“Jesus’ Mission Statement”

Luke 4:14-30

Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, February 2, 2025

“Local Boy Makes Good” could have been the headline in the Nazareth News that week. Jesus was returning to his hometown. They had heard rumors about this charismatic young rabbi: healer, miracle-worker, preacher; he was beginning to gather a following. They were proud of him. Now he was returning to preach in the synagogue where he had grown up. As they waited expectantly, Jesus read from Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

         to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

With this scripture, Jesus revealed his mission, his purpose, his plan. Biblical scholars have called this, “Jesus’ Mission Statement.
Those present that day would have realized that he was announcing himself as the Messiah.

Excitement mounted - the Messiah from our town, from here in Nazareth! Maybe they thought he would be like the kings of old who led the Jewish people to victory, or perhaps he would be like the ancient prophets who had foretold glorious things for Israel. Perhaps he was finally proclaiming freedom from their hated Roman oppressors!

At first, their reaction was positive: “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” But then things went south. Jesus recounted two stories from the Hebrew scriptures: Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, and Elisha and Naaman the Syrian. In the time of Elijah, there was a famine in Israel, but instead, God sent Elijah to Zarephath, in Syria. There Elijah performed a miracle to provide a Syrian widow and her son with food during the famine. The Prophet Elisha healed a Syrian general, Naaman, from leprosy. There was one problem – The Syrians were their enemies. They had invaded Israel during the time of the Maccabees, an event in the not-so-distant past. Jesus reminds his listeners that God’s power is available to help all people, even their enemies;

a truth his compatriots did not want to hear. Jesus disappointed them. He had not come to be an earthly ruler. Nor had he come exclusively for the people of Israel. Instead of proclaiming the overthrow of the Roman government and reasserting the national greatness of Israel, Jesus talked of a God who loved all people, even their enemies, and who called them to love everyone as well. This was not what his audience wanted to hear. Their synagogue was for the worshipers of Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, the God who had revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who had given the commandments to Moses – their God.  Who was this Jesus to claim that their God loved those other nations, too – and that they should do the same?

Because of Jesus’ words, the congregation turned into a mob. They chased him out of the synagogue and sought to throw him over the edge of a cliff. My friend, Bishop Mike Rinehart, remarks: “Imagine standing on the steps of the South Carolina State Capitol in, say, 1860, and saying God had sent you to proclaim freedom to the African slaves. …Jesus’ hometown folks were enraged by his audacity.”

Free the slaves? Love your enemies? Welcome immigrants? Bring good news to the poor?” Those are words many do not want to hear today.

         Indeed, if Jesus came to the U.S. today, would he be welcomed? Would his words of justice, healing, liberation, and mercy be heard? Or would he be pushed off a cliff, so to speak? A little over a week ago a U.S. bishop was criticized for quoting Jesus in her own church, urging political leaders to show mercy. Are we ready for Jesus’ words today?

Here in Luke 4 Jesus is launching his ministry. What does Jesus’ mission entail? It is a universal mission – for Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, men and women. It is also a wholistic mission: Jesus came to redeem the whole human person, body, soul, and spirit. He came to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, a time of God’s blessings, grace and redemption, often likened to the “Year of Jubilee” in Leviticus 25, when debts were forgiven and slaves were released. When people are hungry or enslaved, it is difficult for them to focus on the spiritual aspects of life. Gandhi said, “There are those so hungry that God can only appear to them in the form of bread.” Jesus fed the hungry with loaves and fishes. Jesus also feeds our spirits as the living bread. Both are necessary. Both are part of his mission, and part of ours, if we follow him.

         Jesus’ mission was also to proclaim release to the captives…to let the oppressed go free. The Greek word for “captive” (αἰχμαλώτοις) means “someone who is led away by force, typically as a prisoner of war.” Often these captives became slaves. In the New Testament, it is used both literally and metaphorically to describe those who are taken captive by physical or spiritual forces. Again, both are important. People can be literally unjustly imprisoned, and they can also become enslaved to drugs, alcohol, or other addictions. The Apostle Paul warns about becoming captive to sin. Jesus came to free us from sin, or anything that would keep us from living the abundant life he came to bring.

         Jesus also announces that he came to restore sight to the blind – and he both healed those who were literally blind, and opened the eyes of the spiritually blind – which would include all of us.

In Douala, Cameroon, Presbyterians have built a large clinic devoted to ophthalmology. People come from all over the country to have their eyesight restored through surgery or other means. This ministry literally fulfills Jesus’ mission. At the same time, we hope, all of us who worship each Sunday, here, in Cameroon, and around the world, pray that our eyes may be opened to see God’s truth, to experience God’s forgiveness, and to know God’s love. As we participate in healing ministries – both physical and spiritual healing – we are helping to fulfill Jesus’ mission.

But why was this wonderful mission of Jesus rejected? Sadly, many people do not want God’s blessings for those who are not like them. They wanted Jesus to fulfill their agenda and expectations – to be the kind of Messiah they wanted, not the kind of Messiah God had sent them. They wanted to use his name to justify their own plans and ambitions, instead of being open to God’s plans. Unfortunately, throughout history, the church has often been guilty of that. Religious leaders and politicians have co-opted Jesus to bolster their own ambitions and agenda.

When it became obvious that Jesus’ vision did not agree with theirs, the citizens of Nazareth turned on him viciously. Their violent response to the “good news” Christ proclaims leaves no room for compromise or debate. They must rid themselves of this Jesus, and do it now. In the end, it almost seems that Christ washed his hands of them: “…he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” 

We may be shocked at the extreme response of the villagers of Nazareth, but are we that different? When we encounter Christ, we have two choices: like the disciples, we can leave everything and follow him, or we can stand there and watch him go - and remain in our stubborn self-centeredness, thinking we are right and he is wrong.

The citizens of Nazareth wanted to destroy Jesus, but Jesus cannot be destroyed. If this story of an attempted lynching foreshadows the crucifixion, Jesus’ walking away unharmed foreshadows the resurrection. Despite everything, God’s purposes will triumph in the end. Yet, if we too persist in our rejection of Christ and his message,

it may someday be said of us: “he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” 

For we are called to see Christ in the faces of all those around us: black, white, brown, young, old, gay, trans, straight. Until we begin to see Christ in all those faces, we haven’t begun to see Christ at all. When we reject others, even in subtle ways, we reject Him. I conclude with a quote from the New Interpreter’s Bible: “We are never free to set limits on who may receive God’s grace…Jesus could not do more for his hometown because they were not open [to receive his message of love for all God’s children].  How much more might God be able to do with us if we were ready to transcend the…limits of love that we ourselves have erected?”

Let us pray: Loving God, thank you for sending your son Jesus, to walk among us, to talk to us, to teach us, and to listen to us. In our world where people build walls instead of bridges, where people of different backgrounds, ages, and opinions, look at each other with suspicion, we ask for your help to make a change, to make a better world, to make a friendlier society that sees the value in each person for who they are, not in spite of who they are. Loving God, show us the way to love you by loving those around us, and to find peace and happiness through the joy that Jesus brings into the world. Amen.

©Deborah Troester, 2025