And so it begins. Welcome to the Gospel of Luke!

Those of you following the Church’s daily lectionary will notice that today’s gospel marks a new beginning. We have left the witness of Matthew, and we are now moving into the world of Luke. In so many ways today’s readings encapsulate the “good news” of Luke’s gospel. No evangelist takes Jesus’ mission to the marginalized as seriously as Luke. In this vein, today’s gospel sees Jesus announcing the Reign of God, embodied in blessings for the poor, liberty for the captives, and healing of the blind. Today we see Jesus inaugurating Isaiah’s messianic promise, echoing Luke/Acts’ focus on fulfillment. The Reign of God has begun. The people marvel at his “gracious words.” Jesus is a rock star.

And then the rock star becomes the stone the builders rejected. It is difficult to imagine a crowd turning faster than the Nazareth crowd in Luke 4:16-30. Within minutes, amazement and wonder give way to fury and mob violence. What happened?

One line stands out to me: “Is this not the son of Joseph?” Jesus’ neighbors ultimately cannot reconcile this new messianic prophet with the young man they thought they knew, the son of a lowly workman. Is this not a temptation that all of us face? So often we fail to see God’s unfolding grace in front of our eyes, because we have already made up our minds. We put people in stereotypical boxes, and fail to appreciate their unique gifts. We remember friends as they used to be, and don’t allow for them to mature, grow, or change. We think that God’s blessing is only for “our people,” and fail to accept that God is equally at work in the lives of the widow of Zarephath or Naaman the Syrian. In sum, we get locked into our “human wisdom,” as St. Paul writes today, and fail to see the “power of God” at work all around us.