THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF JESUS CHRIST
BY THOMAS G. LEDERER, M.A.
SEMINARY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
DECEMBER 1993
"I see my light come shining,
from the west down to the east;
any day now, any day now,
I shall be released."
Bob Dylan
RELEASE
Release. Salvation. Freedom. Resurrection. Words of
reassurance for those who suffer, for those in pain, for those in
chains, for those with no hope. Release--a word that describes a
process to provide hope, provide salvation, provide a means to
ease the fear and uncertainty that life brings, somehow allowing
us to deal with the seemingly dreadful end that lies ahead for
every one of us. Without faith in some Higher Power--God, Jesus,
Yahweh, Buddha, Mohammed--without the promise of release, without
some wisp of hope for salvation, we are as temporary as a
deciduous leaf, as expendable as nature's most primitive
creature.
For almost 2000 years, the "Inaugural Address" of Jesus
Christ in the Gospel of Luke 4:14-30 has provided a concise
synthesis of the foundational release message found within
Christian theology. Additionally, there is strong evidence
indicating that the power conveyed by that Biblical passage was
not mere happenstance. Luke knew what words he was putting into
Jesus' mouth, to whom he was addressing his interpretation of the
Divine Plan, and how he best could reach out and grab hold of
this audience.
ISRAEL IN THE FIRST CENTURY
As down-trodden as were the Jews that dwelled in the
in the centuries prior to the Common Era, so too were first
century Israelites victims of relentless suffering,
demoralization, and bondage. After the destruction of the first
that spoke of God's love for his chosen people and promises that
he would protect and deliver those who heard and practiced the
legalistic interpretation of his prescription for life. These
writings were collectively called the Hebrew Scriptures, more
commonly known as the Old Testament. Hebrews during that era
were faced with economic hardship, political instability; their
holy city of
generally afflicted with powerlessness and shame. (Morris page
94) They sought comfort in the words of prophets such as Isaiah
and Scriptural works such as the Book of Daniel which spoke of
the coming of a Messiah who would free them from their suffering.
Enduring the same kind of oppression from foreign powers,
first-century Jews once again sought reassurance that there might
be an answer to their plaintiff cries for release, for justice,
for the true experience of God's unwavering love and devotion.
Thus evolved the setting for the first-century rise of
Christianity, a movement that told of God's Son, perhaps a
descendent of heroic King David, a savior who could ease rampant
suffering and help his followers circumvent the certainty of
death by following the path down which his words and deeds led
them.
Our present civilization now has in its possession writings
that can be traced back to the first century, providing accounts
of Jesus Christ's birth and adult life on our planet. Sources
such as "Q," the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mark, and the
Letters of Paul are the earliest evidence of a growing movement
that saw Jesus Christ as fulfilling Old Testament promises and
prophesies for release.
In and around the year 60 A.D., a gifted scribe named Luke
felt that the Gospel of Mark needed to be updated to more
adequately and appropriately address a wider audience than did
Mark in the first synoptic work. Dante called Luke the "scribe
of Christ's gentleness" because he was thought to have emphasized
"Jesus' mercy to sinners and outcasts," with special emphasis on
those outcasts known as women. (Kodel page 7)
Luke included the "anawin" when he wrote about Jesus, about
love, about hope, about release whether that particular listener
be early Christian, Jewish, or Gentile. He artistically
embellished upon the earlier gospel works and added his very own
unique information about Jesus, his travels and the role of early
Christianity during the first century. A second volume of Luke's
work, known as "The Acts of the Apostles," may very well be the
most important book in the New Testament which serves as the
Scriptural foundation of an apostolic movement.
THE INAUGUARAL ADDRESS
Following a beautifully sculpted infancy narrative--which,
with its poetic and powerful symbolism renders veracity
irrelevant--a maturing Messiah seems to find his identity, his
purpose, his role in the Divine Plan after 40 days of spiritual
initiation in the desert. After days and nights in the
wilderness, theodically jousting with diabolical forces, Luke has
Jesus then return to his hometown of
homecoming was met with great expectation.
In his fascinating doctoral thesis entitled, "Irony and
Ethics in the Lukan Narrative World," Father Joseph Morris calls
the Gospel of Luke 4:14-30 Jesus' "inaugural address" for a
variety of reasons, some obvious, others not so obvious.
