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Do you like surprises? If they're good ones, they're ok. However, not all surprises are good ones, at least at first glance. Jesus had an uncanny ability to take people by surprise -- and they weren't always pleased about it. Take, for instance, the surprise Jesus sprung on the Nazarene congregation in his hometown in Nazareth. That Sabbath day, he went to the synagogue, as any observant Jew would. The synagogues of Jesus' day didn't usually have paid or appointed preachers and teachers. Any adult male might be called upon to preach or teach on the Sabbath. Can you imagine if we ran our churches that way? If any adult could be called upon at any time to preach or teach on the Scriptures on Sunday? That's a huge responsibility. One of two things would happen if we followed that practice: there would be an explosion of Bible study or there would be a stampede for the door.
Jesus was handed a scroll from the book of Isaiah and asked to preach on it. He didn't have to flip around for a while to find what he wanted. He went straight to Isaiah 61, a Messianic passage of great importance to the Hebrew people, and read these words:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
And then, when Jesus was sure he had everyone's attention, he closed the scroll, sat down and announced very simply, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Surprise! The prophet Isaiah was inspired to write those words more than 700 years earlier. For seven centuries, preachers and teachers of God's word preached a coming Messiah who would turn the world's systems upside-down. He would comfort the hurting, free the oppressed, give sight to the blind. The Hebrew people knew only too well what it was to suffer, to be held captive. They had waited hundreds of years for the fulfillment of this prophecy and were prepared to wait hundreds more if necessary. And now a poor, no-name carpenter claims to be that Messiah who would "proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." How would you react if you were in their shoes? Is it any wonder that the men of the synagogue tried to kill Jesus? Of course, he got away. But we can't blame the Nazarene congregation for their reaction.
As Dr. Paul Rees says, "The Gospel is neither a discussion nor a debate. It is an announcement!" And that's exactly how Jesus treated it.
He didn't explain, argue, or pontificate he just announced this mind-blowing piece of information and let the worshipers make up their own minds. Still today, if we take this passage seriously, it has the same potential to blow our minds too. Jesus' announcement tells us three important things about God.
It tells us God is a God of hope. Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
Wherever Jesus went, he brought hope. He brought hope to the leper, exiled from his home and his community. He brought hope to the paralyzed man who was unable to care for his family. To people who felt worthless, or lost, or broken, or rejected, or beyond saving, Jesus brought the message that God loved them–that they had a purpose in life. Even in Jesus' last moments, when he was dying in agony on the cross, he offered the hope of eternal salvation to the thief dying beside him. This was Jesus' first act in life and his last act before death --the giving of hope.
In the ancient classic, "Inferno", Dante imagines that the entrance to Hell is marked by a sign, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Where God is, there is hope; where God is absent, there is no hope. That was the message Jesus came to share with us.
Jesus' announcement also tells us God is a God of justice. Most world religions operate on a very simple assumption: you get what you deserve in this life. If you're poor, God must want you to be poor. If you're sick or disabled, you are being punished for your sins, maybe even sins you've committed in a past life. It's a simple, but flawed equation: health and wealth are blessings from God. If you don't have health or wealth, then God must not love you.
Jesus came to turn this world view upside down. No longer does might equal right. He came to declare that God loves the poor, the blind, the sick, the oppressed even more because of their humble state. There are no rejects in God's economy. He announced that riches on earth are meaningless; it's treasure in Heaven for which we should be striving. He showed that a healthy body is worthless if one's soul is dead in sin. Jesus declared that a person could have 20/20 vision and still be spiritually blind.
For centuries, Indian society has lived under a rigid caste system in which each person is born into a set social group. People who are born into the highest social group, or caste, receive the benefits of honor and respect. Then, there are different levels, or castes, below this. A person's caste at birth will determine what job they can have, whom they can marry, and what rights they have in society. On the very lowest rungs of society are the Dalits, whose name means "broken, crushed." The Dalits are the targets of violence and discrimination in Indian society. And now, the Dalits face persecution for another reason: their faith. The Christian faith is quite attractive to the Dalits. In fact, "80% of Christians in India are Dalits." They choose to follow Christ even when they know the consequences they might face.
Why would the Dalits, already targets of persecution and abuse, invite more such treatment by becoming Christians? Because in Christ, we meet a God who loves and lifts up those whom others would tear down. His heart is with those who suffer. He cares about those who are hurting, helpless, brokenhearted, and in bondage. He will not abandon us to despair.
Most importantly God is a God of freedom. In Mauritania, a small African nation, slavery is officially illegal, yet it's still a fact of life for an estimated 90,000 black Africans. Generations of Africans have been raised with no idea of freedom, individuality, or basic human rights. Slaves haven't been allowed to get an education, marry without their master's permission, or keep their own children.
One old slave woman explains that her withered, useless hands are the result of a punishment she suffered in childhood at the hands of her master. She had been slow in gathering his herd of sheep, so he hung her up by her hands for hours. Another woman, Fatma, who comes from many generations of slaves, escaped a cruel master, but she's far from free. As she says, "God created me to be a slave, just as He created a camel to be a camel."
In Jesus' day, there were slaves who surely thought they were made to be slaves, that God had ordained them to be inferior; their oppression was inevitable. But Jesus continually demonstrated that God is a God of freedom, not bondage. When Jesus walked this earth, He rebuked the power structures that oppressed people. And Jesus made it a regular practice to set people free. He freed sick people of their diseases and disabled people from their handicaps. He freed sinners from the burden of their sins and demon-possessed people from their torment. He broke the chains of fear, confusion, and anxiety in the lives of the people he touched. God is a God of freedom. And He can free you and me, too, like he did for a young woman who appeared at a Women's Bible Study led by Lori Hoewing-Magie. The group was discussing the strongholds by which Satan binds us, such as negative thinking, anger, and fear. The study group had decided to meet one night at the beach to pray over their strongholds and then throw them into the fire–symbolizing their destruction through the power of Christ. The beach was crowded that night; on one side of their prayer meeting was a gathering of some 30 Asian-American Christians having a praise service. On the other side, a dozen people were having a loud and vulgar beer bash.
As the women prayed, a young woman walked out of the partying group. Tears streamed down her face as she approached one of the women and said simply, "I want to come home." The young lady recommitted her life to Jesus that night. Before she left, she said, "I feel so confused and yet I feel so good and so at peace and free."
"The Spirit of God is always a spirit of liberty." That's what God is all about. He's about hope; justice; freedom. It was a surprise to Jesus' listeners 2,000 years ago, and if we really think about it, it's a surprise to us today. Jesus came to share the good news that God cares about our hopelessness, our oppression, our bondage. And someday Christ will return to establish an eternal Kingdom where those things don't exist.