Luke 4:18-19
“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.”
In my opinion, this is one of the best summaries of Jesus’s ministry in the Bible.
Jesus brings good news to the poor. There is a definitive Greek dictionary called BDAG that catalogs every word, its definition, and where it is used in the Bible and in contemporary resources. According to that, this is not just economically poor, but it goes deeper. This is spiritually poor and in need of God’s help. It’s a poor that cannot be fixed by people alone. In that sense, we’re all poor. We all need God to come fill us and make us complete.
Jesus came to rescue us from ourselves. Prisoners could also be translated as “captives.” What is it that’s holding you captive? It is your phone? Or your job? What if you could walk in Christ’s freedom all the time, keeping your attention on Him? That’s what He offers when he came to set the captives free.
The blind see and the oppressed are free. God does that. Not always physically, but spiritually. A lot of us still need glasses, but we’re spiritually free. God is all around us, if we slow down to see Him.
The “year of the Lord’s favor” was an Old Testament Jewish celebration. Every seven years, the slaves and prisoners were set free. Jesus is claiming that this is now an on-going (again, in a spiritual sense) celebration. We are free.
We were captive and blind, but Jesus set us free. If He has set you free, don’t run back to captivity. Instead, live in the freedom!