St Luke's Day 2014

St. Luke’s Day 2014 (Luke 4:14-21) “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus fulfills the Law of Moses and the call of the prophets.

At the beginning of his public ministry, at the age of thirty, Jesus did two things. He went to his cousin John to be baptized and he went into the desert to confront Satan.

Unlike all other human beings, Jesus did not need to be baptized. John’s baptism was a pledge of repentance of past sins. Jesus never sinned. He never sinned because he never separated from God. Nevertheless, Jesus sought out his cousin John, the last of the prophets, to receive baptism in order to fulfill all righteousness- all right relationship.

At his baptism God revealed the fullness of the co-eternal Trinity. God the Father spoke audibly to the crowds and announced: this (Jesus) is my Son, The Beloved. The Holy Spirit appeared in visible form to anoint Jesus for his public ministry. And of course, Jesus himself enters the river to hold our humanity with God’s divinity in his own person.

After his baptism Jesus confronts Satan in the desert. Satan tempts Jesus to test his humanity. Satan wants to know: can he be tempted? Will he separate from God as Adam chose to separate from God?

After Jesus resists the temptations and confounds Satan, he returns to his home town, to Nazareth. He enters the Synagogue. It is important to note that Jesus always attended the Synagogue on the Sabbath day. It was his first priority as attending church on Sunday should be our first priority. Then, he read from Scripture.

The Scriptures formed Jesus’ identity as the scriptures can form our identity. We understand who Jesus is through the writings of Moses, the prophets and the apostles. We understand the writings through the reality of the Living Lord Jesus Christ.

As Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah he declared his intent for his three year public ministry. He chose his home town to make the announcement. Very likely, his mother and his other relatives were all there. The people who watched him grow up were there. The children he played with and studied with and who were now adults were there. The people who bought tables and chairs from him and hired him to repair their houses and fences were there.

They knew him as a child, a teen, a carpenter. Now, he announced to them his plan and his purpose as the Son of God.  He said: I am anointed by the Holy Spirit.

This took place at his baptism. The record of Scripture is that the Holy Spirit anointed Kings to govern and prophets to call people to repentance and priests to offer sacrificial worship. Jesus announced his was prophet, priest and king.

Jesus also clarified that he was anointed to bring good news to the poor. The poor? The common belief at the time was that wealth and power were a sign of God’s blessing. Poverty was a sign of God’s judgment for sin. How could the Holy Spirit anoint someone to announce good news to a class of people God had judged as unworthy?

Jesus goes on to declare he has come to release the captives? What captives? Slaves? Criminals? Political prisoners? He has come to restore sight to the blind? Wait a minute. No one can do that.

He has come to free the oppressed. Israel considered itself to be an oppressed nation. Would he destroy the Romans? Would he restore their national independence?

Finally, Jesus says: I have come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor grace). This is a messianic function. This is what many believed to be the restoration of all things in a new world order and a new form of humanity. This is the eternal Sabbath God had promised to manifest as a new beginning for Israel and for all people everywhere.

Jesus reveals the pattern of the anointed, the Christ, God’s Messiah. That pattern was already recorded by Moses in the summary of the Law. That pattern was already revealed by the prophets as something people consistently rejected but something that God would nevertheless bring to pass as an amazing gift.

The plan of God , the pattern of God and the purpose of God are all revealed by Moses and the Prophets and all fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was everything that God had promised and more. Jesus was nothing that the people wanted.

As Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures then by his words, actions and real presence so he continues to fulfill the scriptures now.

The plan of salvation is Good News, not bad news.

The plan of salvation is for all people not just the rich and powerful and those who declare themselves to be the righteous.

The Plan of salvation opens the eyes of  our souls to the light o divine truth.

The Plan of salvation liberates those enslaved by sin, by governments, by economic systems and by fear,

The Plan of Salvation is the Real Presence of Jesus here and now at the altar of sacrifice infusing grace and favor into this realm of matter, energy, time and space.

The Plan of Salvation is a person: Jesus Christ.