Good news for the cynic
Readings: Luke 4. 14-21
These are Jesus’ first public words. So far in Luke’s Gospel he’s spoken only twice, once to his parents at the Temple at the age of 11 when he was left behind, and in his temptations in the wilderness at the start of the chapter. But these are the first words he’s said as part of his public ministry in Luke. And as far as first recorded sermons go it’s an incredible opening isn’t it, utterly world changing – the hopes you’ve had, they’re here.
I wonder what the last bit of good news you received was? The last bit of truly good news that made your heart soar? Likely it was to do with something close to home, about a friend or family member, news of an engagement or baby or new job. What I find chatting to people is that once we get beyond that, to the town or county or nation or world, we become rather more cynical.
Cynicism it seems is the mood of the day, we doubt good news, there’s got to be something else going on underneath, another angle, this can’t be everything. In some ways we’re too used to bad news that when good comes along we doubt it, need to dig around until we find the bad buried in the good. And in some ways that’s understandable, we’ve had far too much experience of seemingly good news not being so good at all. But cynicism, it starts to eat away at us, starts destroying our hope.
But this isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s there in Jesus’ day, there as he’s speaking to the synagogue. Jesus declares that there is good news, the passage he’s read has been fulfilled, and if you continue reading you’ll find the mixed response, some hopefully, but many cynical, and as he continues to speak they decide the cynics are right, this can’t be true and run him out of town, try to throw him off a cliff.
And in some ways their cynicism makes sense. If I read from a passage of Scripture, sat down here at the front with a dramatic pause, and then declared I was the fulfilment, you’d be right to throw me out. It’s not surprising that this happens. But there’s even more going on underneath the surface.
You see the people had been in exile, dragged far from home, cut off from their land and the rhythms of their faith. And these words that Jesus is quoting from Isaiah are part of the prophecy of the end of the exile, when the people will return and all will be made right. And the people have received good news before this, because the exile has ended, they’ve been allowed to return home to the land, the Temple has been rebuilt, the rhythms of worship recommenced. But there’s a cynicism there too, because whilst they’re home, it doesn’t feel like home. Whilst in many ways the exile is over, it still feels like their in exile. All the things which were meant to accompany the end of their captivity, they haven’t happened. And so here they are, in this strange limbo place where on the outside all looks well but underneath they know it isn’t, something is wrong.
And into this context Jesus says that this prophecy which they’ve been longing to see the coming of, it’s fulfilled in him. And in some ways they just can’t quite accept it, they’re too used to bad news, what’s the catch here, where is the bad buried in the good.
I wonder if you can relate, it’s all going down hill, there is no hope, all we’ve enjoyed in the past, it’s still there but it’s not what it was, all that’s left is down, from bad to worse. All we can do is cling on and wait for the end.
And yet Jesus has come with truly good news. Because these words of the prophet, they really are fulfilled in him. And Jesus doesn’t just say it, claim it, he demonstrates it. In the following chapters he goes about proclaiming the good news, healing, forgiving sins, raising the dead to life, freeing the possessed. He doesn’t just say it’s fulfilled in him, he demonstrates it is by fulfilling it, and not just in spiritual terms, but physical too.
We often couch these sorts of passages in spiritual terms; like those who are spiritually blind will recognise who Jesus is, freedom from sin, those who are poor in faith will have good news. We can read it spiritually, and in many ways there’s nothing wrong with reading it spiritually, it’s still true, those things will happen, but Jesus cares about our whole lives, the physical happens too. Because Jesus isn’t just interested in the spiritual side of our lives, but with all of our lives, with the economic and social too. Jesus cares about that stuff, wanting to bring freedom and justice there too. Our way of thinking where we portion it off, there’s the spiritual side of things like church and prayer and bible reading over here, and then over here we have my job and my finances and my friends and my hobbies and free time, it couldn’t be further from how Jesus sees us and our lives. Jesus is interested in us as whole people, wants to encounter and transform us as whole people. Bring true freedom and lasting change to us as whole people.
