The Spirit of the Lord is on me
Luke 4:18-19 - Jesus still brings His message to the weak and marginalized, both socially and spiritually. It’s up to us to accept that message and share it with others.
Illustration of Jesus preaching at Nazareth. Artist unknown.
“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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luke 4:18-19 NIV
Today’s verses from the Gospel of Luke are powerful. Jesus has gone back to His home town of Nazareth after being baptized by John in the Jordan River, filled with the Holy Spirit, tested by the devil in the wilderness for 40 days, and “passing the test” so to speak by rebuking Satan multiple times with the Word of God. He begins His ministry at this point, and everyone is amazed with His teaching in the synagogue.
In those days, the Sabbath service at a synagogue went like this: an opening prayer and praise, a reading from the Law of Moses, a reading from the prophets, and then a sermon either from a rabbi or a “learned visitor”. Jesus, perhaps due to His familiarity with the synagogue in Nazareth, was asked to read from the Book of Isaiah, the source of today’s verses (Isaiah 61:1-2).
Isaiah wrote these verses from the Messiah’s point of view, prophesying that He would heal sin in multiple ways: bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom for prisoners, bringing eyesight to the blind, and setting free the oppressed.
So far, so good. The rabbis and congregants were probably pleased with His choice of verses. But then things turned ugly when Jesus went on to state “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). By saying this, Jesus was telling the crowd two things — “Isaiah was writing about Me” and “Isaiah was writing about the present time”.
You can imagine the surprise and/or outrage of the crowd, as this is the first time that Jesus proclaims that He is the Messiah they have all been waiting for. It’s apparent that there was more outrage than pleasant surprise, as the next verses describe their reaction: “All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.” (Luke 4:28-30)
This sort of backlash at being confronted with the truth still happens in our time. While the hope of the people of Nazareth was probably all in favor of the coming of the Messiah, Jesus hadn’t come to the people with a message of destroying the occupying Romans or making everyone rich — instead He pointed out that He would help the poor and oppressed, and heal the sick. Rather than raise up a powerful kingdom of warriors, He was going to bring His message of hope and love to the weak and marginalized. This was the first time in any of the synoptic Gospels that the message of Jesus was rejected, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
Jesus still brings His message to the weak and marginalized, both socially and spiritually. It’s up to us to accept that message and share it with others.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Today’s prayer comes from Knowing Jesus:
Heavenly Father, thank You that You sent the Lord Jesus to preach the good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom to captives and recovery of sight the blind. I confess that I am poor and needy. I too was captive to sin and Satan and was spiritually blind and dead in my trespasses and sin. Thank You that in Your grace You redeemed me from the pit, reached down and saved me from my captivity, and opened my eyes to the truth of Your Word. Thank You that by Christ's death and Resurrection, I am a new person and have His Spirit within – to lead, to guide, to protect, and to teach me in the way that I should go. May I keep My eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith, in Whose name I pray, AMEN.