* Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 * Psalm 19 * 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a * Luke 4:14-21

Our scripture passage for this third Sunday after Epiphany comes from the gospel of Luke and the evangelist places the story immediately after Christ’s baptism – right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

Now Jesus has already been teaching and performing miracles in other towns nearby and his reputation has spread as he returns to his home town of Nazareth.

Our gospel starts out as one of those “local boy makes good” kind of stories. You know what I mean –

Promising young man heads off to university and comes back a multi-millionaire because he invented something, or, that quiet girl with the dimples and long hair who played second violin in your school string quartet becomes conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra – it sounds like it’s going to be that sort of thing.

Imagine it, the neighbours and relatives who knew Jesus as a boy are eager to see him now – a grown man who has achieved fame for doing remarkable things, especially in nearby Capernaum. So, on the Sabbath, everyone flocks to the synagogue to hear this young preacher and to see if maybe he might perform one of those healing miracles that they’ve been hearing about.

You can just see Jesus approaching the synagogue and the minute he enters the door the senior rabbi asks if he would be willing to read from a book of the Prophets and perhaps share some insight into those words with the people.

Of course, he says. And they bring him a large scroll, which he carefully places on the reading desk. As he starts to unroll the scroll, all eyes are on him. Mary is trying hard not to show any emotion, but this is her boy up there in front of everyone, she must have felt so proud. It’s a long scroll and it takes a while for Jesus to find the passage he has in mind – one near the very end.

And here it is.

“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 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

They all sit transfixed, waiting for his words of insight. His neighbours, childhood friends, his aunts, uncles and cousins, the respectable religious leaders, even his own mother – waiting to hear what he has to say.

And Jesus rolls up the scroll and gives it back to the attendant and sits down.

And then he says to them,

“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Can you imagine it? Can you imagine if that happened here and now?

Now we are in the middle of the season after Epiphany when we celebrate how God has been revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ who came in human form and lived among us, the one we call Emmanuel.

Luke (the author of today’s gospel) liked to talk about the Holy Spirit. In fact, Luke referred to the third person of the Trinity more than all the other evangelists combined. And if we were to take the whole of chapter 4 of Luke’s gospel we see Jesus

• being filled with the Holy Spirit at his baptism,
• led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
• returning to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,
• and proclaiming the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that “the Spirit of the Lord” was upon him.

Clearly, the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in the life of Jesus was something Luke wanted to be sure his readers would notice.

And so why didn’t the good people of Nazareth, Jesus’ own family and neighbours, see it?

They were obviously looking for some evidence of God’s Spirit. They’d heard the rumours from other towns in the area, especially from Capernaum and the area around the Sea of Galilee. This Jesus they thought they knew so well had already gained quite a reputation as a teacher, so it isn’t surprising that they give him the scroll to read when he enters the local synagogue.

It was common practice for the teacher of the day to stand while reading the Scripture, then sit down to teach from it and no one seems surprised when Jesus does this. In fact, they all seem to be eagerly listening to what Jesus might have to say about this ancient prophecy.

A prophecy where Isaiah had started proclaiming the word of the Lord to a people returning from exile and hope was beginning to rise amongst the nation of Israel. Isaiah preached comfort to God’s people and they responded with eagerness to that message. When Jesus chooses this particular passage to read to the people of Nazareth, it was a reminder to all of them that they too should live in  hope. Remember, they were living under Roman oppression, just as their ancestors had lived under oppression from the Babylonians and the Assyrians. The people were ready for some good news.

These words have meaning for us now, just as they did for those exiles returning to Jerusalem and for the people of Nazareth who heard Jesus say, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And just as Christ offers us hope with these words, he also calls us to be the ones who bring good news to the oppressed, who bind up the broken-hearted, who proclaim liberty and release and who announce the Lord’s favour and grace to be freely available to all. Not just in the future, but now! Today!

Good news for some can mean bad news for others, especially in our current culture where the gap between those who have much and those who have little continues to grow. When it comes down to it, all the rhetoric we hear from politicians, all the arguments we see on social media amount to nothing more than questions of justice. And justice almost always has to do with who has how much of what – whether it’s wealth, property, power or acceptance.

The really challenging part for most of us, is realising that we actually participate in much of the oppression happening around the world today – through the things we buy, the privileges we enjoy and the way we can ignore suffering – whether we like it or not, most of us are complicit in oppressing others – and our society has become so structured that it makes it really hard not to become complicit.

But today Luke shows us how we might face this dilemma. Luke tells us in verse 20 that the people of Nazareth were listening intently as Jesus sat down to teach. “The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him,”

Imagine what it might be like to fix our eyes on Jesus! Because when we focus our attention completely on Him, we can also see our place in the world more clearly. Instead of letting our gaze settle on those things that irritate us, anger us or cause us pain, we would see only Jesus and the disagreements that divide us would lose their importance.

We would see the ways our lives impact others with greater clarity. When our eyes are fixed on Jesus, we can recognise the part we sometimes play in the systems and structures that send out the false message that some people have more value than others, that some people deserve more than others – and we can start to do something to change those systems and structures.

We can demonstrate in real and powerful ways that every human being has value and worth to God.

When our eyes are fixed on Jesus, good news really is good news. We engage with Christ in the work of making what’s wrong with the world right. Issues of mercy and justice are no longer just issues we talk about – mercy and justice become real in the person of Jesus Christ working through us.

This is the season after Epiphany, when Christ is revealed as God among us. As we recognise the Saviour’s presence, and fix our eyes and hearts on Him, may we point others toward Jesus and say to them, “Let me show you God’s Son. Let me show you the one who sets the captives free, who brings sight to the blind and frees those living under oppression.” Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.