Today's dramatic gospel reading came from the 4th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, beginning at the 14th verse. Even though Luke has already written three and a half chapters--183 verses--telling us the story of Jesus--even though Jesus is now, according to Luke himself, 30 years old--nonetheless, something unique and surprising happens today. Do you know what it is?

We get to hear Jesus speak in public for the very first time! For over three chapters--183 verses and God knows how many words--we've heard about Jesus and gotten ready for Jesus. Here and there we've caught snatches of conversation between Jesus and his parents (when he was twelve years old). There's been an exchange between the adult Jesus and Satan in the wilderness while Jesus was fasting and being tempted. But, up until now--despite being thirty years old--we have not heard Jesus speak in public.

Until today! And, as we might expect when we hear Jesus speak in public for the very first time, what he has to say is both dramatic and important.

You can think of it as his State of the Union address. Just as President Obama will report on the condition of the nation this coming Wednesday--along with his agenda and priorities--so today, when we hear Jesus speak in public for the very first time, he, too, reports on the nation’s condition, and his agenda and priorities. When you hear Jesus speak today, in other words, think of it as his State of the Union address.

Last week I mentioned that, from now until the beginning of Lent a month from now, we're in the season of Epiphany. Epiphany is a time when we focus on the ways God “shows” or reveals himself to the world.

Few ways that God shows himself to the world could be more dramatic than the way that Jesus did today. Having been invited to preach in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, Jesus is handed the massive scroll of the equally massive book of Isaiah.

Searching for just the right spot, Jesus stops and reads aloud where he finds the passages, saying, ... “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

When Jesus finished reading, he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendants. Then Jesus gave his first public address. With all eyes fixed on him, he said, simply, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

What Jesus is saying--and is saying publicly--is this. "This text has come alive in me. This message has come true in me. These promises--promises that God made to bring good news to the poor and proclaim release to captives; to bring about recovery of sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor--these promises are coming true in me. Right now. I am God’s promise to bring good news to the poor and release to the captive. I am the recovery of sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed. I am the proclamation of the Lord’s favor. Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Few of the ways that God shows himself to the world could be more dramatic than that!

In the Wednesday morning Bible study--which I highly recommend--we've begun studying Paul's letter to the Romans. One of the guides we're using is a British bible scholar who is also the Anglican bishop of Durham, England. His name is Tom Wright.

Tom Wright contrasts what most people unthinkingly assume the gospel is about with what Paul, in fact, says it is. He writes, “The gospel isn't like an advertisement for a product we might or might not want to buy, depending on how we felt at the time.”

That’s how most people, without thinking about it, imagine the gospel. It’s like an advertisement for something we might--or might not--want to buy, depending on how we felt at the time. “Are you sad or lonely? Feeling blue? Wondering how you’ll make that paycheck last the rest of the month? Try the saving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ! You might like it!”

But no, says Tom Wright, that’s not what the gospel of Jesus Christ is like! What is it like? He writes, “It is more like a command from an authority we would be foolish to resist.” Thinking of Paul’s original audience in first-century Rome, Tom Wright explains, “Caesar's messengers didn't go around the world saying, ‘Caesar is lord, so if you feel you need to have a Roman-empire kind of experience, you might want to submit to him.’”

What is he getting at? Tom Wright wants us to understand Paul’s letter to the Romans. He wants us to understand what it means when Paul proclaims the good news that Jesus is Lord.

People in the Roman world were accustomed to hearing those words applied to Caesar, and only to Caesar. “Caesar is lord!” Caesar’s emissaries would proclaim. People then had the choice of either submitting to Caesar’s lordship or die resisting.

In the first century, in other words, Caesar’s lordship wasn’t a message that you could accept or reject, depending on how you felt about it. Feelings had nothing to do with it! Caesar’s lordship was a cold, hard fact. Submit or die!

It wasn’t, in other words, a message that you could accept or reject, based on whether you liked it or not. It was, in Tom Wright’s words, “more like a command we would be foolish to resist.”

And so is Paul’s challenge that Jesus, not Caesar, is the world’s true lord! Granted, the kind of power and authority that Jesus wields is far different from Caesar. But that’s the whole point. The Lord Jesus doesn’t threaten people with death; he offers them life. He doesn’t demand obedience; he invites it. And in place of submission, Jesus offers discipleship; “Come, follow me,” he bids.

Yet, like Rome with their Caesar, we, too, would be foolish to resist. And today, in his first recorded speech, we get to hear Jesus’ inaugural address. “When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’

“And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”

The good news that we proclaim--as good in 2010 as it was in the year 30--is that Jesus is the world’s true lord and sovereign. His reign is peace and it is based in justice. He brings good news to the poor, proclaiming release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind. He demands the freeing of the oppressed and proclaims the year of the Lord’s favor upon one and all.

This gospel “isn't like an advertisement for a product we might or might not want to buy, depending on how we felt at the time. It is more like a command from an authority we would be foolish to resist.”

Foolish indeed! In Jesus’ name. Amen.