Anointed
Day 472, Wednesday, Nov. 26
Luke Chapters 4 – 5
In Luke, Jesus begins his public preaching by reading from the prophet Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
There is no doubt that the birth and ministry of Jesus marked the starting point of the reign of justice, mercy and righteousness that the prophets had foretold. That is clear not only from the passage he chose to start with, but by the fact that he chose to start with a prophetic passage at all—he is in line with the prophetic tradition.
Exactly what he meant by that goes to the heart of one of the greatest divides in Christianity today (and historically—it’s not unique to modern people).
Today’s meditation from Psalm 33 raises a similar question. What does it mean to say, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”
Both of those questions have a lot of impact on the contemporary political scene as we debate the role of our faith as Christians on our political beliefs and actions.
For the Luke passage above, we have to understand if we are recipients of Jesus’s calling or if we are instruments of it—or if both apply.
Are we the poor who are receiving good news, the prisoners and oppressed who are being freed, the blind who are being given sight? Or are we the “hands and feet of Jesus” who are to join him in giving good news, freedom and sight?
And from the Psalms passage, what is it to be a “nation whose God is the Lord”?
The original readers of the Psalms would have thought of their “nation” as the Jewish people, where we usually think of a “nation” as a geographic area and its governing structure. Those differing definitions lead to very different understandings of what a “Christian nation” would look like.
It’s clear in both the Old and New Testaments that we are, both as individuals and as a community, to strive for justice and mercy. We should never forget, though, that we are also dependant on God for those same gifts, and that God is able to act without our help. When we start thinking that God needs our help, pride sneaks in.
Wednesday meditation
Psalms 33:12-22
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth—he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.
No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.
Prayer focus
Lord, make us a nation whose God is the Lord.
-Rev. Mark Fleming