The gospel this week is the second half of Jesus’ presence in his hometown synagogue of Nazareth. Do you remember last week when Jesus is reading from the prophet Isaiah and says: ““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, ¹⁹ and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” ²⁰ Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. ²¹ He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

I would suggest to you that the people are pretty pumped up. After all, they have already heard about all the miracles and amazing things Jesus has already done. Now they have heard his gracious words! I suspect this might be typical of the inner dialogue of their collective minds: “Can you imagine? Our hometown boy has done good, he is blessed – and if he has done all that for other folks, can you imagine what great things, better things, he has in stored for us? Right? I mean, God has sent us a miracle worker and a prophet!” I am sure if this were more modern times there would be high-fives and fist-pumps. Continue reading →