JESUS BEGINS HIS MINISTRY YEARS as he emerges from the forty days and nights of temptation in the desert. He returns “to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.” (Luke 4:14) He goes to the synagogue, as is his custom, but on this day something different takes place. “He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.” (Luke 4:16-17) He unrolls the scroll to a specific place, and reads aloud. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) He then makes an astounding claim. “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21) His assertion is one of exponential magnitude; he is saying that he is the long-awaited Messiah.
To place ourselves in a similar frame of reference, imagine that we awake on any given Sunday morning. We enter into our Christian worship routine at home. Perhaps we read something from scripture, have a time of prayer, silent or otherwise. Maybe we fast from breakfast as a sign of committed obedience. We get into our car, drive some distance to our church, make our “hello’s,” listen attentively and participate in a Sunday School class. We gather in the sanctuary and listen, perhaps sing along with the worship team. The pastor rises, goes to the podium, and preaches a satisfying and perhaps challenging message. He then offers an altar call. A visitor goes forward, whispers to the pastor, who then places his hands on the visitor’s shoulders and begins to pray. What happens next will be encouraging to the visitor. But what if something unexpected happens? What if a blind man actually sees, a lame woman steps away from her walker, a demoniac is cleansed of an evil spirit? What if this is a day like none we have ever seen before?
This is the sudden tension in the synagogue this day. Something is happening, and everyone’s spiritual antennae is at full alert. The faithful have heard a new twist on the familiar message. This is not a promise that someday the Messiah will come; instead, it is a riveting statement that the time is right now. It stirs a passion in the soul, and places the listeners in the awkward space between hope and struggling belief. If this is true, then all things are possible.
The Isaiah scripture is slightly different than the NIV dynamic translation of the N.T., especially in one area. It speaks of an issue more universal than the impact of being blind, or lame, or demonized. “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.” (Isa. 61:1) This is a real human heart issue that everyone who has lived long enough can acknowledge as a need. The experiences of life can pile up, and pile on, and for such a long time that a disconsolate spirit may become a state of being. Solomon’s observations of our human concerns relate to these concerns, and are applicable here. “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” (Prov. 15:13) Similarly, “The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?” (Prov. 18:14) Solomon’s father, David, looked forward to the Messiah and the relief he would bring. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psa. 34:18)
Perhaps it seems unbalanced to juxtapose the more sensational issues against the seemingly blasé discontent of the heart. But no, on an honest examination, as life-debilitating as the more external issues of life and limb may be, or the deep core issues of an impure spirit, here we have the much wider-spread problem of the broken human heart. The mechanism of destruction is in some sense of no importance. As painful as a divorce may be, or the blocked onramp to the highway of dreams, or the physical loss of a loved one to death or maiming by disease or injury, the broken hearts have one central issue in common. The broken shards of the vessel of hope are always in view, and there seems to be no way to mend it.
Paul draws our attention to a hope that lies outside of ourselves. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” (Eph. 1:18) Jesus’ ministry, begun so long ago in the synagogue in Galilee, continues to and beyond this day. He has come, “in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14), to “set the captives free” (Isa. 61:1), or “to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.” (Luke 4:18) One of the greatest freedoms you and I can experience is the freedom to hope once again. David sang of such great hope; so can you and I. “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.” (Psa. 40:3)
Q. Do I sing most joyfully in the minor keys?
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