Scripture Reading: Luke 4:14-21
The Beginning of Jesus’ Galilean Ministry
14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 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, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 “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,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 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. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Sermon: “Was Jesus Political?
As some of you may know, I grew up in an evangelical Christian family. I was taught at an early age that believing in Jesus and trusting him to save our individual souls was the most important thing that anyone could do. That mindset permeated every aspect of my life, as was illustrated by one of my favorite jokes when I was a teenager, which went something like this: A girl is sitting in a theatre and next to her is an empty seat. Someone comes up and asks the girl, “Excuse me, is this seat saved?” And the girl’s response is: “No, but I’m praying for it!” Get it? “saved!” Salvation was always on our minds…
So, if someone had come up to me when I was a teenager and asked me, “Was Jesus political?” Which, no one ever did, but if they had, I am sure that my response would have been, “No, of course not, Jesus doesn’t care about politics. He cares about our souls.”
The Social Justice Team here at Franklin Federated Church is reading a book called, The Politics of Jesus. It was recommended to us by Rev. Harris, who led the Diversity Training that many of us took part in last fall. By the way, if you are interested in reading and discussing this book with the Social Justice Team, you are welcome to. We have discussed the first part of the book--and we’ll have another discussion of the second part of the book on February 23rd by Zoom, and anyone is welcome to join us.
The author of the book, Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., had a similar upbringing to mine--in terms of the emphasis of his family and his church on the salvation of individual souls. (For the record, he doesn’t mention any corny religious jokes. J) His book chronicles how his understanding of Jesus changed as he grew up and began to reflect on the causes of human suffering and what the Scriptures have to say about it. It’s fair to say that Obery Hendricks dedicated his life to understanding the ministry of Jesus and how it relates to the human condition. He became a Biblical scholar, professor, and president of a seminary. He kept his passion for Jesus and Jesus’ teachings, and, the more he studied, the more Dr. Hendricks began to see that Jesus’ emphasis wasn’t only--or even mainly--on saving individual souls so that people could get into heaven--rather, Jesus’ emphasis was on liberation: freeing people now, in this life, from “fear and oppression and exploitation.” (p. 4)
He says this on p. 5 of his book:
…Jesus of Nazareth was a political revolutionary. Now, to say that he was “political” doesn’t mean that he sought to start yet another protest party in Galilee. Nor does it mean that he was ‘involved in politics’ in the sense that we know it today, with its bargaining and compromises and power plays and partisanship. And it certainly doesn’t mean that he wanted to wage war or overthrow the Roman Empire by force.
To say that Jesus was a political revolutionary is to say that the message he proclaimed not only called for change in individual hearts but also demanded sweeping and comprehensive change in the political, social and economic structures in his setting in life: colonized Israel…
That is quite a sweeping statement, I realize, but what I love about this book is that Obery Hendricks gives specifics: example after example of how our Scriptures bear this out.
Today’s Scripture Reading, set by the Lectionary, is a case in point. In this sermon, I am going to dive into various aspects of this Scripture and then talk about how it could apply to us today. Today’s reading describes Jesus speaking in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth at the beginning of his ministry. The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary refers to today’s passage as a “keynote” to the entire ministry of Jesus, “setting the perspective from which it is to be understood.” (NIB, p. 102) As was the custom in synagogue worship in Jesus’ day, Jesus stood up to read, and when the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, he unrolled it and chose the passage he wanted to read. We would identify the passage he read as coming from Isaiah, Chapter 61, verse 1, and Isaiah 58:6. After he read, Jesus sat down to teach, in the posture of a first century rabbi.
The verses Jesus read clearly lay out his understanding of what he was called by God to do:
1. To bring good news to the poor
2. To proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind
3. To let the oppressed go free
4. To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Obery Hendricks in his book examines each of these callings. I will take each in turn, and highlight Hendricks’ main points.
