We begin today our reading of the Gospel of Luke, our Gospel text for this season of “Ordinary Time”.
Luke opens his account with a dedication to his patron, Theophilus, with an explanation of his reasons for embarking on a work which others – in his view, unsatisfactorily – had done before him. He stresses the research he had done on the sources from “eyewitnesses and ministers of the word”, thus assuring his readers that the material he is presenting is reliable, but better ordered than those others currently available at his time of writing.
Our extract then passes to the outset of Jesus’ ministry, carried out in “the power of the Spirit”, a recurrent theme in Luke’s version. He situates Jesus very much in the tradition of the Israelite prophets by presenting him as quoting from the prophet Isaiah when announcing his programme in the synagogue at Nazareth. The focal point of this scene is the line “to the blind new sight”. The theme of seeing is important in Luke’s Gospel, so we should be aware of that and all related terms, such as blindness. It is interesting that the evangelist talks about restoring sight to blind people: we might remember when listening to the Gospel extracts that Jesus is giving back vision to people who have lost it, rather than granting sight to people born without it.
Previous Sunday Messages
REFLECT
Jesus’ programme for his ministry is set very much in terms of liberation; his message is one of good news. He announces a jubilee year, one during which sin is forgiven, debts are cancelled and people are given the chance of a new start. At the heart of this mission is recovery of vision which has been lost, not necessarily through bad will but just through the daily round of ordinary life. We can become absorbed in the cares and worries of life and thoughts of faith and our relationship with God can be pushed to the back of our mind.
That is why our weekly celebration of the Eucharist is so important: it keeps our vision clear and reminds us of the person we would like to be and are trying to become.
Many people say that Luke’s version is their favourite Gospel. His picture of Jesus is gentle and accepting. At the same time, Luke is clear about the danger of wealth, that it can be an obstacle to being a disciple of Jesus. We know that we cannot survive without money and shelter, but Luke is asking us to keep a sense of proportion, to ask ourselves what is really important in our lives.
Perhaps the passage from Isaiah is telling us that our faith should be freeing, liberating and not a burden. There is a saying that “wherever the sea is, there is the taste of salt: wherever there is truth, there is the taste of freedom”. As we consider the heart of Jesus’ message being restoring “to the blind new sight”, we might keep that in mind.
learn
- Luke had access to the Gospel of Mark when writing his own account.
- The central line of the section about Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth is “to the blind new sight”.
- This is a key idea in Luke’s account, along with that of the Spirit.
do
Take a good look around you: thank God for the gift of sight; think how your vision of faith and life might be restored – then ask for that!