These verses in Luke 4 reveal to us what happened on the
first visit Jesus made to His hometown of Nazareth since He began His ministry
in the region of Galilee. We are not told which day of the week Jesus returned so
He might have been there for a few days before Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. I
can only imagine that the village is all excited about His visit. They have
heard all about the miracles of healing He has being doing at Capernaum and
wanted to see Him do the same here. Jesus might have walked around the village
during this time and renewed old acquaintances and spent time with His family
and friends.
But when the first Sabbath came Jesus went to the synagogue,
as was His custom, and the leader must have requested that He would read the
Scripture text for the day and give the message. The passage He read included
Isaiah 61:1-2, and He selected it for His "text." It is important to
note that the Jewish rabbis interpreted this passage to refer to the Messiah,
and the people in the synagogue knew it. The passage was a prophesy that the
Messiah would be anointed by the Spirit to preach the gospel, the good news of
deliverance to the people who were in bondage.
Remember the nation of Israel was in bondage under the
Roman rule at this time and they wanted a Messiah who would set them free and reestablish
the kingdom of David. The Messiah would heal broken hearts, He would give sight
to the blind and set free the slaves. They knew that Jesus had a healing ministry
in the other regions of Galilee and had partially fulfil some of this prophecy.
But when Jesus read this passage from Isaiah 61:1-2, He did
not complete reading verse 2 where it goes on to say, “And the day of vengeance
of our God”. I believe Jesus didn’t read that because He knew that would not
be fulfilled or happen until His second coming at the end of the seven-year tribulation.
And what Jesus did say when He finished reading this prophecy really caught their
attention: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”!
You can imagine how shocked they were when Jesus boldly
said that this passage in Isaiah 61 was written about Him, and that He had come
to usher in the "acceptable year of the Lord." The reference
here is the 'Year of Jubilee" described in Leviticus 25. Every seventh
year was a "Sabbatical year" for the nation, when the land was
allowed to rest; and every fiftieth year (after seven Sabbaticals) was set
apart as the "Year of Jubilee." The main purpose of this special year
was the balancing of the economic system: slaves were set free and returned to
their families, property that was sold reverted to the original owners, and all
debts were canceled. The land lay fallow as man and beast rested and rejoiced
in the Lord.
Jesus applied all of this to His own ministry, not in a
political or economic sense, but in a physical and spiritual sense. He had
certainly brought Good News of salvation to bankrupt sinners and healing to
brokenhearted and rejected people. He had delivered many from blindness and
from bondage to demons and disease. Indeed, it was a spiritual "Year of
Jubilee" for the nation of Israel!
Jesus also knew that for the Gospel to be complete He would
still have to go to Jerusalem and die on the cross and be resurrected so that
the people would experience this spiritual deliverance! Instead of receiving His
message the people begin to question who He was. “Is this not Joseph’s son?”
How sad!
It is my prayer today that you will believe in Who Jesus
says He is and receive Him as your personal Lord and Savior and experience forgiveness
for your sins, healing for your broken heart, and the freedom to love and serve
Him!
God bless!
