Luke 4:14-21 (NRSV)
“Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
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 favor.”
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.”
As some of you may know my full time ministry is that of Chaplaincy Administrator with the United States Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons. When I first began this ministry in late 2008 I really struggled understanding my ministry as “real ministry”. Answering to inmate complaints, chaplains inquires, interview of new applicants, etcetera, did not compare to the ministry of word and table I was used to. I cry out to God and asked Him so many times, “let me go back to the men that I so much love and care for.” The answer was absolute silence and I kept “enduring” my ministry as a “good servant.”
Then our pastor taught a Bible Study of the tri-fold ministry of Christ as Prophet, Priest and King. OK, nothing new here, I said and then he proceeded to elaborate on the fact that prophet was one with passion, the priest one with compassion and the King, well the King was the one who made things happen, the administrator. Even at this point I still thought, OK, and what else is new? And then my pastor said “Just imagine, administrators with a passion of prophet and the compassion of a priest.” And then it hit me and I had this overwhelming sense of conviction that I had been “crying like baby when I couldn’t behave like a man.” This is what my mother would say and as always Mom was right.
Todays passage is an extraordinary one, as a good and godly administrator Jesus lays out his plan of action and strategy. He makes it clear to all what is He all about. He is not here to change a single letter of the law, He was here to make sure that it was fulfilled. His message would be one of hope, help and liberation.
Several years ago a dear friend and fellow minister in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Craig Smith, told me that the effectiveness of my ministry as a prison chaplain rested on the fact that I was moved not by the plight of the men but by their potential. This was the Jesus model, he certainly was not moved by the plight of the poor, the ill, the incarcerated but rather He was moved by their potential.
Having finished His reading of the Prophet Isaiah, Jesus sat and proclaimed that He was the fulfillment of this Scripture. Jesus, the Living and Risen Messiah, the Christ. He is the fulfillment of all Scriptures, He is THE WORD of the Living God among us and what is left for us to do is to be His body. Willing to do whatever it takes to bring to people the message of hope, help and liberation. Yes we are all different, we all have different denominations, we are all different parts of the body but like St. Paul would say to the Corinthians: “Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” Therefore, “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”
