July 5, 2026
Liberty and Justice for All
Luke 4:16-21 (& Amos 5:21-24)
Rev. David Germer
For the past month we’ve been in a series: One Nation Under God revisited – exploring Christian citizenship, principled pluralism, and justice – the kind that Amos depicts as rolling down like water. The reason and timing for this series is obvious, with the significance of yesterday’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of congress adopting the Declaration of Independence, the founding of our nation, and our ongoing commitment to live faithfully in the United States, today.
After a brief opening couple sentences, the Declaration of Independence gives us those iconic words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident… that all men are created equal.” (And some of us now always hear Angelica Schuyler from Hamilton adding “and when I meet Thomas Jefferson I’ma compel him to include women in the sequel” work!)
Equality for all – liberty and justice for all – are built into the framework, knit into the fabric, of the very idea of our country, from its inception.
That’s worth celebrating, and striving for. And it’s worth tracing to its source in Scripture, in places like Amos 5, and Luke 4 – today’s readings. In Luke’s narrative, Jesus has just been baptized and undergone his 40 days of fasting and the temptation in the wilderness. He’s returned to Galilee, filled with the Spirit, and word about him is beginning to spread.
Listen for God’s word:
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 set free those who are oppressed,
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 word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
“First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of affection.”
“My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
What are those, do you know those lines? Inaugural addresses, that’s right. And if you were keeping track, that was FDR, Abraham Lincoln, and John F Kennedy.
We remember words and lines from Inaugural addresses because these speeches are inherently important. And they’re important because Presidents, or other leaders, use them to set the tone of their administration, of what they hope to do.
Gospel authors can do this, too. The gospel of Luke is the longest book in the New Testament (not by chapters, but by verses and words); moreover, more of the New Testament was written by Luke than any other person. Without Luke we’d be missing not only the entire history of the early church in his second volume, the book of Acts, but also much of the Christmas story (including the Magnificat), Jesus as a child, dozens of parables, particularly around wealth and hospitality, Jesus appearing to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the prodigal son, the good Samaritan. Luke’s gospel is full of essential stories about Jesus, teachings of Jesus, truths from Jesus…
And the author of THIS gospel is telling us: here’s his mission statement. And that’s a choice Luke made – to have these words set the tone for his readers to understand Jesus’ entire ministry. Matthew and Mark both talk about Jesus’ return trip to his home in Nazareth, but for them, it’s much later, in a place that truthfully makes much more chronological sense… and they don’t include this synagogue scene at all. Luke crafts a story to communicate certain things about Jesus, and he’s okay sacrificing chronology for the purpose of clarity in his message. This is his first public act of ministry, and it’s not a healing, not a miracle… but a public Scripture reading, and a one-line sermon, that together act as his inaugural address; and so I’m wanting us to see clearly that these words carry extra weight.
Jesus chooses this passage from Isaiah that he applies to himself: The Spirit of the Lord is upon him to do 4 things:
- to bring good news to the poor;
- to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind – restoration;
- to set the oppressed free;
- to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor – the year of Jubilee, a year of celebration, and rest, and the cancellation of all debts, it’s basically God’s policy, written into Hebrew law, ensuring the division between the haves and have nots doesn’t grow indefinitely.
This is the task and calling he’s been giving and is taking on. This is Jesus’ mission. And it is monumental… and can be summarized with a single word: justice. And he says: this passage is fulfilled, today!
How was that message received? Any guesses as to how the crowd and congregation respond to this?
Yeah, I was hoping you would say that. But here’s the thing: no!
(I would have said that, too, before studying this text). But not yet!
Here’s the verse immediately following what I read:
“All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is this not Joseph’s son?’”
So they’re surprised that this common guy from their little town has the eloquence and insight that he displays… and maybe the hutzpah to claim he has a role to play in what God is doing…
But they’re not offended or angry.
He’s not (at least at this point) claiming anything about being the Messiah, the Christ. He does assert this, but not here and now.
That Isaiah passage he reads in the synagogue was not understood in Jewish tradition as Messianic. The person doing these things, the servant of the Lord, spoken about in many texts, was sort of this mysterious, unknown figure, that wasn’t connected in the tradition to the Messiah.
Their line of thinking was probably something more like:
“Huh! Ok. If Joseph the carpenter’s kid is gonna be this servant who does all these things… that would be great!”
Now this should go without saying, but some of us have had to do some unlearning, so I will say it. The Jewish people, including specifically the Pharisees – they were not bad people who wanted the oppressed to remain oppressed, the blind still unable to see, the good news to go only to the rich and powerful. And they didn’t think Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah. They were completely on board with what Jesus was saying.
“Good news to the poor? Justice for the oppressed? Yes. Please!”
At first.
But Jesus responds to their amazement and not so subtle dig at his social status as Joseph’s son, this way (verses 23-30 of Luke 4):
“He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months and there was a severe famine over all the land, yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many with a skin disease in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.”
NOW they are upset. Now they want to kill him. He had to bring Elijah and Elisha into the mix.
