Last week President Obama was inaugurated for his second term. He gave his inaugural speech as a significant part of that event. The inaugural address is normally the first time a president speaks officially and openly to the people he is to lead. It normally addresses the greatest issues facing the nation and gives some idea as to how he will deal with those issues. These inaugurals have become a very important part of our history.
So I will start off today with a test: I am going to read excerpts from a couple of inaugural addresses. You tell me which president gave the address.
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend. (G. Washington’s 1st Inaugural Address, 30 Apr. 1789) 6
How about this one:
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. (A. Lincoln 1st Inaugural Address, March 4 1861)
Now how about this one:
“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it – and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.”
And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. (J.F. Kennedy, Jan 20 1961)
Now how about this? Would you recognize it as an inaugural address?
18 “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,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
……. 21….. “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:18–21 (NIV))
In George Washington’s 1st inaugural he referred to this new form of constitutional government and how he thinks he is supposed to function as its first executive officer.
In Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural you hear him speak of the threat of division between the states of the north and the south over the issue of slavery and his understanding of his high calling to preserve the Union.
In Kennedy’s inaugural you hear of the tension of the cold war; the forces of freedom coming against communism, under the fear of nuclear war, and his determination to defend and advance freedom at any cost.
And then we have Jesus’ inaugural; he has been baptized by John, he has spent forty days in the wilderness parrying the devil’s thrusts at him,
and then he comes into the public realm, giving evidence of the power of the spirit maybe healing people, or delivering them from evil spirits, Luke does not give the details but he was preaching in the synagogues on a regular basis, evidentially with great power and effect, such that fame about him spread.
Then he comes to his own town, to his home synagogue and we are privy to his inaugural, where, using the words of the prophet Isaiah, he accepts his role of Messiah.
The prophet Isaiah (chapter 61) in his time is picturing the jubilee year-the year of God’s blessing, with a release of captives and the return of the Jewish people from their exile in Babylon. It is the work of the hoped for Messiah.
Jesus here applies this messianic language to himself. He makes the claim for himself that:
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me” as was shown at his baptism where he was “anointed” – word from which the word Christ derives – for his mission by the Father’s voice and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus appropriates this passage to describe the situation he is facing and proclaims what he will do to address those issues:
to the poor, those who are destitute of hope; those who despair of life; those who are despondent, dejected, depressed, he is sent as an apostle to men, to proclaim good news; the evangel, the gospel, that God loves them and is with them and will redeem them.
To the captives, literally prisoners of war, those who have been swallowed up by a terrible enemy and cannot help themselves, he comes as a herald, a representative, of a king announcing an official proclamation of freedom and release.
To those who have lost their vision, their ability to see and perceive reality and, even greater, lost their ability to see God and perceive his presence and truth, he proclaims that their blindness is over. They can see God.
To the oppressed, literally the bound up, the broken, the bruised, those shattered in pieces, he proclaims liberty from their bonds, release from their limitations and repair of their brokenness.
He proclaims the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee, the year of ‘blessing,’ a time of renewal and restoration, has come.
Jesus says: “Today this scripture stands fulfilled in your ears.” It was a most amazing statement. Jesus could only mean that the real year of jubilee had come, that the messianic prophecy of Isaiah had come true today, in him personally. Jesus claims to be the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah.
As Messiah, giving his inaugural, Jesus states that the world is destitute, captive to sin, blind to God and his truth, bruised, bound and broken. But he is the one who can bring hope, forgive sin and bind up the broken-hearted. In him you will see God and know him. The words were too good to be true and from this point on people would either believe his inaugural address to be accurate and true, or reject him as a fraud.
And that situation remains to this day. If we accept his assessment of reality that the world, and thus humanity, us, are broken, blind, captured, bruised, and in bondage to forces beyond our control, we will turn to him and gladly accept him as our Messiah: Our Savior, our Redeemer, our deliverer and healer.
Do you identify with these conditions? Have you known hopelessness, been destitute of joy and peace? Jesus has good news. Are you captive, a prisoner to destructive and painful behaviors, unable to help yourself? Jesus sets you free. Are you blind to Jesus, to his presence, his truth, his will; direction for your life? Jesus restores your sight. Are you oppressed, bruised, broken, shattered by events of life? Jesus brings healing and restoration.
But if we have acclimated to our situation, grown comfortable with where we are as prisoners of our own will, blind to Jesus and his truth, resigned to life as is, we will of course reject what he has said, and further oppose his claims to be who he says he is.
It happened to Jesus in his time, as the gospel reports, and it happens to him today.
It is true that all inaugural addresses have an important part to play in our history but all other inaugural addresses shrink to insignificance in light of this one inaugural, because how one responds to this inaugural has immediate, lasting, and eternal consequences.