Not Just a Theory Anymore

Luke 4:14-30
As Jesus spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth he made an audacious claim. According to Luke, Jesus read from the book of Isaiah promises of good news to the poor, of freedom for the captives and those oppressed, of healing for the blind, of the year of God’s favor. And when he had sat down Jesus said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Jesus was not inviting his listeners to join in the effort to bring the prophet’s words to reality, nor was he promising to do it himself. Jesus’ claim was that in that time and place the words of the prophet had come to fruition. They had moved from theory to practice, from possibility to fact. This is why these verses from Luke are sometimes called the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry.

I look around the world today and I see plenty of poor people, all sorts of captives and entire nations being oppressed. I know many people who long for healing but seem to find none. Is this really what God’s favor is all about? Has anything really changed? And then I remember the man, who spoke in the synagogue that day, and I think about what he was willing to do on behalf of God’s people, and I realize that in this man, this Jesus of Nazareth, God was in fact bringing the divine reign into our midst, not as a hope or a wish, but as a rock-solid reality. Despite all the evil in the world, despite the hardship and the oppression, God’s grace continues to flow, sometimes in ripples of kindness, and sometimes in profusions of generosity. For every act of anger or hatred there is still someone willing to step forward and to say, “I believe in the reign of God, that it is fact, that it is now.” And every time a person of faith makes this audacious claim the power of evil is reduced.

This is not a theory. This is not a promise. This is fact. We are living through what Paul Simon called “an age of miracle and wonder” because we are witnesses to the dawn of God’s reign as it creeps across the sky touching all of creation with its radiance and lighting the path forward. Thanks be to God.

Prayer: Lord, may the light of your new day light the path we tread that we may walk in your way all our lives. Amen.