He First Loved Us

He First Loved Us

Thursday After Epiphany

Piety

Beloved, we love God because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.  1 John 4:19-21 

“The Spirit of the Lord 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 the Lord.” Luke 4:18-19

Study 

In the early darkness of our winter nights, Isaiah and Luke remind us of what happens when God is “among” us.  The prophet and evangelist present the positive aspects of God’s light in terms of a series of reversals: an end to pride, ignorance, and injustice. The passage echoes the same manifesto of redemption that Jesus preached that first day in the temple (Isaiah 61:1-2).

 

“The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God.”

Yet this passage is not idle preaching on a randomly opened part of the scroll.  Our Good News goes on to show later in the liturgical year Jesus restoring sight to the blind men and helping them find such joy that they cannot keep the miracle of sight a secret.  

A “New Jerusalem” is coming. Get ready for “a philosophy so old that it looks like new,” as Peter Maurin wrote in the Easy Essays which are neither easy nor in essay form (free verse poetry). When Jesus proclaims the Nazareth Manifesto in the temple, we feel the full force of that new creation possible when the Spirit of the Lord is put in us.

Jesus first experiences initial admiration from his listeners as he proclaims the Nazareth Manifesto – the passage he quotes from Isaiah basically sets forth the aims of his and our public ministry. However, when Jesus presents the truth of the Hebrew Bible in two stories that his neighbors know well, the tables turn against him. In both cases, a non-Israelite becomes the object of the prophet’s ministry. 

The rejection foreshadows the whole future ministry of Jesus. Jesus wants to be about bringing glad tidings to the poor, proclaiming liberty to captives, healing the sight of the blind, and freeing the oppressed. Instead, he faces rejection at every step along the way. The rejection of Jesus in his own hometown whispers to us the greater rejection Jesus faces from Israel and Rome down the line.

Action

Who matters to Jesus and his followers?  More than any other gospel writer, Luke is concerned with Jesus’ attitude toward the economically and socially poor. Yet, to do so, Jesus must overcome the obstacle of public perception and rejection. 

Are we a part of the obstacle or a part of the solution?