1. To bring good news to the poor. Dr. Hendricks points out that the Greek word used here for poor is ptochois, which “indicates a collective or class identity.” In other words, Jesus’ ministry will involve bringing radical change to the literal circumstances of a whole group of people whom the institutions of society have kept down. (p. 8) We in the church sometimes gloss over the fact that Jesus was speaking of literal poverty here. When we read the word “poor” in the gospels, our minds may naturally jump to a metaphorical interpretation, associating it with the phrase “poor in spirit” used in the Sermon on the Mount. But the phrase “poor in spirit” comes from the Gospel of Matthew, and it’s not a phrase that Luke uses. When Jesus in the Gospel of Luke speaks of the poor, it is always literal poverty that he is addressing. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus makes it clear that God is committed to drastically changing the actual circumstances of the poor, not just changing their spiritual state. (Eg, Luke 14:13, 21; 16:20, 22; 18:22; 21:3)
2. To proclaim release to the captives. Hendricks asserts that it would have been obvious to Jesus’ contemporaries-- and those in the early church hearing these words-- that Jesus was calling for the literal release of people who were unjustly suffering in Roman prisons. It was common knowledge that “Roman jails were full of political prisoners and those reduced to penury by economic exploitation.” (p. 8) And when Jesus proclaimed “recovery of sight to the blind,” he was not just speaking metaphorically there either. Roman prisons were places where captives literally sat in darkness, far from the light of day, unable to see the world around them. I Googled “Roman prisons in the first century” and found this description: “[Roman prisons were] “filthy, poorly ventilated, and underground.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisons_in_ancient_Rome#:~:text=The%20prisons%20were%20filthy%2C%20poorly,not%20have%20had%20individual%20cells.) Hendricks’ assertion is that Jesus is making a political statement here by calling for the literal release of people unfairly locked away in the dark depths of Roman prisons.
3. To let the oppressed go free. Hendricks points out that the word translated into English as “oppressed” is from the Greek word thraw-o, which means “oppress or crush” and refers to those experiencing the “crushing weight of the empire.” (p. 8) And when Jesus says
4. To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, he is referring to the practice of “Jubilee” described in the Hebrew Scriptures, the book of Leviticus, chapter 25, where after a 49 year cycle, land that had been sold off as a last resort to pay creditors or had been unjustly acquired in some way had to be returned to the family of its original owners, in order to maintain a fair and just distribution of wealth among the people.
After quoting these specific verses from the prophet Isaiah, and then sitting down in the posture of a rabbi to say, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” it would have been clear to all listening to him what Jesus understood to be his calling from God. Jesus understood his ministry to be dedicated to making sweeping changes to society, which is a political act. (Politics being defined by my dictionary app as “activities associated with the governance of a country or other area…especially when concerned with power and status in a society…)
Okay, I know today’s sermon style has been more academic than my usual style, so let me stop here and turn to more traditional preaching--bringing it home with the question, what difference does all of this make to us? That, of course, is a question each of us needs to sit with in prayer, but let me suggest some possibilities, beginning by sharing what difference it makes to me.
Since Jesus didn’t spiritualize people’s predicaments or tell them that they should simply put up with suffering, then neither should I. If Jesus emphasized that the Spirit of God called him to address the politics of his day, then as someone who calls myself a follower of Jesus, I should not be afraid to follow in his footsteps and prayerfully address the politics of my day.
If Jesus proclaimed relief for those who were crushed by the economic system of his day, liberation for those who were unfairly victimized by the justice system, and reparations for those who were treated unfairly, then I should do the same.
Can I--can we-- identify places in our society where we see these things happening? The erosion of voting rights, for example. The disproportionate number of African Americans in our prisons. The way climate change affects the poor much more than the rich or even middle class. I’m sure you can think of other examples as well. Can we speak out when we see unfair discrimination happening? Can we ask questions? Can we vote for local, state, and federal politicians who prioritize the needs of the poor and minorities, the people whom Jesus prioritized? Can we call out politicians who prioritize the interests of the rich over the interests of the poor? Can we look for and listen to the experiences of people who have been victims of oppression and ask them how we could help rather than assuming that we already know how?
May God be with us--each and all-- as we prayerfullly figure out how to get involved in political action for Jesus’ sake.
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA