Have you ever considered if you had the opportunity to go back in time and witness any single event in history, what event would you choose? Of the many times and places in history that I would like witness, the event I would choose is Jesus’ first public ministry in his childhood home of Nazareth.
As Jesus the young rabbi stood up to read in the synagogue, the book of Isaiah was handed to him. “And he opened the book and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.’” (Luke 4:18-19)
Close analysis reveals an interesting feature of Jesus’ words. He doesn’t stick to the passage! He begins with the awesome prophetic words of 61:1 (preach good news to the poor, release to captives), but along the way he appears to reference Isaiah 42:7 (recovery of sight to the blind) and he includes an exact phrase from Isaiah 58:6 (to let the oppressed go free / set free those who are downtrodden). Add to this the Isaiah 61 reference to the Year of Jubilee (the year of the Lord’s favor – Leviticus 25), and the result is an amazing agenda of ministry taken from four of the strongest social justice-focused passages in the Old Testament.
Then he closed the book and sat down, and everyone in the synagogue looked at him. He further explained, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” In other words, for those in attendance, Jesus had just read the prophet’s words about the future messiah, and announced to the people that he was the fulfillment of those words.
While his announcement was remarkable – “I am the one” - equally remarkable was the content of the message. Jesus essentially stated a ministry agenda to bring good news to the poor, the captives, the blind, and downtrodden, and to proclaim a time of God’s favor like the Levitical Year of Jubilee – a time of freedom from all kinds of bondages created by human selfishness, greed and abuse. Clearly these statements have multiple layers of meaning for multiple stages of historical fulfillment. But it is clear that Jesus is concerned about the groups mentioned, and the spiritual, emotional, social, or other forms of poverty, blindness, captivity and down-trodden-ness.
There are times when it is not clear what God would have us do with our time on this earth. But this passage - similar to Matthew 5:3-11 or Matthew 25:35-36 or Matthew 28:19-20 or John 15:12-13 or others - is a passage in which the directive is clear and unavoidable – take God’s good news to those who are downtrodden.
As Jesus the young rabbi stood up to read in the synagogue, the book of Isaiah was handed to him. “And he opened the book and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.’” (Luke 4:18-19)
Close analysis reveals an interesting feature of Jesus’ words. He doesn’t stick to the passage! He begins with the awesome prophetic words of 61:1 (preach good news to the poor, release to captives), but along the way he appears to reference Isaiah 42:7 (recovery of sight to the blind) and he includes an exact phrase from Isaiah 58:6 (to let the oppressed go free / set free those who are downtrodden). Add to this the Isaiah 61 reference to the Year of Jubilee (the year of the Lord’s favor – Leviticus 25), and the result is an amazing agenda of ministry taken from four of the strongest social justice-focused passages in the Old Testament.
Then he closed the book and sat down, and everyone in the synagogue looked at him. He further explained, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” In other words, for those in attendance, Jesus had just read the prophet’s words about the future messiah, and announced to the people that he was the fulfillment of those words.
While his announcement was remarkable – “I am the one” - equally remarkable was the content of the message. Jesus essentially stated a ministry agenda to bring good news to the poor, the captives, the blind, and downtrodden, and to proclaim a time of God’s favor like the Levitical Year of Jubilee – a time of freedom from all kinds of bondages created by human selfishness, greed and abuse. Clearly these statements have multiple layers of meaning for multiple stages of historical fulfillment. But it is clear that Jesus is concerned about the groups mentioned, and the spiritual, emotional, social, or other forms of poverty, blindness, captivity and down-trodden-ness.
There are times when it is not clear what God would have us do with our time on this earth. But this passage - similar to Matthew 5:3-11 or Matthew 25:35-36 or Matthew 28:19-20 or John 15:12-13 or others - is a passage in which the directive is clear and unavoidable – take God’s good news to those who are downtrodden.