Those are familiar names, so it probably doesn’t seem all that strange, but again, remember, Luke in his telling and Jesus in his speaking and doing are making very deliberate choices for very specific reasons.
Luke mentions or alludes to Elijah and Elisha 18 times in the first 9 chapters of his gospel. Those names barely come up at all in the other gospels. When choosing examples of important, model Hebrew leaders, think of all the people they had to choose from: Moses, Abraham, David… and then you’ve got kinda the second tier: Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah… Elijah and Elisha are known, but they are like third tier guys in terms of importance to the history of Israel! Why does Luke keep using them?
Two reasons. One has to do with Elijah and Elisha as some of the only healers in Hebrew tradition, and Luke the physician wanting to connect Jesus’ healing ministry to them.
And the other (and this is more central to this sermon): The stories that Jesus references, talking about Elijah and Elisha, are examples of God’s redemptive work, his work of justice, extended beyond the religious and cultural insider. Jesus says: During the great famine, was Elijah sent to any of the thousands of Israelite widows? No, he was sent to the widow at Zarephath – a marginalized Gentile outsider. Was Elisha sent to any of the lepers in Israel? No, he was sent to Naaman, the Syrian – an outsider.
The fact that they weren’t mad when he read the Isaiah text and said now is the time… showed Jesus that they might not have gotten it, so he had to spell it out for them, which he does, by saying, essentially:
“to understand what I’m about and here for, you need to see that outsiders – cultural, and religious outsiders – are invited into this thing that God is doing through me… and they’ve been part of it by design, from the very beginning.” It’s not that God saw the plan and mission not working perfectly and did some quick thinking and recalibrating to ultimately decide: “you know what? Why don’t we just go ahead and open this thing up to everyone – why not?” No, this was not an afterthought.
But it is so tempting for us – people, I mean – to put ourselves at the center of the story.
When the congregation at Nazareth heard “good news to the poor,” they thought: yeah! That’s us! One of our great modern commentators, Jim Edwards, notes that “Most Jews of Jesus’ day identified themselves – not Gentiles – as the poor and oppressed to whom God shows favor.”
Which begs the question: who are the quote “poor”?
In the context of the 1st century, wealth had something to do with it, but more than that, it was about those with low social status. And so it made sense that the Jews then (and now) would hear this as an affirming word to and about themselves.
But in Nazareth, Jesus is pushing them to decenter themselves.
Tax collectors, lepers, prostitutes, immigrants, even children, all had low social status, and so could be thought of as part of “the poor.”
That list for us, today, would be similar in some ways, but a little different. Who has low social status? Undocumented immigrants, those in prison, convicted felons, the unhoused, addicts…
Low social status also can depend on where you are and context!
In cities, it might be rural folk! Blue collar workers without college degrees; those labeled White trash, or hillbillies. Some may be tempted to dismiss or dehumanize entire communities based on who they vote or voted for. They’d be the ones with low social status. In some circles (far too many circles), it would be women; black, indigenous, and other people of color; or those who express their sexuality or gender differently than what’s been understood as the cultural norm.
We need an expansive view and imagination to fully grasp what Jesus is saying, when we talk about his bringing good news to the poor, freedom for the oppressed, justice for all.
This is the message that we – all people, who tend to hear the good news applied first in a way that fits our own narratives, but also specifically we as Americans who live in a country that strives to take the promise of liberty and justice for all seriously – desperately need to hear and remember and recommit ourselves to, going forward.
I came across an image this week that I keep coming back to and looking at, and it’s on the front of the bulletin. I invite you to look at that with me. It’s titled Contemporary Justice and Child, by Russian immigrant Symeon Shimin, and it is on the wall of the US Department of Justice in Washington D.C.
It is somehow both graphic and beautiful, realistic and exaggerated, disturbing and hopeful. The left side shows some of the injustices in our country’s story: extreme poverty, hunger, child labor, pollution; the mother seems to be holding, protecting, and guiding her child – not shielding him, but supporting him, into a brighter future of dignity and equity, opportunity and partnership, freedom and interdependence, love and justice.
This was created in 1940. Today, we are even more aware of so many injustices in our nation’s history and in our present; we could update this piece using the same format, and we’d have all kinds of imagery to use on that left side, some as recent as this weekend. As Christians living in the United States today, I think this is a helpful image for us, as we grapple with our history, with eyes wide open, and see how far we’ve come, and continue to work toward the promises of our nation’s founding.
God goes ahead and pulls or pushes us out beyond safety and comfort to share the radical good news of justice for all, in and through Jesus, including to and with the people with whom we least want to associate – those we are tempted to “other” or look down on or keep from the table around which we gather and sit, for any reason.
In his inaugural address, and in his remarks immediately following, Jesus called Israel, and calls us, to see that he is the fulfillment of the message God has been at work to proclaim boldly throughout the history of Israel, and the Church: what is truly essential about the good news, the gospel, is most truly expressed when it has an outward focus: good news to the poor, liberty for the oppressed, justice for all.