I got started on this sermon early in the week. I’ve had the last two Sundays off from preaching and I was eager to get back into it. So, I pulled out all the books and dug in. Then, the first commentary I read on this passage referred to this as Jesus “inaugural address.” 

Well, I thought, that’s kinda fun… 

For much of this post-inauguration week I’ve been captivated by that thought, comparing and contrasting this inaugural address with the one we heard on Monday. We even tried reflecting on it together a bit during Bible Study, and boy did that get awkward! I reached out to some friends and said, “Gee, how do we talk about this? I mean if this is Jesus’ inaugural address, you’d think the sermon should just write itself this week.” 

Then one friend said “inaugural address? Who said this was an inaugural address?” I said “the author of the commentary you recommended I read, dude!” 

“It’s not an inaugural address,” he said, “It’s a sermon.” 

I should have seen that coming. One of my own personal 10 commandments of preaching is that a sermon should do one thing if nothing else, and that is give over the goods, proclaim the good news, and not just any good news, the Good News, the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’d tell you the other nine but then you’d start calling me on sermons where I break one of them. 

Immediately the lecture I’ve given to soon-to-be preachers is ringing in my ears. A sermon is not “just a thought,” nor is it “3 simple steps to living a holier life.” It isn’t an advice column, nor a to do list, nor the church’s weekly marching orders. No. A sermon, if it really is a sermon, is an announcement of the gospel: the Word of God for the people of God. 

So upon further examination, my friend is right. This is not Jesus’ first inaugural address. This is Jesus’ first sermon. And it bears repeating. 

“’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 let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’
Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

That’s the sermon. 

It’s quite short, isn’t it? You should be so lucky! There’s no laundry list, no cute sermon illustrations, no commandments, not even a “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” It’s simply a passage of scripture about the power of God to lift up the poor and lowly, the downtrodden and the oppressed, plus one more sentence: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 

The Greek makes it even more visceral, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears.” 

It really isn’t an inaugural address. It’s not a list of policy changes or economic reforms (the uplift of the poor and advocacy for the oppressed have never been politically expedient talking points). And it isn’t a list of promises for what he’d accomplish in his first hundred days. In fact, three years later he will die a failure. 

No, these aren’t political promises. They are divine promises. Promises he says, “This day–today–they are fulfilled in your hearing–in your ears.” 

That’s the sermon.

That’s the first sermon of the one who for the sake of rich and poor alike became poor, who for the blind and for the sighted saw fit to illuminate all darkness, who for captives and captors, oppressed and oppressor, sinner and sinned-against became Sin, and declared unto us the Lord’s favor, the Lord’s delight in us, based on nothing but this proclaimed word. 

And as it turns out, this little word, this little sermon, holds the power to transform the world, the power to save. It would be impossible to believe, but if you keep reading, it’s the darndest thing, it happens. Jesus, like a farmer sewing seeds, plants this promise in the ears of the least likely hearers, and worlds change. And it still happens today. Not often en masse, but on hillsides, and in nurseries, on deathbeds and in church pews, the poor have good news given to them, captives are set free, the sick are healed, and the broken are put back together again. 

Today, yes even today, this is the year of the Lord’s favor. 
Today this word has been fulfilled in your hearing. 
In the name of God, I am putting it in your ears. 
You will need it. 
Listen. 
Listen as it sings you free.