Jesus Was Different
Third Sunday Scripture Readings
What must Jesus have been like, based on what we read in today’s Gospel? His was anything but a run-of-the-mill homecoming. He was only about thirty years old and he had just recently been baptized in the Jordan by John. That event had caused the crowds in Judea to take notice. Jesus was evidently not just another bystander waiting to be plunged in the water. He was recognized by John and at least some of the crowd as a person of some stature. He wasn’t from a noble or priestly family and he held no political or religious office. Yet, he was a recognizable figure. Even Luke’s story of the young Jesus in the temple is an indication that he was recognized as a powerful spiritual figure from an early age. Besides, he was a learned man. At a time when few could, he was able to read and understand the Scriptures.
When he arrived in Galilee from his sojourn in Judea, “news of him spread throughout the region.” That was not just Nazareth, but the whole region. His fame preceded him and caused quite a stir. Jesus’s notoriety explains not only the excitement of the locals and his welcome into their synagogue as a noted teacher and preacher, but also why, walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, when he called people to follow him, they jumped at the chance. No one is recorded as having turned away from his invitation muttering, “Who does he think he is?”
Luke gives us this unique glimpse into Jesus worshipping at the synagogue in Nazareth. Although outwardly just a returning son of the town, he stood up at the point in the service when the second reading was read—a reading from the prophets illustrating the first reading from the Torah—and he was handed the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah. Notice the deference given to Jesus by the leaders of the synagogue. It seems that they felt honored to have him there. Apparently, he seemed to have known what passage he was going to read and what his homily was going to be about. The message of his preaching was distinctive.
Think about the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders of their day. Their message was one of conformity and obedience—not only to the Law, the Torah, but to their own interpretations and expansions on the Law’s stipulations. They taught excellence of outward behavior as a requirement for social and religious acceptability. Sinners—those who didn’t perfectly hold to the details of the Law—were outcasts, subject to criticism and shunning. Jesus didn’t teach like that.
Then there was John the Baptist, for whom mere outward obedience to the Law and the formal practices of the scribes and Pharisees wasn’t enough. That didn’t cut it. He demanded an obedience of the heart and soul. His was a message of inner repentance in the form of a change of mind and heart. His was a call for people to change direction and, as a sign of that inner reorientation, he offered them baptism in water—going in a state of indifference and coming out with a commitment to a spiritual way of life. The repentance and forgiveness of sin John preached had little to do with the sins we think of today, but it was about turning away from indifference to and alienation from God and the spiritual life and turning toward a life motivated by spiritual awareness. Although Jesus certainly accepted and taught these things, since he was, after all, baptized by John, and he did say, “Repent and believe the good news.” [Mark 1:15] Yet, repentance was not his primary message.
The passage Jesus selected from the Prophet Isaiah was a promise of hope and a promise of blessing. In response to this promise, the people were looking for someone God-sent who would set things right. The one who was to come would be anointed—in Hebrew, מַשִׁיחַ (māšīaḥ), in Greek, χρισος (christos)—with God’s Spirit as David was. As we read when Samuel anointed him, “the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David.” The effects of the Spirit that Isaiah promised, and that the people were longing for were healing and restoration. There would also be a “year acceptable to the Lord.” This was a reference to the “jubilee” year that came once in a generation when slaves were set free, the land and the people were to rest and be renewed, the economy, culture, environment and community were reset, loans were forgiven and sold property was returned to its original owners, and mercy was offered to prisoners and foreigners in the land. The message of Isaiah was that the one to come, anointed with the Spirit of the Lord, would restore the equilibrium lost by humanity’s selfish, self-interested nature. Jesus announced that this message and its promise had been fulfilled with his coming.
There you have it. Jesus’s message was one of selfless mercy, healing, and restoration. That, distinct from every other religious message of his time, was uniquely his, and it remains the core Christian message. And, for those religionists who heard that message preached from the pulpit of the Washington National Cathedral last week and reacted to it with fury I say “At long last, people…have you no shame?”
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