In the last two weeks, we’ve followed Jesus as his ministry is getting underway. We experienced his baptism in which the Holy Spirit surrounded and affirmed him and his messianic identity. We saw him turn water into wine, illuminating his identity as Holy Bridegroom and prophetic messiah who will inaugurate the fulfillment of God’s abundant promise. Now in our scripture for today, we see Jesus formally announcing his mission –God’s mission – a proclamation that the time of God’s fulfillment had come and that he would be the one to fulfill it!

Jesus’ choice of passage is an invocation of the Jewish time of Jubilee, when all debts would be forgiven, rest bestowed upon the land, and restoration required. Every fifty years, this was to be practiced among the Jewish people to help restore both l…