Author: John Tillman

Scripture: Luke 4.18
…to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor….

Acts 4.18-20
Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Reflection: Liberty for the Oppressed :: Epiphany
By John Tillman

Totalitarian regimes tend to pile up political terms in their names that belie the actual political realities within their borders—for example, People’s, Democratic, and Republic. If all three of these words are in the name of a country, you don’t want to live there. In a similar way The Pax Romana is a bit of a misnomer.

The Pax Romana has, at times, been spoken of in glowing terms by historians and theologians, as if Caesar was doing the world a favor so that the Prince of Peace could be born in a time of peace. But Christ wasn’t born during a time of true peace, but a false peace built on government oppression and enforced by atrocity.

God didn’t need Caesar to clean up the world for Jesus to enter it. He entered it just as it was—a corrupt, violent land, defined by disparity. Jesus was born in the midst of a forced government migration that was enacted to better enforce a crushing tax burden. He fled to a foreign country to escape an army that without compunction murdered children at the whim of their dictator. He worshiped in a Temple in which it was not uncommon for soldiers to slaughter worshipers among their sacrifices.

Christ’s audience for his Nazareth sermon was quite familiar with oppression. Western Christians, as much as we may think we are being oppressed, know little about it.

In the past ten years, Western governments and culture have become only marginally less friendly to Christianity, yet we have become anxious and desperate, willing to sign any political bargain in order to prevent losing cultural sway. We seem to care more about our influence in culture than Christ’s influence in us.

To manifest Christ, we must declare freedom for others who are oppressed, not declare that our oppression must cease. We need to make the drastic change of focus that the Apostles made. In Acts chapter 4, before the Sanhedrin, we see that Peter and John’s selfish focus on political gain has completely vanished. As often as they spoke truth to power, as often as they stood their ground despite threats of imprisonment and even death, not once do we ever see them bargaining with a politician.

The Apostles never ask for, nor receive political freedom. They simply carry out the actions that Christ calls them to—actions that caused the city to rejoice. The road back to societal influence for the church doesn’t run through elected officials, it runs through doing the work of Christ to lessen the burden on the oppressed.

The Call to Prayer
Sing to the Lord and bless his Name; proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all peoples.
For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; he is more to be feared than all gods. — Psalm 96.2-4

– From Christmastide: Prayers for Advent Through Epiphany from The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Ezra 4 (Listen – 4:27)
Acts 4 (Listen – 5:15)

Scripture: Luke 4.18
…recovery of sight for the blind…

Luke 7.22
So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Reflection: Sight for the Blind :: Epiphany
By John Tillman

Jesus often analogized his healing of people’s physical diseases to his mission of healing all of us of our spiritual disease of sin. In his sermon at Nazareth, the only specific healing mentioned is that of blindness but other diseases often serve as teaching moments in Christ’s ministry.

Healing is a marker of Jesus’ identity as the Christ. When the imprisoned John the Baptist doubts who Jesus is, he sends disciples to ask Jesus directly, “are you the one?” Jesus answers first with action—performing a large number of healings of many kinds. Then he tells John’s messengers to report what they saw and uses language that echoes his declaration at Nazareth. “The blind see…good news is preached to the poor…”

It is hard to appreciate the Epiphany of Christ—literally the manifestation or appearing—if you are blind. Before we can share in and become part of Christ’s Epiphany to the world, we must be healed of our blindness so that we can say with the blind man from John chapter nine, “I was blind but now I see!”

But too often we are like the Pharisees who investigated the healing of the blind man. The Pharisees are easy for us to dislike when we read about their opposition to Jesus in the New Testament, but modern Christians share much more in common with the Pharisees than with Christ’s disciples.

We are so full of confidence in our scholarship, in our knowledge of history, of our faithfulness to religious traditions, of our moral uprightness, that we cannot imagine or accept that it is us who needs to be healed of blindness. Christ’s words to the Pharisees after they kicked the blind man out of the synagogue should be convicting to the Pharisees inside each of us.

“For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind…If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” — John 9.39, 41

It is not until we recognize that we are blind and experience Christ’s healing touch, that we can see. It is not until we acknowledge that we live in a land of darkness that the light of Christ can dawn in our lives. Only then can we guide others to see the manifestation, the Epiphany, of Christ.

The Request for Presence
Save me, O God, by your Name; in your might, defend my cause.
Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth. — Psalm 54.1-2

– From Christmastide: Prayers for Advent Through Epiphany from The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Ezra 3 (Listen – 3:01)
Acts 3 (Listen – 3:33)

Scripture: Luke 4.18
…He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners…

Matthew 12.28-29
But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.

Reflection: Freedom for Prisoners :: Epiphany
By John Tillman

Just a few chapters after his Nazareth sermon and his declaration of “freedom for the prisoners” Jesus travels to the region of Gerasenes to free an unusual prisoner. The demoniac of the Gerasenes could not be captured or detained. He could break any chains that were put on him, yet remained captive to the evil inside of him.

Addiction is a prison similar to the demoniac’s. Addicts often maintain freedom of movement but are enslaved in every other possible way. Substance addictions, sex addictions, pornography addictions, gambling addictions, and technology addictions damage all of us, including the addicts, their family members, and their victims.

In some cases we commercialize addicts, building an economy on supplying their fix. In some cases we criminalize addicts, locking them away from society. In some cases we sympathize with them, treating them as having a medical problem. In some cases we stigmatize them, dismissing their addiction as just an excuse for bad behavior.

Our human concept of freedom has a prerequisite of innocence or at least, nobility. Jailbreak movies and television shows nearly always include as the main character a wrongfully accused, innocent man who we long to see freed.

But in reality we, like the people of Gerasenes, fear those escaping prison and those who would help them escape. We fear Christ partly because the freedom Christ brings is undeserved and is not merely for the noble.

Make no mistake. The Gospel is a jailbreak. Jesus is a thief in the night, robbing the possessions of the strong man, Satan—stealing away with captives who foolishly, yet willingly sold themselves to the debtor’s prison of sin.

Make no second mistake. We are not noble captives or innocents. We, who are escaping, do not deserve to see the light of day as free men and women. Sin is our crime, our addiction, and our prison. Yet Jesus comes to free us nonetheless.

And what would our liberator Christ, have us do? He gives us a choice. We can, like the townspeople, exile Christ, and the freedom he brings from our land, preferring to manage our addictions rather than be cured. Or like the demoniac we can go, living in radical freedom, to tell others.

To manifest Christ, we must show what Christ has done for us as what it is—a radical jailbreak setting prisoners free.

The Prayer Appointed for the Week
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

– From Christmastide: Prayers for Advent Through Epiphany from The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Ezra 2 (Listen – 5:25)
Acts 2 (Listen – 6:35)