Remembering Inauguration Day
To paraphrase Olivia Newton-John: Let’s get political.
I want to talk about the inauguration.
A lot of folks anticipated it for a long time. Some were upset by the one chosen. Some even rejected it and tried to take things into their own hands.
But at the end of the day, the right man was anointed – and God was well pleased with him.
It was, however, a bit of an odd ceremony:
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. (Luke 3:21-22)
With his baptism by John, and the anointing of the Spirit in the form of a dove, Jesus was inaugurated as the King of the Kingdom of God – and with that, the Kingdom had arrived on earth. God’s own voice confirmed this, speaking over Jesus the traditional liturgy of coronation in ancient Israel: You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased (3:22).
Though Jesus spent his first 40 days in office on a retreat at Temptation Wilderness, he was ready to hit the ground running upon his return to Nazareth. He drew his inauguration speech and political platform from Isaiah 61:
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,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
(Luke 4:18-19)
Adding after he sat down: Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing (v. 21).
Given Jesus’ background, his virgin birth and being the pre-existent Word of God, we should probably have expected this – and yet, there were many in his hometown who were shocked. They didn’t even know he had been in the running. Isn’t that Joe’s boy?
But how many of us know that Jesus Christ is still in power? Still the King of the Kingdom?
And that his political platform is still a binding call on us, the Church – regardless of where we live or who is leading our fragile human systems of power?
Read it again. At the very least, it’s the best inauguration speech you’ll hear all day.
