1 Corinthians 2:1-5,
Psalm 119:97.98.99.100.101. 102,
Luke 4:16—30 Full Readings
The True Mission of Jesus
The first part of today's Gospel Gospel is one of my favourite passages in the Gospel because it explains the heart of Jesus' Mission and what it entails, which also explains our mission too as Christians. Jesus stood on the pulpit and after being given a scroll, he opened the book of prophet Isaiah and found where it is written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” Afterwards, he continued talking and after seeing the unbelief of his own people of Nazareth and praising the Gentiles, he told them that a prophet is not accepted in his own country and at the end they drove him out of their town trying to kill him but he went through them.
Yesterday, we saw Peter being called Satan because he couldn't understand the mission of Christ after telling Jesus to even stop thinking of suffering because he is the Messiah. But today's Gospel gives us what really entails Jesus' mission: bringing good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed and bringing the time of God's fulfilment of his prophecies. These are the important aspects of Jesus' mission. The kingdom of God is for such people and all those who accept the good news brought by Jesus. However, Jesus' mission was the difficult one which included suffering and even it led him to death because the oppressive powers of the time were very strong and he had to pay a price for going against them.
Jesus after reading, he tells the people that today, this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing, a message which meant the coming of Messianic era and the Messiah who was long awaited. In other words, their wait for the saviour has ended by his appearance on the world scene. Though they didn't believe in him because they expected a political Messiah who would go to Jerusalem and establish a kingdom, he was telling them indirectly that they should not expect any other Messiah apart from him, he is the true Messiah they have been waiting for. In Jesus we have our liberation, our freedom, our joy and hope. He alone can bring us that freedom from those enslavements and bondages caused by our sins, bad habits and evil powers. It is by surrendering our lives to him that we find our true peace, joy and freedom of the children of God.Today, the choice is ours. Either accept Jesus as our Saviour and liberator and surrender our lives to him to experience freedom and joy, and share that experience of joy with others, or reject him and live in perennial bondage under the power of evil forces.
Today's Gospel also gives a message that we should see God in everyone. How many times have we despised the people whom we know from A to Z and are close to us, by thinking that they cannot be prophets? Jesus could not be accepted by his own people because they knew that he was just the son of Joseph the carpenter, and nothing good can come from him. But Jesus shows them and to us today that even our closest people can be prophets. People at first admired Jesus for his gracious words, but when they realized that he was challenging and shaking the very roots of their habits, beliefs and traditions, they plotted to do away with him as he was inconvenient to the comfortable life. Do you reject somebody's message because he or she is close to you or because his or her words have shaken your unappealing behaviours both to God and to your fellow people?
Reflect today on the mission of Jesus which is also your mission. In this time of Covid-19, how many poor or needy or oppressed have you helped or saved from their challenging situations as Jesus did? You don't need to help many, even one is enough, as mother Teresa tells us that if you can't feed 100 people then feed one. Pray for the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit to help you realise that the mission of Christ is your mission too and that you ought to do that mission.
Let us pray
Send forth your spirit upon us, Lord Jesus Christ, to inspire us daily so that we may be able to say and do the same works you did when you were still here on this earth. Amen.
Be blessed
May I always do the misiion of Jesus in my life
ReplyDelete