Commentary on Luke 4:14-21

“God’s time [Emancipation] is always near. He set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free.” —Harriet Tubman¹

After his baptism, as John predicted, Jesus begins his public ministry “in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14). At his baptism, in the genealogy, and in the wilderness, it has been affirmed that Jesus is the Son of God (3:22, 38; 4:3). The 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness have demonstrated the kind of Son he is, his character, and how he will perform his ministry in relation to the temptations of unbridled power, authority, wealth, and risk (4:1–12).

Jesus had already built a reputation for himself in his hometown and surrounding regions by the way he lived. To this point, everyone had only good things to say about him (Luke 4:14–15). He had not yet announced his ministry agenda. He had not yet leveled a critique in the synagogue against his own people. Jesus had attended synagogue on a regular basis, but perhaps in previous visits he only listened, watched, reflected, analyzed, and even read scripture, but had not yet provided a contemporary critique or deconstructed the scriptures.

According to Luke-Acts, the following activities regularly occurred in the synagogue, not necessarily in this order: An attendee brings in the scroll; the scroll is unrolled; there is teaching from the Hebrew Scriptures (Torah, Prophets, and the Writings), reading from the sacred scroll, and brief midrash/interpretation of the sacred text; the scroll is rolled up; there is a response to the reading; and the attendant leaves with the scroll (Luke 4:16–17; Acts 13:15).

Synagogue attendees included Jewish people (ordinary folks, synagogue leaders, Pharisees, and other religious leaders), Gentiles, men and women, people with various diseases, and those considered possessed by demons or unclean spirits (Luke 4:16–33, 44; 6:6; 12:11; 13:11; Acts 14:11). Some scribes, Pharisees, and other leaders and wealthy people occupied privileged seats in some synagogues (Luke 11:43; 20:46). According to Luke, synagogues could be places of judgment and arbitration (12:11; 21:12). According to the Acts of the Apostles, a synagogue of Freedmen (formerly enslaved persons) existed in Jerusalem (6:9). The synagogue could be a diverse space and a site of struggle.

After the attendee hands Jesus the sacred scroll, he unrolls it. He does not begin reading at an arbitrary point; he selects the particular scripture he desires to read that day, in the hearing of that audience. After opening to the words of the prophet Isaiah (61:1–2 and 58:6), Jesus reads the scripture perhaps in a tone that emphasizes its application to him, inflecting the pronoun “me”:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to bring good news to the poor. [The poorest among the poor are the enslaved whose masters are poor.] He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives [those captured in war were enslaved] and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18–19, New Revised Standard Version, emphasis mine)

The Spirit anoints and commissions Jesus to announce good news about imminent physical and spiritual transformation: release from captivity, recovery of lost vision, freedom from oppression. The enslaved and oppressed cannot be absolutely free without a recovery of lost vision or a reimagining or envisioning of a life and mind free of physical and psychological chains. Perhaps bringing good news parallels proclamation of the Lord’s favor.

In Nazareth of Galilee, to a synagogue audience of men, women, leaders, noble folks, the poor, the diseased and possessed, the wealthy, freedpersons, masters, and enslaved, Jesus preaches an abolitionist message. I imagine that Jesus read the text passionately, boldly, and with conviction, bringing the text to life. With all eyes glued on him, Jesus rolls the scroll up, returns it to the attendant, and takes his seat. From his seat, he states resolutely and unapologetically, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).

Jesus selected a text that confirmed what John the Baptist said about him and what the narrator of Luke’s Gospel has already testified, that Jesus is full of the Spirit and will baptize with the Spirit (Luke 1:34, 80; 3:16; 4:1, 14). The Spirit had descended on Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism; it had anointed his body for miraculous acts and for proclamation (3:22–23).

Initially, the audience’s response is positive. Proud and amazed, they somewhat incredulously inquire, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” (Luke 4:22), with no mention of his mother Mary. Jesus responds, in a nutshell, “Since you know my background, of course you will expect me to free myself and perform the powerful deeds here that you have heard I performed in Capernaum” (4:22–23). According to this text, Jesus had already performed miracles in Capernaum, a city in Galilee about 20 miles northeast of Nazareth. Otherwise, Luke’s narrative does not explicitly mention Capernaum before Jesus’ abolitionist speech.

Significantly, however, Jesus performs miracles in Capernaum immediately after leaving Nazareth. In a synagogue in Capernaum, with words alone, Jesus will free a man of unclean spirits that recognize him as “Jesus of Nazareth” (Luke 4:31–37). In Capernaum, Jesus will heal the centurion’s skilled, loyal, and very sick slave by words alone, without being in the slave’s presence (7:1–10).

Jesus states that the reality is that prophets are rejected in their hometowns (Luke 4:24). He provides two examples to support his claim (4:25–27): During the three and a half years of famine, Elijah was sent not to the many widows in Israel but to one widow residing in Zarephath of Sidon. And during Elisha’s time, he cleansed Naaman the Syrian of leprosy but healed not one of the many lepers in Israel. Jesus deconstructs the scriptures. Deconstruction is good news for those it frees from physical ailments, spiritual delusions, and harmful theologies that enslave and harm.

On that day, everyone in the synagogue is enraged by Jesus’ words to the extent that they transform from a proud and amazed audience to a murderous crowd (4:28–29). But like a ghost, Jesus saunters on his way to free those who want freedom.

Notes

1. Quotation from “Harriet Tubman,” National Museum of African American History and Culture website,  https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/harriet-tubman. Between 1850 and 1860, the Black fugitive slave woman and abolitionist Harriet Tubman conducted at least 70 enslaved Africans to freedom; she never lost a passenger.