Luke 4:18 - Part One.

LUKE 4:18 - PART ONE.

Bible reading: Luke 4:14-21.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Luke 4:18a).

Jesus was “anointed” by the Holy Spirit following His baptism by John (Luke 3:21-22). After this, ‘Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost’ was ‘led by the Spirit into the wilderness,’ where He was ‘tempted by the devil’ (Luke 4:1-2). Today’s reading commences with Jesus returning ‘in the power of the Spirit’ into Galilee, and ‘teaching in their synagogues, being glorified by all’ (Luke 4:14-15).

The passage passes on immediately to the so-called inaugural sermon of Jesus in His hometown of Nazareth (Luke 4:16-21). The thrust of this sermon was to set out His Messianic agenda (Luke 4:18-19). However, when Jesus’ neighbours heard His claim, ‘This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears’ (Luke 4:21), they could not accept it (Luke 4:22-24), and violently rejected Him (Luke 4:28-30).

“He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor” (Luke 4:18b).

Luke 4:18-19 is a perfect statement of the gospel, the “glad tidings” of what Jesus came to do. The segment of Scripture read by Jesus (Isaiah 61:1-2a) shows how Messiah was coming to set right the harm that sin has done. Each of the pictures in this passage portrays both sin, and sin’s inevitable consequences.

As such, Jesus conducted literal physical healings, but the much greater work was not just to undo sin’s consequences, but to deal with sin itself! In the Sermon on the Plain, ‘Blessed be ye poor’ (Luke 6:20) stands over against ‘woe unto you that are rich’ (Luke 6:24). However, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks of ‘the poor in spirit’ (Matthew 5:3) - which we take to mean those who recognise their own spiritual poverty before God, and their need of God.

Jesus said, ‘They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.’ Jesus did not, after all, come to call (those who think they are) righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:31-32). It is sin that impoverishes, and the healings illustrate Jesus’ authority to forgive (Luke 5:24).

John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus whether He is really the One, or whether they should look for another (Luke 7:19). To whom Jesus replied, ‘Tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached’ (Luke 7:22).

“He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted” (Luke 4:18c).

We are all familiar with the images of human tragedy in war torn parts of the earth, in areas of natural disasters, and in the midst of epidemics and pandemics. Or with the sound of inconsolable weeping at a funeral. One phrase that we often hear is ‘innocent’ victims.

Yet this is not the fault of God: the fault is with man. Man was given just one simple commandment: ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die’ (Genesis 2:16-17). Man was warned that sin has consequences; but man decided instead to listen to the devil’s lies, and to rebel against God.

Until then, there was no sin, no sickness, no suffering, no war, no death. Even the distribution of the consequences of sin seems unequal and unfair. But remember: God came down into the garden, and found man, and introduced him to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Genesis 3:14-15)!

Listen to this, from the wider context of Jesus’ reading: ‘Your iniquities have separated between you and your God’ (Isaiah 59:2). ‘The LORD saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice’ (Isaiah 59:15). ‘THEREFORE His arm brought salvation unto Him’ (Isaiah 59:16).

‘The Redeemer shall come to them that turn from transgression’ (Isaiah 59:20). ‘Then shall you know that I the LORD am your Saviour and your Redeemer’ (Isaiah 60:16). Jesus came, ‘to comfort all that mourn; to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness’ (Isaiah 61:2-3).

The LORD had said earlier, ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones’ (Isaiah 57:15). There is a mourning that comes on account of our being made aware of our situation in relation to God as a result of our sins (cf. Psalm 34:18).

‘Blessed are those who mourn,’ says Jesus, ‘for they shall be comforted’ (Matthew 5:4). ‘Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,’ says your God (Isaiah 40:1). ‘Come unto me,’ says Jesus, ‘all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28).

‘He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds’ (Psalm 147:3).