The Gospel according to Luke began by telling us about the births of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.
In the next section of the Gospel, Luke zooms forward in time so John is now a prophet.
He is leading a renewal movement down at the Jordan River.
All of these Israelites are coming to be baptized: the poor, the rich, tax collector, even soldiers.
What is going on here?
All of these people are dedicating themselves to a new way of life.
By getting dunked in a river?
Long ago, Israel came to inherit this land by crossing through the Jordan River.
God gave them a responsibility.
They were called to serve Him alone, to love their neighbor and pursue justice together.
We know from stories in the Old Testament that they have failed at this repeatedly.
Right, so John is calling Israel to start over, to go back through the river
and come out rededicated to their God, ready for the new thing that God's about to do.
So it is within this renewal movement that Jesus first appeared.
Jesus is baptized by John, the sky opens up, and the voice from heaven says,
"You are my son whom I love. With you I am well pleased."
God's words here are packed with echoes from the Hebrew Scriptures.
This first line is from Psalm 2 where God promised that a king would come
who would rule in Jerusalem and confront evil among the nations.
Then this next line is from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
It refers to the messiah who would become a servant, suffer and die on Israel's behalf.
After this Jesus goes into the wilderness for forty days with no food.
That is roughing it.
In this story, Jesus is replaying Israel's 40-year journey through the wilderness where they failed to trust their God.
They rebelled but Jesus succeeded by resisting temptation and trusting God.
So this story is marking Jesus as the one who is going to carry Israel's story forward.
After the wilderness, Jesus comes back to the region of Galilee to his hometown, Nazareth.
He is in the synagogue and he is invited to read from the scriptures.
He opens up the scroll of Isaiah and he reads,
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor."
Why to the poor?
Well, in Hebrew culture being poor was not just about money.
It was more about low social status.
So women and children, the sick, people on the margins.
Surprisingly, this could include people who had money, like tax collectors.
They were considered outsiders, too.
So Jesus is here for them.
Then Jesus continues reading,
"The Lord has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Freedom seems like a big deal for Jesus.
Yes, Jesus was freeing people from their sicknesses, from their past, from their shame.
He was freeing them to become a part of God's new kingdom that Jesus said he was bringing into reality.
After this, Jesus appoints twelve men from among all of his disciples as leaders, to help him in his mission.
That number, 12, is a very intentional symbol of the twelve tribes of Israel.
But this is a ragtag bunch of guys.
You have a fisherman, a former tax collector who worked for the Roman occupation,
you have a former rebel who fought against the Roman occupation
There is no way these guys are going to get along.
Yeah, Jesus intentionally brought together people who were outsiders and sworn enemies.
But inside God's kingdom they are called to reconcile and to live in unity.
Following Jesus meant entering a new world order.
So Jesus went on to teach, "Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you because of me."
Jesus even told his disciples to love their enemies,
be strangely generous, even to people they do not like, to forgive and show mercy.
This is a radical way of life.
Jesus not only taught about all of this, he promised that he would lead the way,
that he would be radically generous and forgive and love his enemies
by making the ultimate sacrifice: by giving up his life.
The last story in this section of Luke is fascinating.
Jesus takes some of his disciples up onto a mountain.
God's glory appears as a bright cloud
and Jesus is suddenly transformed.
There are two other prophets that appear: Moses and Elijah.
Yeah, they are the ancient prophets who also experienced God's glory on a mountain.
Then God speaks from the cloud saying, "This is my Son. Listen to him."
Luke is showing us that Jesus is the ultimate prophet.
He is God's Word to Israel.
The three of them talk about what Jesus is going to do when he arrives in Jerusalem,
What is he going to do?
He is going to go to the capital city to be enthroned as Israel's true king,
but not in the way that anybody expected.
With that, Jesus' mission up in Galilee comes to an end.
The next part of Luke's Gospel begins, with his long journey to Jerusalem.
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