Jesus' Nazarian appearance certainly did mark his first
Lukan preaching mission following his desert self-discovery.
Luke portrays Jesus' visit to his hometown as a premier
performance although other Gospel authors have placed the event
historically further into Jesus' travels. That is evidenced by
Luke quoting Jesus as saying that he anticipates being asked to,
"Do here in your own country the things you have done in
anything of note in
Luke obviously felt that the synagogue event in Jesus'
hometown was crucial enough to place earlier in his work,
apparently because it so effectively summarized what Jesus and
his mission was all about. As a means of reassuring Luke's
Jewish audience, the passage emphasizes Jesus' links with his
Jewish past as he appears at his boyhood synagogue, partakes in
the sacred Jewish Sabbath ritual, reads from the Hebrew
Scripture, and discusses the works of Jewish prophets.
The passage dramatizes how the message of Jesus was
misinterpreted and rejected, as it was throughout his work here
on Earth. The passage depicts how Jesus hoped to convey his
message of salvation as open and available to all peoples, not
just to the "chosen people" of
how Jesus will be defiled, persecuted, as there will ultimately
be an attempt made to eliminate him from the sight, sound, and
memory of humanity. The attempt in
final attempt made in
"The account of Jesus' return to his hometown embodies the
gospel story in miniature," said Jerome Kodell in his
Collegeville Biblical Commentary on Luke. (Kodell page 23)
Beyond being his first public appearance of consequence, Dr.
Morris states that the work of Jesus in
nature also because of what he hoped to begin.
"In the
the fulfillment of these promises and articulates how he will
fulfill them, but likewise, he states that it starts now," said
Father Morris in his chapter called "Jesus' Inaugural Address."
"He inaugurates this New Age where God's justice agenda rules by
reaching out and freeing the poor and the oppressed." (Morris
page 117)
RHETORICAL RELEASE
Within the pall of suffering and destruction of Hellenistic
love, and death, the Christian view of the human condition sprang
forth with great emotion and zeal. Those who spoke of Christ and
the Resurrection spoke with unflinching conviction about the Good
News, about the newly discovered hope for humanity. Evangelists
implored the unconverted with speech and with written
communication in order to try and bring them into the fold of the
new age of Christianity.
It must be noted that speeches, Scripture, and written
correspondence were not simply spontaneous enthusiasm emoting
from zealous believers. More often that not, the evidence that
remains from the conversion campaigns of 1900 years ago reveal
carefully constructed attempts to argue, to convince, and to
manipulate audiences into states of belief.
In recent decades, a school of literary criticism has
developed examining early Christian literature among other
historic documents that search for answers to questions about
what was said, how it was said, to whom it was addressed, with
what intent, and with what effect. Rhetorical criticism is
attempting to delve deeply into the proper context of New
Testament writings and discourse in order to construct an
appropriate model for a renewed hermaneutical investigation of
Scripture meaning and significance. (Lederer page 2)
In his book Rhetoric in the New Testament, Professor Burton
L. Mack of the
classical Greek rhetoric and its influence of the New Testament.
Mack very carefully defines his use of the word rhetoric as
argument, persuasion, exhortation, not the original concept of
rhetoric in which it was a tool of oratorical exhibitionists,
flaunting expertise in the stylistic art of debate (as did the
Sophists.) (Lederer page 3.)
"Rhetorical criticism is now distinguished by its attention
to the art of persuasion and its effects upon judgments one must
make in the course of living as social creatures," said
Mack. (Mack page 20.)
In various sections of his 1990 book on rhetorical
criticism, Mack applies the classical components of rhetoric to
Scripture. He reasons that since, Scripture began as oral
history, and since rhetoric was such a predominant form of oral
communication in the Hellenistic world of first century
Christianity, there must have been a significant amount of
rhetoric (ie persuasion, argument) included within the New
Testament. (Lederer page 4.)
A word of caution is prudent at this point. It is important
to note that some of the logic used in analyzing classic
Hellenistic rhetoric is not necessarily directly applicable to
New Testament writings. As pointed out by George A. Kennedy in
his book Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular
Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times, much of the rhetoric in
the New Testament is typically Jewish and early Christian, i.e.,
there being some difficulty in matching logic of Scriptural
writings when held up to the mirror of classical Hellenistic
rhetorical composition. (Lederer page 5.)
