The Holy Martyrs Eulampius and Eulampia (305-13)
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Ephesians 5:33-6:9; Luke 4:16-22
Several church fathers called Isaiah the ‘fifth gospel,’ and with good reason – of all the prophetic books, Isaiah is filled with good news for the people of Israel as they struggle with their sinfulness, and the consequence of sin: the exile. In the passage read by Jesus in the synagogue, Isaiah describes God’s anointing that strengthens him to proclaim good news to Israel, and Jesus chooses this same passage to inaugurate his own ministry: the Holy Spirit is now anointing Jesus to give light to those in darkness.
For Isaiah, and for the people in the synagogue listening to Jesus, there was a great desire for renewal, for the restoration of their dignity, lost because of political failure and their own sin. Their hopes often focused on the Jubilee year, the time every fifty years when slaves were freed and ancestral property, taken because of debts, was returned to every Israelite. That is what Isaiah proclaimed to the Israelites returning to their home, and that is what Christ declares as fulfilled in the synagogue in Galilee. But how does Jesus free the captives and gives sight to the blind? A few verses after Jesus stopped reading is Isaiah 61:10, which describes the prophet being clothed by God for priestly ministry (in fact, priests recite this same verse today as they put on their first vestment). Jesus is that high priest – through his worship, his sacrifice of himself, the year of the Lord’s favour, the end of sin and oppression, becomes a reality.