Making Space for Grace

Isaiah 60:1-62:5

Philippians 1:27-2:18

Psalm 72:1-20

Proverbs 24:11-12

This Sunday in church we'll be looking at Isaiah 61 through the lens of Luke's Gospel as Luke relates to us the story of Jesus going to the synagogue in his home town and reading to the people part of this chapter of Isaiah. By reading this section Jesus tells the people of his home town what the character of his mission will be. He does this as much by what he leaves out from the Isaiah passage as by what he actually quotes.  Here is the original Isaiah passage.

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,

for the Lord has anointed me      

to bring good news to the poor.  

He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted      

and to proclaim that captives will be released      

and prisoners will be freed.

He has sent me to tell those who mourn      

that the time of the Lord’s favor has come,      

and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.

Now, contrast this with what Jesus reads in Luke -

18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

     because he has anointed me

     to preach good news to the poor.

  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

     and recovery of sight for the blind,

  to release the oppressed,

   19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Jesus stops the quote just before the section about God's anger against Israel's enemies. Why did he do that?

He seems to have done this deliberately to provoke a response from his listeners. Some passages of scripture, along with some hymns and styles of sermon act like comfort blankets to people in churches.  James Hogg once spoke in the 1600’s about the people of Auchtermuchty (yes, it is a real place name) that “Nothing in the world delights a truly religious people so much as consigning them to eternal damnation.”  Now that might have been true in Hogg’s day but for much of the rest of history it would be better said that, “Nothing in the world delights a truly religious people so much as consigning someone else to eternal damnation – preferably their enemies!”

I suspect that in the Synagogues this passage from Isaiah probably had the same effect on people.  They would have loved hearing it, thinking of themselves as the poor (because everyone’s “poor” compared to someone else right?) They were all prisoners of the Romans (even those making a fortune out of feeding and supplying them) and they all wanted to see God’s enemies (who also just happened to be their enemies) getting a good kicking.



But Jesus goes and leaves out the best bit!  What about kicking enemies?  It’s all very well talking about the Lord’s favour but for many people it’s not enough to get blessed by God, someone else has to be roasting in hell as well to make it all worthwhile.  Jesus speaks more about the reality of Hell and God’s judgement than just about anyone else in the Bible but more often than not Jesus is also accused by many of the religious people around him for being too soft on people and taking the side of sinners instead of the good people who read the Bible and thought they were good before God.

Here in this passage Jesus provokes anger from his audience by making space for God’s grace to act in the life of people.  God is not in a hurry to judge.  He is “Slow to anger and quick to love” as the writer of Psalm 103 tells us.  Am I like that or do I jump quickly to put people in boxes and leave no room for God’s patient mercy and grace to operate in their lives?  Make space for grace and allow the Living God to work at his own patient speed in the lives of other people.  Sometimes we are in a bigger hurry than he is.