SCRIPTURE:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
Luke 4:18
NEWS
Jesus came to bring good news to the poor. Not to the rich, not to the elite, not to the Pharisees, and not to the Sadducees. To the poor.
I remember reading Jon Sobrinos “No Salvation Outside the poor,” where he argues, using the story of the Rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-3), that there is “No salvation outside the poor.” Sobrino is actually stealing an old heretical phrase that tried to claim that “there is not salvation outside the church.” Jon Sobrino was a priest during the time of civil war in El Salvador in the 80’s while Oscar Romero was bishop. Oscar Romero inspired the church to stand up to the poor during a time a lot like the time of King Herod.
The corrupt government of El Salvador was killing anyone who would run press or speak against the regime. Jon Sobrino was gone on a day when the corrupt government came into a seminary and killed and tortured nuns, priest and seminary students. He barely escaped death. He wrote this book a little time afterwards. But under Romero’s leadership this group of priests refuse to turn a blind eye to a government that was killing people, that was stealing land from the poor, and that was torturing people.
There’s pictures of Romero in times squares preaching good news to the poor and standing up against the government. A message very similar to what we find in the scripture today. It makes me think about martyrs and if we are willing to be martyrs.
That use to be a dream of mine, to be a martyr.
Then I had kids and realized they need me. But what if that was the calling in our life? To preach good news to the poor, to set the captives free, even if it cost us our life. Preaching good news to the poor under a regime like El Salvador and King Herod is good for the poor but bad for the prophet.
We live in a world where preachers rarely challenge the systems to a point of martyrdom. We have a watered-downed-feel-good gospel that keeps the status quo. But is that good news? Maybe to the people in power, but not to the least of these.
It is possible that we have been preaching the good news to the wrong people.
How is the message and ministries we lead good news to the people who Jesus preached good news to? And if we aren’t focused on this ministry, is it because we are afraid of career suicide? I’m not sure. But I am sure that Christ has come to preach good news to the poor and set the captives free.
What have you been called to do? Keep the status quo?
Nah…..