Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
For the ancient Israelites, their 'foundation event' it took place around 500 years before Jesus' birth, after those in exile were permitted to return to Jerusalem. Since Judaism had fallen on hard times during the long Babylonian captivity, there's a great need to remind people of the essentials of their faith. So Ezra reads from the law - perhaps from the book of Deuteronomy - "from day break until midday."
When the hearers realize the implications of not knowing anything about the Lord's commands, they wept and "prostrated themselves before Yahweh, their faces to the ground." Thankfully Ezra has an uplifting message for them: "Go, eat rich food," he commands, "and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who have nothing prepared; for today is holy to Yahweh. Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength."
Rejoicing is also at the heart of the first public message Jesus delivers in Luke's gospel. Reading from chapter 61 of Isaiah, he proclaims, "The spirit of Yahweh is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to Yahweh." What a liberating message on which to base a ministry! (I will return to this text in a couple of minutes).
Two Sundays ago, we celebrated the baptism of Jesus at the hands of John in the waters of the Jordan; Today, for the first time, we get some insight into how he himself viewed his life and his mission, how he perceived his own vocation. This in effect was the first homily preached by Jesus in his local synagogue, his first public address to his immediate neighbours.
This first public address contained a few surprises. And it was most surprising of all for what it did not say. There was no mention at all of the very foundation on which his own culture and religion was founded: faithful adherence to the law of Moses. Like Ezra, the Old Testament priest in today's first reading, Jesus would have been expected to read from the Book of the Law, translate it and make sense of it for the people. This would still have been a priority in conventional preaching at the time of Jesus. It would have been the first expectation of his congregation. Instead he seems to have been deliberately selective in his use of the Old Testament. He avoided the Book of the Law entirely concentrated instead on the most socially-conscious of all the prophets, Isaiah.
Of course, texts about God's care for the weak and the underprivileged are abundant in the Old Testament. But his congregation would have been expected to have balanced these socially conscious texts with other texts from the Book of the Law. The Law was the measuring rod of the Jewish religion. Only through having the Law translated and explained to them could devout Jews ensure that they were 'getting it right with God'. What was shocking was the clear hint that non-religious values (like alleviation of distress, for example) took precedence over explicitly religious directives. What was more shocking still was the claim by this preacher that this was God's will for him and for them.
The body of his homily first homily consisted of a well known quotation from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. Despite the fact that this is an Old Testament text, it remains the most brilliantly succinct summary of the Christian calling: "He has sent me to bring Good News to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, and to set the down-trodden free." From this platform of compassion, Jesus launched his mission. That message is as challenging to us today as it was to his first congregation in Nazara. Because poverty, slavery, blindness and oppression are always with us. Admittedly, they will take on different shapes in different ages locations and in different ages. Every human being is blind in a very personal way.
Every human being will be at some time a captive to some form of oppression, depression or compulsion. Poverty in some form, be it material, spiritual, psychological, will often be a companion. And for as long as these disabilities continue to plague our world, the message of Christ will remain fresh and compelling, and his person will continue to call forth and challenge that which is most noble in humanity. His mingling of realism and romanticism will always remain inspirational.