Luke 4:18-19 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”(NKJV)
I love those moments when I’m reflecting on a beloved and familiar passage like this and suddenly a whole new way of seeing it emerges. I’ve always viewed this passage as a list of SIX things Jesus was anointed to do. The list looked like this.
Jesus is anointed to:
1. Preach the gospel to the poor
2. Heal the broken hearted
3. Proclaim liberty to the captives
4. Proclaim recovery of sight to the blind
5. Set at liberty those who are oppressed
6. Proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord
Because I’ve seen this passage organized in my head in this manner, I’ve seen “preach the gospel to the poor” as being a distinct item from the following five items. Because of this, I’ve simply read into the word “preach the gospel” my contemporary understanding and use of this phrase and thought of it in terms of evangelism – proclaiming the good news of the salvation provided through the death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus. I don’t think this actually works here as an interpretation of that passage for the simple reason that he had not yet died, risen or ascended. If “preach the gospel to the poor” had referred to a proclamation of that particular good news, then in no way could Jesus have legitimately claimed, at that point, that this had been fulfilled.
Today it occured to me that the text actually lends itself to a different reading. Jesus is here speaking of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in his life. The Spirit has come upon Jesus for a specific reason – to preach the gospel to the poor. He then proceeds to unpack exactly what this means. The following statements give us specific insight into what the gospel is and who we should understand to be poor. “He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor” is a summary statement. “He has sent me to…” begins an explanation of exactly what this means.
Who are the poor Jesus has been anointed to preach good news to?
1. The broken hearted
2. The captives (those who are conquered)
3. The blind
4. The oppressed (those who are crushed)
What is the good news that Jesus is anointed to preach to the broken hearted, captives, blind and oppressed?
1. Healing
2. Deliverance / Liberation
3. Sight
4. Freedom / Healing
The passage then closes with another summary statement – “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” – a phrase that hints at the year of Jubilee (Lev 25:10), where all things would be restored, a 50 year practice that pointed toward the coming Messiah.
Are we preaching good news to the poor?
6 Comments
Alan, have you read the British preacher..James Stewart.? He has a book called “A Faith to Proclaim”… It is excellent on some of the things you are sharing…thanks for the above comments..well done….. The Moffat trans of Isa 61 says one phrase …”tell the prisoner the door is open”….. The gospel of the Kingdom..His rule on earth now… Blessings !
I really love how the Holy Spirit unpacked this passage for you in a whole new way and that you shared it with us here. It’s challenging me to think beyond the normal definition of evangelism, to not get stuck in the legal definition of it. This is good stuff to chew on today…
Alan, this was excellent and very heart felt. Blessings.
The word” poor” is used many times as a translation, but there are two words in Greek that we translate into English as ” poor”.
The ????? may be so poor that he earns his bread by daily labour;
but the ?????? is so poor that he only obtains his living by begging.
Christ uses the second word.
Yup.
Now later on Jesus said, ” If you don’t Believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, then believe me for the very works sake.” “Don’t believe it because I’m saying it to you, but I have demonstrated the works of the Messiah. I have done those things that the scriptures said the Messiah would do, in giving sight to the blind, the lame are walking, the gospel if being preached to the poor.” And these works are a witness, and they attest to the fact that Jesus is indeed the Messiah.
That must have been an electric, crazy dynamic moment. As He closed the book, having read these prophesies of the Messiah, which they all knew and recognized to be prophesies of the Messiah. And He said, “Today the scripture has been fulfilled.” Wow, how awesome to hear that Bible Study from Jesus,