"The gospels are unique works which do not exactly fit any
classical literary genre and which have a subtle internal
rhetoric of their own," said Kennedy. (Kennedy page 128.)
Nevertheless, when applying the aforementioned school of
classical literary criticism to Luke 4:14-30, as one might
expect, the use of such techniques in that passage is noticeable
and extensive. Less with Machiavellian intent than out of love
and conviction, Luke pulls out all of the stops (perhaps not all;
intensity) in his attempts to convince his audience that Christ
was indeed the Messiah and that his death represented Good News
to humanity.
An important part of classical rhetoric is the establishment
of the orator's/author's credentials, or "ethos." Luke sets the
rhetorical stage for Jesus in a number of ways. Merely by
mentioning the facts that Jesus' reputation had preceded him,
that he was teaching in synagogues throughout the region, and
that he had already been the recipient of considerable praise,
established Jesus as someone who was more than qualified to
deliver a message of great spiritual importance. (Luke 4:14-15.)
Add to those ethos set forth by his being asked to read from the
Torah during the Sabbath service and to comment on the Isaiah,
said much about who Jesus was (or certainly about how Luke wanted
Jesus to be perceived.) (Luke 4:16-20.)
Associating Jesus with the Isaiah Old Testament Scripture
passage represented a number of rhetorical devices. As
previously indicated, using the passage (actually parts of two)
highlighted a perpetuating link between established Jewish
religious documentation as well as providing a rhetorically
non-invented means of explaining Jesus' mission from that moment
onward.
Jesus is met with approval until, almost without warning,
the audience in the synagogue starts asking about who this man
might be, and asking if he is not merely the son of a local
carpenter essentially proclaiming himself the second coming of
King David? (Luke 4:22.) Some rhetorical scholars look upon this
question as being asked with great hostility, although it must be
considered that HOW Jesus responded to the question may have
generated some of the subsequent hostility.
If Jesus had said, "Yes, you may think you know who I but I
am no longer just the son of Joseph but someone imbued with the
love of God. I plan on changing the world and I plan on doing
some wonderful things and I plan on starting right here in my own
hometown."
Of course, Luke did not have him say anything quite like
that and proceeded to have Jesus antagonize his listeners by
telling them that he was indeed going to change the world but
would not do much for his fellow towns people because they were
incapable of grasping the importance of his mission: in
retrospect, not a very Christian thing to say. (Luke 4:23-24)
It is also possible that something was lost in translation
somewhere along the way, or that Luke's "speech in character"
(see upcoming explanation) was simply not accurate. In Luke
one can change the emphasis:
"But they ALSO asked, `Is not this Joseph's son?'"
With all due respect, judging from Luke 4:23-24, it is no
wonder that his former peers wanted to throw Jesus off a cliff.
Luke's "Who does he think he is?" inference may have resulted
from his overall attitude, not his audience turning on him for no
apparent reason. (Luke 4:23-30) But again, we must keep in mind
that Jesus may not have answered their question in the way that
Luke and his sources indicated.
In reality, Luke and those who preceded him in using such a
hostile response in Jesus' Inaugural Address may have been
answering a difficult question in their own minds: why was Jesus
met with such hostility at the hands of his own people? Their
answer may have been: he must have refused to treat them in a
special way. This approach, too, might be considered a
rhetorical device to set up Jesus as a religious paradigm who was
misunderstood and persecuted as a result.
Providing examples from the Hebrew Scriptures in which other
Jewish prophets refused to work wonders in their hometowns
because of spiritual misperceptions is another of Luke's
rhetorical devices for Luke justifying Jesus harsh approach to
people for his hometown. One of Luke's primary goals was to
establish the fact that salvation was not just for Jews who
interpreted the Old Testament as proof that they were God's only
chosen people. Luke wanted to include all people in Jesus'
divine message of Good News and his confrontation may have been a
rhetorical contrivance. The sudden turn to a testy, spiteful
Messiah is somewhat out of context and out of character. It may
show us more about Luke (or Matthew and Mark) than Jesus.
