"jesus' Keynote Address"

“Jesus’ Keynote Address”

Luke 4:14-21

If you could choose the words that might encapsulate who you are, the words that you would use to communicate the essence of yourself, your life, your commitments—what would they be?

Luke 4:14-21 is essentially Jesus’ life, ministry and purpose in a nutshell.

It is His “Keynote address,” if you will, to describe what He is about…His Mission Statement, Who He is.

There was a VERY POPULAR Christian book written by the pastor of one of America’s Mega-Churches.

This book was a best-seller and it gained a lot of attention, and probably helped a lot of people.

It was basically a book about how to live the kind of life that God wants us to live.

Citations from Scripture fill this book.

There are dozens in every chapter, which makes it surprising and a bit unsettling that Luke 4:14-21 is never quoted.

Apparently, this succinct and powerful statement of Jesus’ own purpose wasn’t considered relevant for teaching a Christian what it means to live a Christian life.

And, you know, it is easy to get sidetracked from the Central Message of the Gospel.

The prophets were constantly having to remind the people about God’s main purpose.

For example, from the very same Book of the Bible that Jesus used to announce Who He Is and What He has come to do—The Book of Isaiah--the Lord asked, “The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?”

“I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.”

“Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me.”

The Lord commands that the people, “Trample my courts no more,” and that they “learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, [and] plead for the widow,” instead.

It’s basically the same Message given in Micah and the rest of the Bible: “With what shall I come before the Lord…He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

`And so, when the Son of God appears on the scene to proclaim why He is here and what He is about it should not be surprising that He says:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jesus’ is God’s beloved Son, and Jesus has come to do God’s will in this world.

And it’s not always pretty work.

It is often hard.

The people He heals, ministers too, and hangs out with are not always the most educated folks, they may not have the best manners, they aren’t the best smelling, they don’t necessarily have much money and they often aren’t real pleasant to be around.

But this is real life is it not?

Jesus is concerned with the nitty gritty: compassion, mercy, freedom, new life, and justice for the poor, the oppressed and marginalized.

He has come to set us free.

This is FRONTLINE MINISTRY!!!

Jesus gets dirty with us!

(Pause)

When I imagine the scene in our Gospel Lesson for this morning, I imagine Jesus being absolutely on fire with passion, excitement, anticipation and joy!

After all, this comes on the heels of His baptism by John where the Spirit of God came down and rested on Him, proclaiming Him to be God’s Son in Whom God is well-pleased.

It comes on the heels of His wilderness experience where He was tempted by the devil for forty days to switch His ministry focus from lifting up others to lifting up Himself.

He was offered power, prestige, easy livin’ so to speak.

But He chose humble service.

He chose to do the will of His Father.

He chose the hard path, the narrow path.

That is why He came to this earth.

That is His purpose.

And as Christ’s followers, as His disciples—which really means His imitators—this that what we are called to do as well.

I know there is a lot of junk out there that masquerades as Christianity.

We hear stories about television evangelists who beg their followers to give them money so they can buy private jets for themselves.

One such person, who has a fleet of private jets, happens to be the richest “Pastor” in America.

He is worth $300,000,000.

There is a list of these guys, the least of which is worth a mere $25,000,000.

Instead of “pleading the case of the widow” they are fleecing the widows.