Daily Bread Luke 4

^{Daily Bread Luke 4}

¹⁶ When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. ¹⁷ The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
¹⁹ and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.^[f]”

²⁰ He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. ²¹ Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

Observation:

The first verses in Luke 4 mirror those of Matthew 4, but then we see this material that is unique to Luke’s gospel. Verses 18-19 summarize Jesus’ ministry and mission. This passage was originally quoted in Isaiah 61:1-2, but is fulfilled in Jesus. (Read Isaiah 61 it is quite a beautiful passage to reflect on!)

After Jesus reads the quote from Isaiah which had Messianic implications, he sits down and says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled.” Remember this is his home town. But instead of being thrilled that the Messiah came from their hometown, the people get angry when he infers that he can’t do any miracles because their lack of faith.

He cites two Old Testament instances where the prophet, Elijah, could not heal the Israelites but instead went to the nations (Sidonians and Syrians) with deeds of power. This was a foreshadowing of Luke’s focus on the Gospel being brought to the Gentiles because Jesus’ own people rejected Him.

Application:

Jesus’ statement in the synagogue is a fine summary of his ministry. He came to bring Good News to the poor (physically and spiritually) and he came to deliver captives who were in slavery. He came to bring freedom to those who were oppressed. The Jewish people thought that he only came to deliver them from their political oppression, but indeed Jesus came to all who were oppressed in every sense of the word including: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Jesus came to heal our whole selves. Jesus realized that to say to a leper, “God is with you”, without healing him, was not considering the whole person. Jesus realized that freedom had many faces. We see this today in the fact that some of the richest people on earth can be in the greatest amount of bondage. Some of the biggest celebrities self destruct, though they are surrounded by fame and fortune.

What are you in bondage to? What has a hold of you? Jesus came to set you free. If the Son sets you free you are free indeed. As you are freed, the anointing of the Spirit will come upon you so you can proclaim the Good News to others.

I think this is why often people aren’t too excited about evangelism, because they haven’t experienced the freedom Jesus has come to bring them. When Jesus sets you free you want to share this with others and help them find their freedom.

Prayer: Jesus set us free from all that threatens to take away our liberty. Heal our diseases and things that prevent us from living the kind of life you want us to. Holy Spirit fall fresh on us and set the captives free so we can be messengers of the Good News. In Jesus’ name, Amen.