January 26, 2025: Third Sunday after the Epiphany
Luke 4: 14-21
Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He 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.”
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. 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.”
After fasting for 40 days in the wilderness and withstanding the temptations of the devil, Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth “filled with the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4: 14). Perhaps one could say that Jesus was strengthened with God’s grace not despite of, but because of the trials and tribulations he suffered in the wilderness. Three times the devil tempted him, and each time Jesus relied on his trust in the God with whom he was in relationship.
I imagine each of us can look back at difficult times in our lives and see how those experiences strengthened us; how perhaps we came away from them wiser, or more compassionate, or more patient. This is what suffering does to us – it tempers us, it fortifies us and makes us more resilient.
And what beautiful words of Isaiah that Jesus reads in the temple! Here he truly “owns” what his mission is all about: “to bring good news to the poor …. to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free” (Luke 4: 18-19). In other words, Jesus says he is all about restoring what has been lost or taken away, he says he is about justice and freedom. Jesus does not proclaim that his mission is about power and glory (though the devil tempted him with these things); his mission is about helping others.
We too are called to carry on the mission of Jesus “filled with the power of the Spirit” that can come from the difficult experiences we endure, in which we are strengthened by God’s grace. It is our reliance on God and God’s providence that enables us to grow, that helps us to move forward and to use the wisdom gained from the challenging situations we have lived through to help others. As Bishop Mariann Budde said, “[When] we’re called to act, we need to do so trusting less in ourselves than in the power and the energy and the spirit that’s compelling us forward.”
Just as Jesus trusted in God to help him when he fasted 40 days in the wilderness, an experience that readied him for the beginning of his ministry, we are called to trust in the God who loves us, and who asks us, according to Budde, “when elements come together under pressure and heat . . . [not] to take on the entire world, just our corner of it.”