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Hosea, and Psalms ... If we look at what he ignores, it includes any passages … that appear to legitimate violence, imperialism (the domination of one group of people by another), or exclusion based on purity codes and dietary laws. Jesus, he wrote, is a biblically formed non-Bible quoter who gets the deeper stream, the spirit... of his Jewish history and never settles for mere surface readings. When Jesus does once quote Leviticus, he quotes the one positive mandate among long lists of negative ones: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:18).”
Jesus’ use of the Bible ought guide our use of the Bible. Plucking certain passages out of context to judge, exclude, or condemn others or to justify violence or vengeance is not Jesus’ way of using the Bible. I was warned once, “A text without a context is a pretext.” In a word, a mean-spirited use of the Bible is not a Holy-Spirited use of the Bible.
Guided by the Holy Spirit, Jesus said in his inaugural address that his #1 priority was to “Proclaim good news to the poor. Freedom for prisoners. Recovery of sight for the blind and set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18). Get this: the Greek word translated oppressed literally means “those broken into pieces” (τεθραυσμένους, tethrausmenous). Do you know anybody who’s broken? Broken heart. Broken spirit. Broken dreams. Broken body. Broken relationship. Broke financially. Living in a city or country that is broken in some way? I’m aware of a lot of brokenness. I’m aware of my own. The good news of the gospel is that what Jesus chose to underscore in his first sermon, his inaugural address, his personal mission statement, was his intention to bring good news to the broken.
Speaking of healing the broken, that brings to mind one of my favorite words. I’m hesitant to say it much anymore. It’s a word that has fallen out of favor. Many people go to great lengths to distance themselves from it. Folks use it pejoratively. Scoff at it. But it is a great, good word: the word is religion. Would you agree with me religion is a word in need of redemption? I hear people say:
“I’m a spiritual person, but not religious.” Translation: I believe in God, but I can’t believe anyone would waste their time going to church. Institutional religion. Yuck!
Or, “She’s really religious.” Translation: She’s rather stiff, musty-smelling, too heavenly-minded for any earthly good, and not much fun to be around.
Or, “Some people take religion way too seriously.” Translation: If you practice your faith wholeheartedly, you’ll end up some wild-eyed looney – a religious fanatic.
To which I say: Look closely at the word and see what it really means. Re-lig-ion. Note the syllable lig as in ligament as in what holds us together. The song says, “The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone/ the foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone/ the ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone…” Ligaments hold all dem bones together – hold the whole body together! Which says to me that religion at its root (and at its best!) is about re-lig-ing – healing, mending, bringing back together whatever is “broken into pieces” – bodies, minds, spirits, nations. Jesus’ life was what real religion is about. He brought good news to whatever and whoever is broken and re-ligged them. And he still does. Hear me when I say salvation at its fullest, finest, and most biblical is God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit re-ligging us, healing, reconciling and reconnecting us to God, to our best selves, others, and all creation.
Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” to do this work of re-ligging. God “anointed me to proclaim good news to the … broken.” What an interesting perspective on what the Holy Spirit is all about! I don’t know what connotations the Holy Spirit has in your mind. The Holy Spirit is given to us by God for what reason?
To give us goosebumps?
To soothe and calm us?
To inspire us?
To enlighten us?
To light a fire under us?
To wrap us in a blanket of God-love?
To give us a gift? (Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness…)
To set us to speaking in tongues?
There’s scriptural justification for all the above, but in this case, for Jesus, the Holy Spirit is given to us to motivate us to be Good News to broken people and broken places. That puts a new spin on things, doesn’t it? That would change a few of the hymns and songs I know if the coming of the Holy Spirit was primarily to inculcate within us a desire to speak and be Good News. I’d have to sing “Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will proclaim some Good News to somebody” I’d have to sing, “Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me, melt me, mold me, fill, me use me to be good news for the poor, the captive, the blind, the broken.”
According to what Jesus says in his inaugural address, whenever someone is moved to do something that is Good News for somebody in a bad way, that’s a sure sign the Spirit of the Lord is upon them. Definition of a Holy Spirit-filled person: someone whose words and deeds are Good News. Given all the outreach that emanates from these acres that adds up to Good News to hurting people, Heart of the Rockies is a congregation of Holy Spirit-filled charismatics. You’re a bunch of Holy Rollers! Pentecostals, I tell you! For 32 years, the Spirit of the Lord has been upon you, anointing you to be a Good News people.
When he came to Nazareth... he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day... He stood up to read... and found the place where it was written:
“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 let the oppressed go free.
Then he sat down and said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Today, by the Spirit of the risen Lord Jesus, this Scripture is being fulfilled in our hearing.
And now I’m going to sit down.
Let all God’s people say, AMEN!
