Today’s Gospel passage from Luke - four chapters in - emphasizes right off the bat that Jesus’ ministry is good news. Following his baptism and time of testing in the wilderness, Jesus finds himself back home in Nazareth. As he gets up to read during worship, he finds the perfect passage from the prophet Isaiah to announce to those gathered a blueprint, movie trailer, table of contents of sorts for his mission and ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. The Lord 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.”
Having been anointed by the Spirit, Jesus will again be sent out - not into the wilderness, but into the world; not to the powerful and privileged, but to the poor, captive, and oppressed. This is good news! This is the heart of the gospel - freedom and wholeness, and the abundant presence of God’s grace and favor.
The thing about news, though, is that how you hear it - whether it sounds to you like good news or bad news - depends an awful lot on where you sit. That is, good news to the poor might look like, say, fair wages - but those fair wages probably sound more like bad news to the business owners and stakeholders whose own profits will likely suffer. Release to the captives and freedom for the oppressed is good news for those who are bound, but probably sounds more like bad news to the oppressors and those who had benefited from these positions of power and privilege.
Ultimately, however, the good news that Jesus proclaims and embodies is truly good news for everyone, even if it doesn’t sound that way initially. Why? Because we are bound to one another. And because our wholeness and freedom are not individualistic, but, rather, communal.
The imagery used in First Corinthians shows us what this means. Imagine a human body. What a complex and wonderful system of skin, nerves, bones, blood vessels, muscles, organs, and more! Though at first glance these parts seem to act independently, further inspection reveals that nothing in our bodies really works on its own. Instead, it is amazing how the different parts of the body help one another. It is fascinating how the different systems interact enabling the body to breathe, eat, walk, think, and speak!
As we all know, a pain or issue with one part of our body has wider-reaching implications than just that part. It’s like how an ear infection isn’t just about pain in our ears - it can also mess with our sinuses and even our balance. Or how fatigue or atrophy in one muscle can result in overcompensation by other, seemingly unconnected, parts of the body. Similarly, pain in one small part of the body like a tooth or a toe has the ability to render us unable to focus on anything else until the pain is relieved.
Bodies are wonderfully diverse, complex, and interconnected. The same is true for the Church, the gathered community of people which is the body of Christ. The body of Christ is not just this congregation, not just Christians in America or the northern hemisphere, but all siblings in Christ of all times and places. As the writer of First Corinthians says, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”
Each part of the body has something to contribute, and not one of the parts can stand on its own. And, just as pain in one part of the human body affects the rest of the body, the same is true for the body of Christ. Again, First Corinthians: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”
As the interconnected, interdependent body of Christ, when anyone is suffering, poor, held captive, or oppressed, it hurts us, too. It is not enough for us to say, “Well, that’s too bad for them,” or “Oh, they probably deserve it.” Instead, we realize all the ways our own liberation and wholeness are bound up with theirs. To heal, strengthen, and soothe the suffering parts of the body is to bring about wholeness and life for the entire body.
Wholeness and life for the entire body is the mission of Jesus. Anointed by the Spirit, Jesus goes to the hurting, misaligned places of our lives and offers forgiveness and grace, welcome and peace. And, importantly, this forgiveness and grace, welcome and peace are not some far-off promises or end-of-the-race rewards.
Instead, Jesus offers forgiveness TODAY, grace TODAY, welcome TODAY, peace TODAY. Not when we’ve saved up enough points, not when we’ve shown how much better and more deserving we are than others, not when we’ve been crushed enough to really need it. No, the wholeness and life we receive from Jesus is for right now, right here, in this place and among these people, for me and for you, for our friends and for our enemies.
Jesus’ own life-giving presence comes to us TODAY in word and water, bread and wine. Washed in the same water, joined to the same family, gathered for the same feast, in these elements we experience the interconnectedness and interdependence we share with the entire body of Christ.
