January 25

Jubilee
Psalm 19; Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31; Luke 4:14-21

Luke here offers Jesus’ keynote address. While Matthew and Mark place the story much later, Luke chooses to make this event the inauguration and preview of all of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus returns to his hometown to present himself as the anointed prophet predicted in Isaiah who announces the "favorable year of the Lord." His listeners could not ignore the implications of his words—we will discover in next week’s reading that they were "filled with rage" at what he said.

According to Jewish law (Leviticus 25:8-12), in the year of the Lord’s favor—the Jubilee year—debts were canceled, slaves and prisoners released, and property returned to its original family. Wealth that had been accumulated would be redistributed. Imagine the implications for those who had become wealthy by confiscating the property of others—imagine, too, the implications for the Donald Trumps and Ted Turners of today if such a jubilee were practiced in our time.

While some in Jesus’ time made the mistake of assuming that the liberation he proclaimed was only political, modern readers have been known to make the opposite error. One commentator, for example, insisted that "to proclaim release to the captives" referred solely to moral and spiritual captivity. Jesus makes no such false distinctions; his mission is to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to prisoners, and to let the oppressed go free. He announces to all that will hear that this promise has been fulfilled, and that the reign of God has begun.

Paul uses the metaphor of the body to illustrate the upside-down nature of God’s reign. The members of the body that seem to be weaker, Paul explains, are indispensable, and all parts are absolutely necessary for the body to be whole. In this, the church is seen to be the virtual opposite of our culture’s "rugged individualism"—when one suffers, all suffer; when one is honored, all rejoice. And all the people answered, "Amen" (Nehemiah 8:6).