By Pastor Jeff
Luke 4:18-19, ” The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” This was no coincidence that Jesus was in Nazareth on the Sabbath and the minister handed the book of Isaiah to Jesus where He quotes Isaiah 61:1-2 to them. He then sits down with everyone eyes fixed upon Him and tells them in verse 21, ” And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
Jesus tells them that the “Spirit of the Lord is upon Him” to preach the gospel to who?, “The poor”. When we think about the poor we think of someone living on the streets with raggy old clothes, unkept, someone we tend to ignore, But the very first Beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of God.” It really doesn’t matter if you are the richest person in the world or the poorest, we all fall into this particular category. We cannot purchase our salvation or do anything but obey the word of God to have a hope outside of this corrupt world.
He came to heal the brokenhearted, hallelujah, who among us has not suffered some kind of heartache over a lost relationship, job, sickness, and even death. Jesus told us in John 16:33, ” These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” But we have confidence in a God that will never leave us nor forsake us! He also came to set the captive free and give sight back to the blinded eyes, many of us, me included heard the gospel many a time before it finally sank in for we were blinded, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, ” But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” Thank God that one day our eyes were opened and we accepted the truth in Jesus Christ! He gave liberty to them that are bruised, this is something that can be seen by others as we are battered about by the enemy, friends, family, and even the church. But if we accept what Jesus did for us on the cross, “He was bruised for our iniquities” we don’t have to suffer the effects of them for Christ took them.
” To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” This correlates with the year of Jubilee which was a very important occasion in which occurred every 50th year. It was a time in which slaves, prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, lands would be returned and other things as described in Leviticus 25. We tend to, even though we have an understanding of what Jesus Christ has done for us, still hold on to our past mistakes, short comings, to the point that it can affect our joy. If we can realize that it is all wiped clean just like the Israelites had the slate wiped clean on this special year we can live a more productive, happy, free life in Jesus Christ. The word “Jubilee” does not seem to me to be word that invokes sadness, but complete joy, for whom the son sets free, is free indeed, Amen!
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