Luke 4:18-19 “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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Does Jesus’ coming to earth mean anything to you? It doesn’t for everyone, you know. You see, Jesus came for a very specific reason for very specific individuals. He made this very clear in the passage above. It’s from the account where he stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth and declared publicly for the first time that He was the Messiah. He did this by reading a passage from Isaiah’s prophecy. It was a declaration of why the world needed a Messiah. But in this is carried the idea that for some, there was no need for a Messiah. It was only those that Isaiah had named for whom the Messiah would come.
So who were these people? How were they described? First, Jesus names the poor. But this didn’t mean the poor financially. Oh, the poverty stricken could possibly be included, but if they didn’t see themselves as poor spiritually, there would be no need for a Christ. Later, Jesus put it this way as He preached what has come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor IN SPIRIT, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). He meant those who were poverty stricken in a spiritual sense. They knew they were sinners and they had no resources to deal with the guilt. They couldn’t escape it on their own. They were those who confessed that they needed someone to deliver them. And it was to these that He came to proclaim the good news. In fact, it was the best news they had ever heard.
Then He said that He came for the captives. He would proclaim this same message everywhere He went. But what kind of a captive was He talking about? He put it this way as He spoke to the Jews in John 8: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” And their response? “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Then this reply: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” And so they mocked Him. They didn’t see themselves as captives, so they were sure that Jesus hadn’t come for them!
Jesus said He came for the blind. But blind in what sense? Again, it was a constant message from Jesus, that He could help the blind to see. To the Pharisees, Jesus said, “’For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.’ Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, ‘Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, “We see,” your guilt remains’” (John 9:39-41). These men were not spiritually blind, or so they thought, so in their own estimation, they had no need of the One Who claimed He could heal them.
And finally, Jesus said He came to proclaim liberty to the oppressed. The word means to be crushed or shattered. He is pointing to those who had been crushed or shattered by their sin. It is only those who have come to confess this that will seek liberty from a Messiah Who had been sent to bring it.
So how do you see yourself? Are you perfectly well, in a spiritual sense? Or do you see yourself as spiritually blind and captive to sin? Do you rejoice in your sin, or have you come to mourn because of it? Do you see yourself as rich, in no need of anything a Messiah might be able to give you, or do you see yourself as one in spiritual poverty, with no prospects for ever rising above that condition? It is as you see yourself that you will recognize if a Messiah can help you. It is only the sick that need such a Physician. Are you well, or sick with sin?
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