The story is told of a Franciscan monk in Australia assigned to be theguide and "gofer" to Mother Teresa when she visited New South Wales.Thrilled and excited at the prospect of being so close to this greatwoman, he dreamed of how much he would learn from her and what they wouldtalk about. But during her visit, he became frustrated. Although he wasconstantly near her, the friar never had the opportunity to say one wordto Mother Teresa.
There were always other people for her to meet.Finally, her tour was over, and she was due to fly to New Guinea. Indesperation, the Franciscan friar spoke to Mother Teresa: If I pay my ownfare to New Guinea, can I sit next to you on the plane so I can talk toyou and learn from you? Mother Teresa looked at him. “You have enoughmoney to pay airfare to New Guinea?” she asked.Yes, he replied eagerly. “Then give that money to the poor,” she said.“You'll learn more from that than anything I can tell you.” Mother Teresaunderstood that Jesus’ ministry was to the poor and she made it hers aswell. She knew that they more than anyone else needed good news.On a Saturday morning, in Nazareth, the town gathered in the synagogue tolisten to Jesus read and teach. It was no big surprise. He was well knownin the area; it was his hometown. He was raised there. They wanted tolearn from him. So when he read from the Isaiah scroll, “The Spirit of theLord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to thepoor” everyone understood these words to be the words of Isaiah.
It is howthat prophet from long ago defined his ministry.When Jesus finished that reading he handed the scroll to the attendant andsat down. In that day you sat in the Moses Seat to teach to the people.Today preachers stand in a pulpit. So all eyes were on Jesus, waiting forhim to begin his teaching. What would he say about this great prophetIsaiah? Would he emphasis the bad news? Israel had sinned and would betaken into captivity by the Babylonians. Or would he emphasis the goodnews? One day God would restore his people and bring them back fromcaptivity.
It was Israel’s ancient history but it still spoke volumes.Now here’s the wonderful twist, the thing that catches everyone off guardthat Saturday morning in Nazareth. Jesus does neither. He doesn’temphasize the past. He focuses on the present. He doesn’t lift up Isaiahas the great role model; Jesus lifts up himself. This is the pertinentpoint. It’s what upsets everybody at the synagogue. It’s why everybody wasfurious with him and drove him out of town. They were going to kill him.He dared to say that these great words of Isaiah were really abouthimself. “Today,” he said, “this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Study the ministries of Isaiah and Jesus. Why are their ministries so closely tied and why does Jesus describe himself as fulfilling Isaiah’s ministry?
