This coming Sunday is the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time. As noted, this passage begins with a reference to Jesus being “in the power of the Spirit.” While there are no doubt some implicit Trinitarian ideas here, the OT should serve as the means of understanding the direction of Luke’s narrative. The OT metaphors of wind (Heb: ruach – breath, wind, spirit), smoke, and cloud, as well as fire, were ways of talking about the active presence of God in the world. Even though the single Hebrew term is translated in various ways even when used of God, this idea became a way to talk about God in terms of his immediate activity in the world. The idea behind the Hebrew term ruach expressed the immanence of God in the world and encompassed his willingness and power to act in human history. This idea carried over into most of the NT since the equivalent term in Greek (pneuma) carries the same varied meaning.  As well, this “power of the Spirit” also points to a commissioning of prophets and enabling leaders to carry out their mission. 

The reference to Spirit, then, is a way to express the active presence of God in the world, here specifically empowering Jesus for his task in the world. Just as the presence of God enabled the OT prophets to communicate a message, and as it empowered Israel’s leaders to carry out their responsibilities, so the active and immanent presence of God is with Jesus enabling him to carry out his task. It also stresses Jesus’ authority to proclaim whatever message he is to bring and whatever mission he will undertake, both defined here by the following Old Testament quotation (vv. 18-19). Luke will apply that same metaphor with the same meaning to the early church as it experiences the infilling of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Note the repetition of words in this short section: “he has sent” [apostello], to proclaim [kerysso] and release [or forgiveness; aphesis].   These two words (apostello and kerysso) are used in the commissioning of the disciples in Luke 9:2 who are then sent out in 10:13. Luke ends his gospel with Jesus telling the disciples “that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached [kerusso] in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (24:47). The Acts of the Apostles relates the disciples being sent out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, proclaiming the gospel. This is the teaching in the synagogue and sets the mission content and context for Jesus and his disciples.

Image credit: Eleventh century fresco of the Exorcism at the Synagogue in Capernaum | Wiki Commons | PS-US