Credite Amori Vera Dicenti - Luke 4:14-30

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor…” (Luke 4:18)
 
Believe LOVE speaking the truth' (St.Jerome). Sounds good, but it’s easier said than done.  Like when Jesus stood up in his local synagogue to start his public ministry by announcing his manifesto.  Jesus said he was the Messiah and had come to fulfil everything that the Old Testament truly pointed to.  Quoting from the prophet Isaiah, Jesus deliberately missed out the bit about bringing vengeance on Israel’s enemies.  Adding insult to injury (for hotheads thought that was exactly the role of the Messiah), Jesus added two stories from the Old Testament about LOVE choosing to bless and favour the enemy over Israel. 

In an intensely nationalistic town, this precocious young upstart whom they’d known since he was a child was claiming to be LOVE, using a scripture that lay at the core of their identity, proclaiming LOVE’s peace and blessing upon their sworn enemies.  Jesus designed his speech to provoke a response and his audience did not disappoint – they turned on him and tried to kill him.  LOVE was not welcome in Nazareth.  Hence, the start of Jesus’ public ministry points us to the end of it.  One day, LOVE would allow the mob to succeed in killing the Messiah.

And what was Jesus’ vision?  Jesus was the Anointed One, coming to bring truth, joy, liberation from oppression, healing, compassion, justice and divine favour.  The catch was that he had come to bring all this for everyone.  The self-righteous were indignant that it meant good news for their enemies too.  If you and I were are offered a special grace that was just for us, of course we’d take it.  We’d think we were special, worthy, deserving and favoured above others.  But if we were offered a grace that was also offered to our hated enemy, we might be tempted to reject it on principal, because that might marks us out as being like them.  Such is the foolish blindness of “us and them” thinking, whereby we believe in our own merit (self-righteousness) and think of others as falling short of our own high standards (judging them in our hearts).  Jesus begs us to think differently so that we can receive LOVE’s salvation.  Before LOVE there is no “us and them”, just “us”.

Let’s pray Luke 4:18-19 today, asking the Holy Spirit to make these verses true of our lives too, that we might be like Jesus.  Let’s also examine our hearts and allow LOVE to root out any self-righteousness or judgmental attitudes in us.  Let’s think of others as better than ourselves.  Let’s tell ourselves, “Everyone needs Jesus, especially me.”  Let’s refuse to believe otherwise.
 
“There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:22-24).