The Year of the Lord's Favor

Hey everyone,
While I am still busy, teaching five history classes from home and doing graduate work, social distancing has allowed me more time to write.  So here my fourth post in a little over a week.  I'm reaching back into my quiet time book and finding things that I had wanted to write about but didn't make the time.  This is one such post. It comes from Luke 4 and tells the story of Jesus in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth.  He reads from Isaiah 61 and makes commentayr on it.  What he says makes his hometown so angry that they want to kill him.

I read up on the subject matter last summer in Steve Kinnard's King Jesus and then again this week in Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey. (Both books are excellent if you are looking for something to read other than my blog, during this time self quarantine.) Seeing it again in Bailey's book reminded me of some really cool stuff. 

According to Luke 4:14-21, Jesus reads this from Isaiah 61:
     "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
       because he has anointed me,
     to proclaim good news to the poor.
     He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
       and recovery of sight for the blind,
       to set the captive free,
       to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Then  he rolled up the scroll, sits and says to the crowd, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."  Jesus was declaring to his hometown, that He, the Messiah, had come. 

There are many levels to this story, and perhaps I will examine other levels in a different post.  I want to focus on what Jesus read and also , what he didn't read.  His audience was no doubt very familiar with Isaiah 61. If you were to look at the passage, you would see that Jesus made a calculated decision to stop where he did.  Isa. 61:2 reads like this:
     to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
       and the day of vengeance of our God,
     to comfort those who mourn.

His audience liked this passage, because they believed that the year of the Lord's favor would be to their benefit, and that His vengeance would then be carried out on their enemies.  Isaiah 61 continues with talk of the ancient ruins being rebuilt and strangers and foreigners doing the work, while they reap the benefits and enjoy the wealth of other nations.  So try to imagine Jesus reading one of the congregations's favorite passages, and stopping abruptly just before he gets to the "good stuff," of revenge on their enemies.  They had been happy and agreeing with everything their hometown boy was saying, until suddenly, crickets.  Their reaction to what Jesus is saying will soon take a sharp turn for the worst.  Remember though, that today we are focusing on what Jesus said, and what he didn't say. 

Jesus gave his crowd these things: Good news, freedom, sight and more freedom. Then offered the Lord's favor.  He did not declare the Lord's vengeance.  I think this was good news for them (although they didn't see it that way.)  It is also good news for us.  Jesus offers us good news, freedom, sight and more freedom.  He would much rather give us the Lord's favor than the Lord's vengeance. The Lord's impulse is toward mercy rather than punishment. 
Tom