61:1-3 ‘The Spirit of the
Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed
me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the
broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from
darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s
favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who
mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a
crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a
spirit of despair.’
This passage is used by Jesus at the beginning of his ministry (Luke
4:18-19).
'Today
this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing'. Jesus demonstrated, by his actions, that the
kingdom of God has broken through into the lives of those around him. It is something real, immediate and
living. Jesus stood up in his local
synagogue, took the book and read from it.
There was no sermon or interpretation beyond the simple statement that
'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing'. What people would see is what they would get
– a human being – an ordinary and extraordinary human being making a deep
impression on his listeners – speaking to their hearts and minds and setting
them free. The Jewish people expected
salvation from a Messiah. This salvation
came in a most unexpected way – without respectable trappings. Freedom was on offer but it was too
immediate, too obvious and too concrete for many to grasp it.
How
does this story speak to us today? Let’s take just two inter-related themes:
-
recovery of sight to the blind
-
letting the oppressed go free
Reflecting
on what these might mean in today's world for individuals as well for
communities these words may be put in a contemporary context.
At
one level we can read this literally as referring to the curing of the blind
(e.g. Bartimeus in Matt 20: 29-34) and the setting of Barabbas free (Matt
27:26). At another level we may see blindness and oppression as spiritual
conditions. There is a danger that, on the one hand, we can over-spiritualise
what Jesus is saying and doing to reduce his message to a metaphor for a
personal, introspective spiritual searching. According to this view, Jesus
saves us from our personal and individual darkness and spiritual blindness to
receive light and inner freedom. At the
other extreme there is the risk of reducing the story to a purely
'this-worldly' account where Jesus the social prophet and saviour of Israel
comes to save the poor of Yahweh and free the people from foreign oppressors.
The freeing that Jesus that brings is much deeper than either of these
perspectives. To use the evangelist's John's account: the Truth will set you
free' (John 8:32). Freedom – that elusive idea that defies commodification – is
something that Jesus offers those who will listen and follow his call.
One
of the difficulties that followers of Jesus encounter in a contemporary context
is the distance perceived between human autonomy and the demands inherent in
Jesus' message. In the Gospel Jesus offers and promises freedom. However, many see his call as mediated
through a particular tradition or rule of life as undermining freedom – even
oppressive and restrictive of true human potential. In what sense is real
freedom on offer here? In what way is Jesus's message and gift bringing about
new sight where blindness prevented our seeing before?
Perhaps
too often the community of Jesus' followers has become the problem more than
the answer to questions of freedom. In other words instead of setting people
free it imprisons them in a false ideology based on exclusion and
self-righteousness. Instead of giving
sight to the blind it blinds to the truth of God's love in others – very
different and very much distant from orthodoxy. Luke's Gospel is filled with
stories of undesirable persons and groups intruding on 'correct religion' in a
context of Jesus reaching out, bringing in, healing and setting free. And the
prophet Isaiah more than hints that persons outside the chosen tribe will be
brought in to join the others.
To
be a disciple of Jesus in the 21st Century is to be free – that is faithful and
open to what is best in God’s gift of catholic tradition and reformed order –
valuing the dignity, freedom and honesty of individual souls who find their
love in communities united around the Word who is made flesh in real people
like you and me and the 'other'.
#JourneyIsaiah
O Morning Star,splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
