“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
In the synagogue of His home town, Jesus reads aloud words Isaiah wrote centuries earlier, and applies them to Himself. Three questions follow: who is speaking, why the poor come first, and why He stopped reading where He did.
A man anointed by the Spirit
One who is God speaks these words. Yet the anointing He describes belongs to Him as man.
William KellyIt is the man Christ Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord was not upon Him as God, but as man, and so anointed Him to preach the gospel to the poor.
The timing mattered. He had already received that anointing in public before He came home.
Leslie M. GrantIn Judea the Spirit of God had come upon Him in public, anointing Him for the marvelous service of grace. Now that He had returned, it was the perfect time to read this Scripture. He was first to preach the gospel to the poor, and "the common people heard Him gladly." He clearly came for the help of those in need, not to seek the backing of the rich.
Preaching before everything else
Of all the things He could have named, He names preaching first. One writer explains what that preaching is, and how it works.
J. N. DarbyThe great business of Christ was to preach, that is to present God. The Holy Spirit gives the right word at the right time, and in the right way. "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." The Lord does not reason; He says, Here it is. The way of God is to present what we want. You want salvation, there it is; you want mercy, and there it is. God alone can come like this, by grace, into the place of a sinner.
Why the poor come first
The order here is not accidental. Being poor means being in the place of need, and that is where a person can receive what God gives.
Numerical Bible NotesThe preaching of glad tidings to the poor comes first, and gives character to all the rest. When man is in the place of need he can receive the gospel. When he knows he is a sinner, held captive by sin he cannot give up even when he wants to, the gospel brings him release. The blind receive their sight. Those bruised in chains receive liberty.
The captives
The captivity in view runs deeper than any political one. His own hearers showed it when they denied being in bondage at all.
An Outline of Sound WordsThe Lord Jesus preached a Gospel of "great salvation," a Gospel that delivered men from the power of sin, the bondage of Satan, and the fear of death... Their reply, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone," showed how blind they were to their condition. Because of their sins, the Assyrians and Nebuchadnezzar had led the nation away captive. Even at that time, though they lived in the land God had given them, they were under the yoke of Rome. But they were under a more grievous bondage.
"Bruised" describes those crushed under weight — and the writer illustrates it with the man of the tombs, beyond all help until Jesus came.
An Outline of Sound WordsThe Son of God in Manhood was a great Deliverer, setting at liberty those who were crushed under the yoke of the law, the dominion of sin and the bondage of Satan... A man may be respectable and religious, yet under Satan's power... If he is to be set at liberty, he must come under the power of the Lord Jesus.
Where He closed the book
He read on into the next line, then stopped in the middle of it and left the rest unread.
William J HockingThe prophecy declared that His mission was twofold: "to proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah and the day of vengeance of our God." In the prophecy the announcement of the "acceptable year" and of the gloomy "day" forms a single service of Christ. But the Lord, by His own words, showed that the second half of the clause is still waiting to be fulfilled. In His coming to this world, a wide stretch of time separates the "acceptable year" from the "day of vengeance."
Grace that would not stay inside Israel
He was speaking to a crowd of Jews. But the blessing He announced was never meant to stop with them.
J. T. MawsonIt is just as certain that the great blessings of His mission were to run in no narrow channel. He spoke to a crowd of Jews, yet He showed them how the grace that was in Him would work: it would flow out and on to sinners of the Gentiles... His mission was to the world; He came for the blessing of men, to seek and save the lost, to preach the gospel to the poor.
Summary
- Anointed — The Spirit rests on Him as man, and that anointing is the credential for everything He then does.
- Sent — His first work is not a miracle but a message. He presents God, and puts before each person what they need.
- To the poor — Need is the qualification. The gospel comes first to those with nothing, and that sets the tone for the whole list.
- For the captive — The chains are sin, Satan and the fear of death. The freedom He gives reaches further than His hearers imagined.
- The open year — He closed the book before the day of vengeance. That unread half is why the year of grace is still running today.