Kingdom Prayer: The Gospel of Luke With N.T. WrightSýnishorn

The Nazareth Manifesto sets up a particular theme present in the Magnificat, namely the royal agenda of God returning as the good king to do justice among his people.

Luke does this through two alignments that wouldn’t necessarily have been expected by his readers. First, he equates the messianic (saviour) role with the Davidic king. We know Jesus embodies the royal agenda because Luke has already linked Jesus to David through the pregnancy stories in chapter 1. Second, he adds to this the idea of Israel’s God returning in person, making the Messiah and Davidic king actually divine!

How does he do this? By what Jesus reads in the synagogue.

Following Jewish custom, as the guest at that particular synagogue, Jesus was offered a chance to read from the scriptures and provide comments. From the vast expanse of scripture, he chooses to reference Isaiah 61:1-2; 58:6, and Lev 25:8-12, passages reinforcing the Magnificat themes of divine reversal and justice. The kicker comes when Jesus declares that this time has come and that he is ushering it in. In other words, he claims for himself the royal agenda.

Coming as it does on the heels of Jesus’s temptations in the wilderness, this scene poses the question of what kind of Kingdom Jesus will create. Will it be like what the satan (and incidentally many revolutionaries of the time) wished? Or will it be, like in his mother’s song, a revolution that upends the normal ways of doing things? The tension for the reader as Jesus stands up to read is between Mary and the satan. Jesus’s answer is clear. He has been anointed to tell good news to the poor. To release, heal, and free. To do Jubilee. All ideas firmly established as integral to the royal agenda expectations.

As the embodiment of Israel’s God, Jesus follows through on this vocation. We can see the fruits in his activities and parables throughout the Gospel. He does and advocates for what the good king ought to do.

Take care of the poor and weak. Look after widows and orphans. Do justice for the oppressed and wronged. Put things right in God’s world. Doing this is what makes the Earth full of divine glory. This outpouring of glory is what Israel had been waiting for, not only in the Temple, but in the whole world.

So why are the people angry at this proclamation? One reason is that he includes outsiders, Gentiles, in the promises of rescue. Another is that Jesus cuts the quotation short, leaving off ‘the day of vengeance of our God’. The royal agenda doesn’t include this bit in the way they want. Vengeance, Jesus seems to slyly indicate, belongs to the Lord. The kingdom agenda goes in a totally different, unexpected direction.

Reflection:

What strategies can you use to recognise and defeat the voices that present attractive lies?