Through these words, in this water, with this meal we receive the assurance that we are beloved and that we belong. Through these words, in this water, with this meal the Spirit forms us into who we are - the body of Christ. This body suffers when one member suffers, and rejoices when one member is honored. This body is broken and poured out for the sake of others, that all might know the wholeness and life that come from God. This is most definitely good news. Amen.
Having been anointed by the Spirit, Jesus will again be sent out - not into the wilderness, but into the world; not to the powerful and privileged, but to the poor, captive, and oppressed. This is good news! This is the heart of the gospel - freedom and wholeness, and the abundant presence of God’s grace and favor.
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The thing about news, though, is that how you hear it - whether it sounds to you like good news or bad news - depends an awful lot on where you sit. That is, good news to the poor might look like, say, fair wages - but those fair wages probably sound more like bad news to the business owners and stakeholders whose own profits will likely suffer. Release to the captives and freedom for the oppressed is good news for those who are bound, but probably sounds more like bad news to the oppressors and those who had benefited from these positions of power and privilege.
Ultimately, however, the good news that Jesus proclaims and embodies is truly good news for everyone, even if it doesn’t sound that way initially. Why? Because we are bound to one another. And because our wholeness and freedom are not individualistic, but, rather, communal.
The imagery used in First Corinthians shows us what this means. Imagine a human body. What a complex and wonderful system of skin, nerves, bones, blood vessels, muscles, organs, and more! Though at first glance these parts seem to act independently, further inspection reveals that nothing in our bodies really works on its own. Instead, it is amazing how the different parts of the body help one another. It is fascinating how the different systems interact enabling the body to breathe, eat, walk, think, and speak!
As we all know, a pain or issue with one part of our body has wider-reaching implications than just that part. It’s like how an ear infection isn’t just about pain in our ears - it can also mess with our sinuses and even our balance. Or how fatigue or atrophy in one muscle can result in overcompensation by other, seemingly unconnected, parts of the body. Similarly, pain in one small part of the body like a tooth or a toe has the ability to render us unable to focus on anything else until the pain is relieved.
Bodies are wonderfully diverse, complex, and interconnected. The same is true for the Church, the gathered community of people which is the body of Christ. The body of Christ is not just this congregation, not just Christians in America or the northern hemisphere, but all siblings in Christ of all times and places. As the writer of First Corinthians says, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”
Each part of the body has something to contribute, and not one of the parts can stand on its own. And, just as pain in one part of the human body affects the rest of the body, the same is true for the body of Christ. Again, First Corinthians: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”
As the interconnected, interdependent body of Christ, when anyone is suffering, poor, held captive, or oppressed, it hurts us, too. It is not enough for us to say, “Well, that’s too bad for them,” or “Oh, they probably deserve it.” Instead, we realize all the ways our own liberation and wholeness are bound up with theirs. To heal, strengthen, and soothe the suffering parts of the body is to bring about wholeness and life for the entire body.
Wholeness and life for the entire body is the mission of Jesus. Anointed by the Spirit, Jesus goes to the hurting, misaligned places of our lives and offers forgiveness and grace, welcome and peace. And, importantly, this forgiveness and grace, welcome and peace are not some far-off promises or end-of-the-race rewards.
Instead, Jesus offers forgiveness TODAY, grace TODAY, welcome TODAY, peace TODAY. Not when we’ve saved up enough points, not when we’ve shown how much better and more deserving we are than others, not when we’ve been crushed enough to really need it. No, the wholeness and life we receive from Jesus is for right now, right here, in this place and among these people, for me and for you, for our friends and for our enemies.
Jesus’ own life-giving presence comes to us TODAY in word and water, bread and wine. Washed in the same water, joined to the same family, gathered for the same feast, in these elements we experience the interconnectedness and interdependence we share with the entire body of Christ.
Through these words, in this water, with this meal we receive the assurance that we are beloved and that we belong. Through these words, in this water, with this meal the Spirit forms us into who we are - the body of Christ. This body suffers when one member suffers, and rejoices when one member is honored. This body is broken and poured out for the sake of others, that all might know the wholeness and life that come from God. This is most definitely good news. Amen.
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