A Year of Favor

Gospel: Luke 4: 14-21

Jesus goes to his home town, the synagogue where he grew up worshipping, and he announces his Messianic mission: to provide healing for those with ailments, to liberate those possessed by demons and crushing debts, to provide food to the poor in body and soul.  This is to proclaim Good News; this is the year of favor from the Lord - a great jubilee year where debts are cancelled and the poor are lifted up after being oppressed by the wealthy for so long.  

Jesus then goes about an impoverished land proclaiming this message and providing these very things to all people regardless of gender, religion, race, class, clean or unclean, local or foreigner.  Right away this mission almost gets him killed in his home town, as they reject the idea that God is for all people.  Opposition to this message from the professional religious class will be consistent in Jesus' life, right up to his execution by the imperial state in alliance with religion.  

This mission of Jesus is our mission as well.  We who have been anointed at baptism to be priest, prophet, and king, affirmed in this mission in confirmation, and for some specially dedicated in holy orders - it is our task to offer healing, provide liberation, and nourish others at table without exclusion or discrimination.  It is a ministry to the whole world, one that will bring opposition from the empire and religion itself.  Blessed are you if it is so...