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Luke 4:14-21 (The Message) Jesus returned to Galilee powerful in the Spirit.

News that he was back spread through the countryside.

He taught in their meeting places to everyone's acclaim and pleasure.

He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.

Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,

God's Spirit is on me;
he's chosen me to preach
the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, "This is God's year to act!"

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down.

Every eye in the place was on him, intent.

Then he started in, "You've just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place."

Last night I watched a fascinating documentary about a Presbyterian pastor from Texas named Carroll Pickett.

The movie, "At the Death House Door," was all about his life and ministry during tragedy within his own congregation, and then as death-row chaplain at a Texas State Penitentiary in Huntington, Texas.

Rev. Pickett served as spiritual guide to 95 men who were on their way to execution. He was present with them during their final hours.

Although he is now deeply engaged as an anti-death penalty activist, that really wasn't the main thrust of the presentation.

Primarily, the film-makers dealt with his faith, his struggles to walk with the condemned and to share their pain, as well as the pain of victims' families and the families of the executed.

His new memoir, "Within These Walls" would likely be a fascinating read, and it is a study of how the grace of Christ goes everywhere...even inside the "Death House."

"God's Spirit is on me," Jesus said, reading scripture and claiming his identity as that scripture's fulfillment.

His work? "To announce pardon to the prisoners..."

I was most touched by a particularly poignant scene in the movie. Rev. Pickett sat with the sister of executed prisoner Carlos DeLuna.

DeLuna is now widely considered innocent by many in the legal system of Texas. He almost certainly died for a crime that he did not commit.

"Why didn't God answer our prayers? Why did God fail us?" his sister cried out to the Pastor.

Rev. Pickett was quiet. Such questions don't have easy answers. As she quietly sobbed, he said, "Jesus didn't fail your brother in the death house. Your brother knew that God was with him."

And then he was quiet. She stopped crying, and they sat together.

That is ministry.

Jesus spoke these words from the Old Testament into a world filled with as much pain and injustice as our own. There are many questions that remain unanswered on this side of the veil.

But we can always know that God's justice does not fail. Jesus' mission is the same today, and he invites his followers not to lose heart...but to be present with the least, last and lonely.

Prayer: We give you thanks for the joy that fills our hearts today, and pray that you would guide us to walk in joy and peace. We pray for those who struggle and are in pain today. We pray for those who suffer from injustice. May you teach us your ways, and may we see the blind regain their sight, the prisoners pardoned, good news proclaimed to the poor, and the battered and burdened set free.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.