’Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."’ (Luke 4:14-21)
I heard this story when I was young. It was about a carpenter family that had to work very hard to make ends meet. One day the wife was totally drenched in sweat after a half day of work and sat down and cried, “Why do I have to work so hard to make a living?” At that time the minister came to visit them. The wife complained to the minister, “It was just because of the stupid Eve and Adam, or we wouldn’t have to work so hard. If it wasn’t for them, we would all be enjoying life in the garden of Eden.”
The minister comforted her and invited the couple to dinner on the weekend. They came and the minister seated them on the table with all the dishes prepared. But one of the dishes in the middle was covered. The minister said, “Please enjoy the meal, but I have to run an errant, and please don’t open the dish in the middle until I come back,” and he left.
As the couple ate, the wife said, “What is that dish in the middle that the pastor does want us to eat? It must be something very good.” The husband seemed indifferent at the beginning, but later he said, “It’s got to be some thing really good, since the rest of the dishes are all good. Why don’t you open and take a peak?” Unable to control her curiosity, and prompted by the support of her husband, she lifted the cover to take a look. Suddenly, a mouse ran out from under the cover.
The minister came back in with a smile and opened the lid. The mouse was no longer there and he said, “It seems that Adam and Eve was not the only one that couldn’t resist the temptation!”
No one could resist the temptations all the time. Even the Apostle Paul admitted that he often failed to do what he wanted to do and did what he didn’t want to do. Even Benjamin Franklin admitted so. There is only one person in the history that was able to resist the temptation. It was Jesus. If you look at the genealogy of Jesus recording in Luke, you should see that, unlike Matthew’s version which starts from Abraham and down, Luke has it backward starting from Jesus and up all the way to Adam, the son of God. Since Adam was created by God and it was reasonable to be called the son of God. But that son of God failed when tempted by the devil and the human race has been enslaved by sin ever since. But, the Son of God, Jesus, was able the resist the temptation on our behalf as the beginning of our victory against sin and evil.
The story in today’s passage according to Luke happened right after Jesus came back from his victory against Satan’s temptation. He came back to Galilee and started preaching in the synagogues and the Bible says that he was praised by everyone. Luke gave us an example of what he preached at his beginning of ministry. Basically he was telling people about his identity as the Messiah and his mission on earth, quoting Isaiah 61:1-2,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This is Jesus personal mission statement. Talking about personal mission statement, I would like to do a survey this morning. How many of you have written a personal mission statement? How many of you have lived with it? Years ago I read the book by Stephen Covey, “7 Habits of the Highly Effective People,” in which he encouraged and taught people to make a personal mission statement because that keeps our life highly effective. I did one for myself years ago and have revised it many times, but I had a hard time living with it.
Later I read in Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography that he also had a desire to live to moral perfection, but after some attempts he found it very difficult to achieve. Then he studied many books and distilled it down to thirteen things he wants to accomplish in life, and we all know that Ben Franklin is undoubtedly one of the most effective people in American history. One of the items in his list is that would follow the example of Jesus.
Based on today’s scripture, Jesus was very clear about his personal mission in life from the very beginning. As his followers, we should study his mission statement and make it our own. Three reasons: first, I have studied many personal mission statements, and found out that, like Ben Franklin said, all the good ones are very similar except with different wording. Secondly, the word Christian means “Little Christs”, and our Boss’s mission should be our mission. Thirdly, all the well known followers of Christ in history took His mission as their own. In fact their entire life is wrapped in Christ, like Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Let’s look at what’s involved in the mission of Jesus Christ:
1. Be filled with the Holy Spirit
Jesus stated, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” You all know that he was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came down on him bodily as a dove at his baptism. The Holy Spirit led him to the desert to claim victory against temptations. Now he came back, filled with the powered of the Spirit, preaching in Galilee and his home town.
You might say, "That’s Jesus, not me." Wrong! Upon his departure, he transferred this power to his followers. He asked them to wait until the Holy Spirit comes down on him and be their counselor and guidance. We now live in the age of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is for you and upon you. Being filled with the Holy Spirit means being guided by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The word "Filling" here means being controlled. In order to be controlled by the Holy Spirit we need to yield our own control. It’s not easy to do. It means dying of our “self” and resurrecting with Christ through the power of God. It is being in the state of what Paul called, “It’s no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20).
Our works in life will never be effective without the power of the Holy Spirit. Benjamin Franklin realized that he wouldn’t be able to achieve what he resolved to achieve without God’s power. In his autobiography he wrote how he achieved his mission by beginning his day with a prayer for wisdom and power from God to do the right things.
Whatever you try to accomplish in life, invoke the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s how our Lord did it and that’s how we should do.
