Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll 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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” ’ And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

What is the Year of the Lord’s Favour? It comes at the end of a bunch of really vivid and exciting images that Jesus reads from Isaiah 61. Previously when I would come across this passage I would not think too much about it. This image would be clearer for the 1st Century Jews. In their law, every 50 years, God commanded that the land would lie fallow (uncultivated), that those in debt and slavery would be released and lands that had changed ownership would return to their original owners. Being absolved from debt was one of the most powerful means for understanding release, restoration and forgiveness.

So when Jesus stood in the synagogue and said in my coming this has been fulfilled, he was saying that the year of the Lord’s favour is accomplished in me, now. Your debt slavery is destroyed, you are owned by no one other than God. There is rest (land lying fallow), there is release, and there is a homecoming.

What if our image of forgiveness expanded beyond “God was mad with you, now he’s happy again.” What if we lived in the lens of jubilee – that in Jesus we are released from slavery. That sin then is our own reversal of that reality, putting on the rags of a slave again. The Year of the Lord’s Favour is not just a statement of God’s disposition toward you — that has never changed. It’s God releasing you from bondage and saying:

“You aren’t a slave anymore- you are mine. You don’t belong to anyone but me.”