Jesus' Mission, Our Mission

This season of Epiphany has been very meaningful for me. The Spirit has opened me up to this word "epiphany." In the past, I have understood the phrase "I just had an epiphany!" to mean something like "I feel amazing because I just realized something awesome, and now I look at things totally differently!" Some of the same sentiment and excitement remain, but in a new way for me. God has shown me that an epiphany really has less to do, though, with anything I realize or how I feel about it. An epiphany, I have come to see and learn, is the known presence of God. It is a revelation. It is what happened when the shepherds met the baby Jesus in the manger, when the magi met Jesus and paid homage to him, and it is what happens each time you recognize God with you, around you, and in this world. It has more to do with God's grace and presence than anything else.

This week we come to Luke 4: 14-21 (Luke 4:18-19 draws on Isaiah 61:1-2 and 58:6). This may sound very familiar to you, because we also considered this Scripture during the season of Advent. I preached a sermon called "Jesus Sets us Free" in light of this crucial passage. Then, we read it in light of the coming Christ, asking "what did Christ come to do? Why was he sent?" You may come to these words with a similar approach, but this time we are also considering in light of the word "epiphany;" you may being coming to this passage this time around asking "how is God showing up in the world?" However you come to this important piece of Scripture, God meets you there.

This passage powerfully and succinctly lays out Jesus' mission, his purpose for being sent into this world. In a word, it is to liberate. God shows up to set you free.

One way Jesus does this is by turning the economic structures upside down. Time and time again we see Jesus throughout the gospels preaching a message of hope to the poor and outcast, those who had no place of worth in society. But this begins here at his first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth. In essence, Jesus instituted the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25), a time in which crushing debts were forgiven and slaves were freed, as an eternal option. God sent Jesus to do that. That is how God shows up.

That is a challenging word for those of us who are not among the poor, marginalized, oppressed, or outcast of our society. It is even threatening to us to hear a word of upheaval of the very systems in which we benefit. But we need the moral courage to listen to the intention of God for humanity as Jesus proclaims it in Luke 4. We can be opened up by hearing stories of how persons who are in those situations of economic stress and social outcast hear with joy and renewed hope this gospel (good news) of social transformation. We can be encouraged, too, because when Jesus preached this prophetic text in the synagogue, when he challenged those in positions of power and privilege, he just so happened to leave out Isaiah 61:2b "and the day of vengeance of our God." Jesus' focus was on bringing healing and justice, not vengeance. Rest assured that Jesus came to set us all free from whatever keeps us from the joy of living in the presence of God.

Ask yourself: "What keeps me from living in the presence of God? " This is just another way of asking "What has Jesus set me free from?"

May you live in the joy, hope, and peace of freedom in Christ,

Jack