Epiphany 3

Epiphany 3 Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Jesus studied the scriptures.

As a child, Jesus learned about Moses and the Prophets in the same way other children of his time learned about the Bible. When the co-eternal Son of God came to earth and became a human being he emptied himself. He emptied himself of his divine prerogatives. He emptied himself of his power and knowledge so he could experience life as we experience life.

There was one choice Jesus made that no human being has ever made. Jesus made a real choice never to separate from His Heavenly Father. Jesus was, and is, fully human in every way that we are with one single exception. He never chose separation as the way of being human.

The Good News that Jesus brought to his generation and to all generations is that God offers us reunification with the divine as a gift. The Good News is that it is not only possible to be human in union with the divine, it is the best way possible of being human.

Jesus manifests the reality of God’s plan and purpose for humanity.

In Jesus’ baptism we see and hear God the Father revealing the ineffable mystery of the Holy Trinity. God the Father sets His only begotten Son on his course to the cross by declaring Jesus is the co-eternal beloved. Jesus is anointed by the co-eternal Holy Spirit. Jesus is fully human and fully God.

At the wedding feast of Cana Holy Mother Mary invites her son to meet a very simple and ordinary need. In the miracle that follows, Jesus reveals the transforming power of God to change water into wine, law into grace, fear into faith, self will into divine will.
As Jesus preaches in the synagogues in the province of Galilee and in his home town of Nazareth the people hear him with gladness. John tells us that at this point of Jesus’ public ministry every one who hears him praises him.

Jesus’ preaching elicits a response of gladness and praise because Jesus came to proclaim Good News.

People were accustomed to their religious leaders proclaiming bad news. The Pharisees preached against the Sadducees. The Sadducees preached against the Scribes. The Scribes preached against the Pharisees and the Zealots preached against everyone with an apocalyptic message of hell fire and condemnation.

There is certain power in the preaching of condemnation. It is the power of fear, self will and pride. It proceeds from the place of separation and perpetuates the pain of separation. Through careful use of fear a preacher can intimidate and manipulate people. The price of such preaching is always pain. It is the pain of a broken heart. It produces the fatal pride that leads to despair. It is the bad news that fear rules the soul. It doesn’t have to be grounded in fact. It doesn’t have to be true. It just has to touch the place of separation in the human soul and activate fear.

Most people knew very well who they should fear, who they should hate, who deserved God’s blessings and who did not deserve God’s blessing. Most people heard the bad news of division and separation and exclusion all of their lives. Most people lived with the frustration and anxiety that some one else was to blame for their problems. Most people lived with the guilt and shame that when bad things happened in their lives it meant God was punishing them for their failure to be righteous and their failure to destroy the unrighteous in their midst.

Jesus had heard this kind of preaching all of his life. He had seen the result in the bitter divisions and conflicts in his society. What made Jesus’ response to this kind of preaching different was his life of constant prayer. The focus of his prayer was always: Heavenly Father, not my will but your will be done.

I imagine as a child Jesus hearing the messages of hate, fear, anger and division. I imagine Jesus praying: Heavenly Father is this true? And, I can imagine the Father asking Jesus: what does my word say? What have I already spoken to the human race through Moses and the prophets?
Jesus studied the Bible as all children study the Bible. But, Jesus studied the Bible by placing his will in union with the will of the Father. Jesus studied the Bible under the anointing and the guidance of the Holy Spirit with humility and with an open heart. Jesus wanted to know and embrace God’s truth even if it contradicted the bad news of the religious leaders of his day.
As the child Jesus studied the Bible he formed his life according to the pattern and the plan his heavenly Father revealed in the Bible. The Bible became the context for his life. As the child Jesus grew into the adult Jesus he re cast our human understanding of the Bible through his own person. His life became the context for the Bible.

When Jesus began to preach at the age of thirty, he knew Plan of Salvation from studying Moses and the Prophets. And, he knew that in his heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation there is only grace. There is no condemnation. There is no division, fear, anger, hatred or spite. There is only faith, hope and unconditional love.

That is why the people heard Jesus with such gladness and praise. Jesus preached the Good News of God’s great love.

Jesus announced that he was fulfilling prophecy. The prophecy he was fulfilling declared God’s compassion for the poor, the lonely, the broken and the lost. The prophecy promised healing. The prophecy promised divine favor, grace.

Jesus manifested his co-eternal Sonship as the Beloved of the Father and as the anointed of the Holy Spirit by declaring the Kingdom of Grace. In Jesus, God pours himself out to all people everywhere to give us what we abandoned. In Jesus, God reaches out to all people everywhere to find the lost and to heal the broken.

The fulfillment of prophecy comes in a person. It is the prophecy which helps us understand the person. It is the person who makes the prophecy real. Biblical prophecy points to Jesus Christ. Jesus fulfills Biblical prophecy.

Jesus Christ is God the Father’s gift to the human race. Jesus Christ is the human face of God reaching out to all people with the invitation to receive the blessing of eternal love.
In the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus read the book of the prophet Isaiah. It was the book that formed his life as a child. Now, as an adult, Jesus would fulfill the words of the book in his own person, by his words and by his actions. He declares the intent of his three year ministry in the words of the prophet Isaiah. And he declares the Good News that today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

As it was then so it is now. Our living Lord Jesus Christ continues to fulfill the Law and the Prophets in our lives as he reveals to us through the Bible and the Sacraments the Good News that the kingdom of God is rich with the blessings of grace. The Good News of the Kingdom is that God invites all people every where with no exception to receive the blessing. The Good News is that in Jesus Christ God continues to reveal himself as unconditional love.

Today this scripture is being fulfilled in your hearing in the real presence of the living Lord Jesus Christ.