Using the Old Testament-based Jewish tradition of the
Jubilee Year (ie, after 7 x's 7 years, the fiftieth year is one
devoted to God's release for the oppressed) is an extremely
clever method used by Luke to describe what the Jesus' Kingdom of
God will be like, ie something new based upon something old and
established. Rhetorically, it is logical but logically, it may
touch upon a exegetical taboo of allegorizing allegory (the New
Testament have Jesus analyze the Old Testament analysis of the
Jubilee year,) finding symbols within symbols, which can
intellectually dilute a concept.
A host of other rhetorical methods appear in this very
crucial Scriptural passage. Composition of speech/speech in
character provide us with words that probably were spoken by
Jesus based upon what Luke and others had known about him. The
chreia structure of argumentative narration can help shape the
opinions of an audience. The use of dissociative argument as
Jesus distances himself from formerly accepted norms is another
tactic in the arsenal of rhetorical weapons, eg., as Jesus
exposes the incompatibility of a world ruled by human
self-righteousness and injustice with a world ruled by God's
righteousness and justice (Morris page 154.)
Dr. Morris points out Luke's use of mixed argumentation as
rhetorical technique.
"We noted how the presence of such inductive and deductive
reasoning in the
authoritative prophet and clever teacher, who expounds a new era
where God reigns, by reinterpreting the ancient promises and
asking all those who contemplate joining the Christians to
reflect on the careful arguments of its attractive founder." (Morris
page 154.)
THE IRONIC SURVIVAL OF AN IRONIC MESSAGE
It is fascinating to note that perhaps the most powerful
rhetorical device available to first century Christian
evangelists was purposefully avoided: that of making Jesus into
a superhuman, all-powerful warrior-like king who could easily
counteract evil, opposition, and execution. Instead of such a
portrayal of strength, we were handed a messianic legacy
saturated with irony of strength within weakness, life within
death, victory within defeat, irony such as that perfected by the
rhetorical master himself, Aristotle.
Above and beyond just the Inaugural Address or just the
Gospel of Luke, Dr. Joseph Morris points out numerous areas
within the New Testament message where irony serves the purpose
of rhetorical persuasiveness, perhaps more effectively than would
have the Herculean portrayal of omnipotence. He entitles that
area of analysis as "Unexpected Reversals of the Implied Reader's
Characterization of God."
1. God portrayed as working through an aging
couple: Zechariah/VS. God portrayed at
emnity with the priestly party.
2. Poor humble maiden chosen to be the mother of
the messiah/VS. God has confused the proud
and disposed the mighty.
3. Word of God comes to John the Baptist in the
wilderness/VS. just before this there has
been a formal naming of world rulers.
4. Anointing of Jesus with Spirit comes as a
surprise to the people of Nazareth/VS.
anointing for prophets and righteous people
who usually do not disrupt the status quo and
lord it over others.
5. God is more joyful over a repentant
sinner/VS. a self-righteous elder brother.
6. A tax collector who pleads for mercy is
justified by God/VS.a meticulous,
self-righteous Pharisee is not justified
7. As God's chosen one, Jesus suffers and dies
under the divine necessity (i.e. the divine
plan)/VS. one blessed and chosen by God
should not suffer but be blessed with a long
life
8. Ironically, God responds to Jesus' death by
raising him from the dead/VS. one who suffers
such an ignominious death deserves no
recognition or mention
9. The twelve share the rule in the new kingdom
Jesus brings, a rule based on the compassion
Jesus' ministry revealed/VS.
restoration of the nation by the messiah of
God
10. God of
salvation to the Gentiles without
circumcision/VS. no one would be saved except
those circumcised and carefully following the
laws of
Indeed, the power of the unexpected seems to have succeeded
in providing us with a Messianic image that not only has endured
down through the centuries but also shows little sign of
diminishing as we approach the third millennium.
tgl 12/4/93
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dylan, Bob. "I Shall Be Released."
Kennedy, George A. Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and
Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times.
Kodell, Jerome. The Gospel According to Luke. Collegeville,
Lederer, Thomas G. "Rhetoric in the New Testament."
Mack,
Fortress Press, 1990.
Morris, Fr. Joseph A. Irony and Ethics in the Lukan Narrative
World.