This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant
The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:20b-21).
When I reviewed the various Sunday Gospels available for this January Restoration article, this one verse from the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (this year, January 27), leapt out at me.
It is from that passage in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus returns to his home town of Nazareth and preaches in the synagogue. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, release to captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, and to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor (Luke 4: 18-19).
All of this is fine, of course. Jesus has come to be the Savior, and what he is describing is simply the work of the Savior, what he came for and is still here to do.
It is that next verse that gives me pause, though. Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Then, and now, this cannot simply pass without notice.
Because, of course, at first hearing we have to say, “Really, Lord? Today this is fulfilled?” Whether that “today” is 2000 years ago or January 27, 2019, we are allowed to ask about this.
There are still blind people. There are still captives and the oppressed. There most certainly still are poor people, and (while I can’t speak for them) they don’t all seem to have heard a whole lot of good news lately.
This gospel reading is provocative, to say the least. And it is perhaps not such a great wonder that it provoked a hostile response from the people of Nazareth when these words were first pronounced. (They tried to throw him off a cliff, remember?)
Well, it’s Jesus. And so of course we who are his disciples have to first bow before him, acknowledging that in this matter as in so many others, he knows what he is talking about and we don’t. Not terribly much.
We bow … but we are allowed to ask him to elaborate. We bow … but we are allowed to ask questions.
Why is it that, the Lord having done everything we truly believe he has done for us and for the world, we still see so much that is not fulfilled, so much that still partakes of blindness, captivity, oppression, and poverty?
It would be one thing if he had said, “I am doing all these things right now, and some day (just you wait and see!), all those bad things will be overcome and eradicated.” But that’s not what he says, not here in this passage. Today, it says. Today, this is all fulfilled.
Well, this takes us in two directions (three, really, but only two if we are going to continue as Jesus’ disciples). We can say “Well, this is nonsense, then!” And walk away from Jesus.
Or we can say “Well, I dunno. It’s over my head!” And just forget about it.
Jesus knows what he’s talking about, but I sure don’t, so I’ll just carry on, say my prayers and hope that some day he’ll explain it all to me.
And that’s a perfectly respectable faith response.
Or we could go deeper with the Lord into all this. Today, my blindness is overcome, because today I see Jesus, at least a little bit. And seeing him, I see God, and seeing God, I see everything there is to see.
Today, my captivity and everyone else’s is ended, because Christ is in me and I am in him. And so I am free—free to love, free to be loved—and there is no other freedom that matters in the slightest.
Today, the oppressed go free. The word in Greek here means those crushed as if under a heavy weight. So many are so crushed in this world. But again, because Jesus is real and Jesus is here, there is freedom, there is healing. Again, freedom to love. Healing to live in hope. Today.
And that is the good news to the poor, today. That Jesus and Jesus alone, in himself, and by sheer virtue of his grace in our lives, is freedom and vision, healing and joy for us.
Now, I realize as I look at the above paragraphs, that all of this is mere “words on a page” for us, very nice perhaps, and prettily put, but still—we’re blind, captive, oppressed, poor, right? It’s all well and good to say all these good things, but does any of it really make any difference?
I think this is a major sticking point for many, many people. Faithful Catholic Christians and those who genuinely struggle with or lack faith. Does Jesus make a real difference in our lives, or is it all just “words on a page,”—nice but nothing more?
I’m afraid we could conclude it’s just that. Unless, that is, we plunge deeply into a real relationship with this Jesus who makes such extravagant claims, holds out such promises not for a distant heavenly future, but for today.
If we choose to take the Gospel seriously and stake not only our future but our present on its truthfulness, this is the only recourse for us.
We have to have faith, and that faith has to bring us into a very deep and committed course of relationship with the Lord Jesus. To daily go to him for help and grace. To daily cast all our cares upon him, surrendering all the problems in our lives to his gracious care.
To daily choose that his Gospel and all it teaches us will be the deciding factor in every decision we make, every choice that is before us as to what we will do, what we will think—everything. To choose the path of faith, and to foreswear all other paths open to us.
I don’t think we will ever be able to really understand what the Lord means by his today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing outside of that level of commitment to him and his Gospel.
Those who have made that commitment—the saints, (canonized and non-) bear witness that indeed it is just as he said.
In this year of 2019, may we strive to “be in their number” and come to not only believe but really know that the Lord has done and is doing all these things for us. Today!
