It seems incredible that a year has passed now since the pandemic began in earnest. I vividly remember this time last year when basketball tournaments began getting canceled, schools began indefinitely extending their spring breaks, and no toilet paper was anywhere to be found!
What a difference a year makes! Now we see case numbers finally beginning to fall, vaccines being successfully rolled out, and schools and businesses beginning to reopen. It's almost like a switch has been flipped and a new day has begun.
In the spiritual life also, we see these kinds of pivots where God begins a new thing. After a long, dark period of exile, the Servant of the Lord arrives on the scene "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" to God's people. (Isaiah 61:2). God proclaims that Israel's time of judgment is now over and that he is going to bring them back home to rebuild their ruined cities.
It's significant that Jesus quotes this same words to inaugurate his ministry, to proclaim the dawning of a new kingdom. In Luke 4:14-30, Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth to deliver his first public sermon. What begins as a hopeful proclamation of good news, however, suddenly takes a surprising, violent turn when Jesus' hearers completely fail to understand him and his mission.
He has come, you see, not just to bless them and make their lives great again, but for everyone, including those traditionally considered to be outside the club of "God's chosen people" -- foreigners, the sick, the poor, widows, tax collectors. We see this theme repeated throughout Luke's gospel, that God came not only for the Israelites, but for all peoples.
This was the plan all along. God told Abraham in Genesis that he would make him the father of many nations, that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him. Yet so often God's people (including us!) tried to hoard God's blessings for themselves and not share them with the rest of the world.
May we begin this "new year" with the reminder that we are blessed to be a blessing, that God restores and redeems us that we might share those benefits with others.