In the Old Testament, in the Law, there was this concept of a year of Jubilee. The year of the Lord’s favour. Every 50 years it was like a great reset, slaves were freed, debts cancelled, property returned to the rightful ancestral owners even if it had been sold. It was God’s way of ensuring justice, that the rich couldn’t get ever richer forever and the poor could be raised up again. It was a great time of rest for the people and the land, and great celebration. And many people expected the end of the exile to be like a year of jubilee, it certainly sounded like one from what the prophets were saying, a great reset, a time of rejoicing and rest. A year of release. That’s the key word in that prophecy of Isaiah, release, it crops up twice in the Greek. Release from debt, and bondage, and work. And wherever Jesus goes he is releasing people. Both spiritually and physically. Releasing people from pain, from sin, from possession, from oppression, from the things which harm them. Release even from death. Jesus is a walking talking year of Jubilee, a great reset bringing not just justice but joy.
The exile is over. The year of God’s favour is here. All will now be as it should be, with freedom and liberation and joy. All the things that bind you, whether it’s sin, or addiction or suffering or oppression, Christ has come to break the chains. To smash them to pieces so they can never bind you again. So that you can know freedom and joy and peace in him. This truly is good news, news that no cynic can deny as false. No hidden agenda, no false narrative, Jesus has come to seek and to save and to redeem and to release. And he’s still doing it in our day.
And yet, I don’t want to overdo it here, whilst these words are fulfilled in Jesus, and you really can, in the here and now, know freedom and joy in him, they are not yet fully realised. They will be fulfilled fully in Jesus one day, but not quite yet.
As I often say the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom where all is well, where it is perpetual jubilee, is both now, it is breaking into our world, and not yet. And we rejoice when we see people coming to Jesus and are freed from addiction, just like that, it happens. And yet there are some for whom they come to Jesus and it’s not that simple, they still struggle with addiction still. Some people we pray and they are healed, miraculously, other times we pray and they’re not.
And it’s not because we or they lack faith, like it’s some sort of resource we can muster up, like currency we need to make more of to get what we need. It’s because we’re not there yet, we’re in the in between. But both groups whether visibly healed or not still encounter Jesus, still find hope and strength in him. Still know the freedom and the joy he brings. Still find release and hope.
Because a day is coming when Jubilee will come in it’s fulness and forever. But it’s not fully here yet. Why? It’s because of his mercy. You see Jesus hasn’t finished the sentence of the prophecy, he’s stopped before the end; ‘to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God’. Because true justice requires punishment for those who do wrong and evil. Our country is currently in uproar over a few different cases where it’s felt that those who have done evil have not been punished, and have therefore escaped true justice. We know deep down that justice requires action to correct the balance.
Jesus hasn’t finished the sentence, but not because God no longer cares about justice, that judgement is no longer coming, but because in him it is delayed. Towards the end of his ministry Jesus does complete the sentence of that prophecy. As a number of commentators note, in Luke 21, when speaking of the coming destruction of Jerusalem Jesus says ‘for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfilment of all that is written’. Judgement is still coming, and for those who put their faith and hope in Jesus it will be a day of joy, of jubilee as at last all that binds us is cast from us eternally. And yet for those who have not, a day of reckoning.
And so in his mercy God has given us in Jesus that jubilee in which our dept of sin can be forgiven. Through his death on the cross all our sin and shame is now on his shoulders so that we can be freed from its burden, if only we ask, if only we turn back and go God’s way, turn from our selfishness and to God in faith and trust. But only if. Jesus has not come to proclaim blanket forgiveness whether you’re interested or not, whether you repent and turn from it or not. Rather in the ministry of Jesus, in his life and work he has opened a window of grace. He invites all who receive that good news of release from sin and sickness and suffering to know the restoration of God. And to do so before the time of reckoning comes.
My brothers and sisters. There is good news, truly good news. There is good news in the here and now, that we can know forgiveness and healing and restoration. Know release from that which binds and harms us. And there is good news for the future, that a day is coming when all of that will be dealt with, when God will come in judgement to cast away all that hurts and harms, that binds and oppresses. And in his mercy God holds back that day, so that, in our lives, in the ministry of the church, that year of the Lord’s favour may be proclaimed to all nations, that all might come to know the salvation of our God.
Amen.