2. Remember your identity
“because he has anointed me”
When Jesus said he was anointed by the Holy Spirit, he was claiming his identity as the Messiah--the anointed one. The ancient kings were anointed with oil when they were chosen, but the Messiah was the King of kings being anointed by the Holy Spirit. In any case, Jesus knew who He was. That gave him the focus to do what He was called to do.
Do you know who you are? Sometimes we live according to our identification, rather than our identity. By identification, I mean the “me” that other people says who I was or who I am. Some of the adults in your life might have given us identification by labeling us as stupid, and some times we think they are right and behave like that. Some people might have praised you by saying that you are smart and we might live a life to impress those people so that we will continue to be praised by them. Still, some people identify themselves according to their condition and environment.
But, the Bible says, you are a child of God because of you faith in Jesus Christ. You are such a precious child that Jesus stretched his hands on the cross telling you that, "I love you this much." Don’t forget who you are, because we tend to function according to our identity. Today many African-American brothers and sisters still find it hard to achieve their American Dream because of the spell of the slavery from the past. In the Old Testament, many Jews found it hard to appreciate the freedom after the Exodus and told Moses how much they missed their slavery life in Egypt.
For you and me, we tend to behave like slaves of sin because that’s what we all used to be, and because that was our confort zone, and because a least it gave us some sense of certainty. Some Iraqis today miss the life under the oppression of Saddam Hussein, because at least it gave them a sense of false security.
Jesus came to tell us that we are no longer slaves to the power of this world, but the free and precious children of God. So remember your identity as a child of God and behave like a prince or princess. Don’t forget that it is a big adjustment.
I will be brief for the rest of the items, as we are out of time. All of them are important mission for our life, but by now you have got the idea.
I will be brief for the rest of the items, as we are out of time. All of them are important mission for our life, but by now you have got the idea.
3. Address the physical and spiritual poverty
“to bring good news to the poor.” If you look at Jesus life, you know that the word poor doesn’t only mean materially poor. But, they are the ones that is ready to listen to the good news. Most people in power and those have authority in the synagogue didn’t want to listen to him. Matthew to uses the term “poor in spirit,” instead of "poor" when he reported the Sermon On The Mount, to means those who are humble, and spiritual hungry and needy.
This you what we need to do: take the good news to the poor, to those who are in need and starving for it. This is our great commission. There is a great deal of good news to tell because there are so many people in this world that are poor in spirit.
We also need to address the physical poverty. I am very proud of the fact that we give generously to the Center for Food Action, but we can do more and we need to do more. You might think that you don’t have much, but just by the fact that you live in America, and in Bergen County, you are among the richest top 5% of the world population.
4. Take action for justice
“He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives.” This covers physical, emotional, and spiritual. We saw that Jesus release those who have been captives of physical disability, emotional disability, those possessed by the evil spirit, and finally on the cross he release the entire human race from the captivity of sin.
Most of the freedom fighters in the history are His followers. Even Gandhi meditated regularly on the Sermon on the Mount. We just observed Martin Luther King, Jr.’s day. The mission of social justice, economic justice, animal justice and environmental justice, etc. should be part of every Christian’s life.
5. Enlighten the darkness
“and recovery of sight to the blind.” We have seen in the Bible that Jesus did this both literally and metaphorically. He has also commanded us to do the same. He said, “You are the light of the world.” Our job is to shine the light in the darkness of the world so that people will be able to see.
6. Mend the Broken Hearts
“to let the oppressed go free.” Even though several versions of the Bible translate this word as “oppressed,” it actually means “bruised” or “wounded.” I like the translation in The Message, "To set the burdened and battered free." Jesus fixed people’s wounds and set them free from their limitations.
We are to do the same, by sharing the good news of truth. The Bible says that the truth sets people free.
7. Tell people about God’s kindness
“to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” If you compare this passage with the Isaiah’s original text, you will see that Jesus omitted the next sentence, which is about God’s judgment, because the purpose of Jesus coming was to proclaim the grace of God. The judgment is being held until the end.
The ultimate proclamation of the Lord’s favor was on the cross. His death on the cross is the undeniable evidence of God’s kindness towards human race. His resurrection is the ultimate proof that there is life beyond death and that is a great life for all those who follow him. So be the follower of Christ, tell people about the good news of God’s kindness, grace and mercy. Even if you have to bear a cross, it is worth it, because the world needs it. The world needs God kindness because there is no other way to get out of it.
You and I can complain to death about our suffering that has been brought to us by the sins of our ancestors, but that doesn’t stop the problem. Complaining doesn’t work, and denying doesn’t work either. You must commit your life to become a solution, become a follower of Christ today, and take his mission as your mission of life. Amen!
