The Inaugural Address – Part IV

Luke 4:18

What exactly is it that Luke records Jesus saying in this passage where he quotes Isaiah? As we’ve noted, Jesus tells his listeners that today this passage from Isaiah is fulfilled in their hearing. What that means ever so clearly to his listeners is that this Messianic text applies to Jesus.

Jesus says first of all that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him. Luke notes that the Spirit of God comes on Jesus when he comes up out of the waters of baptism down at the Jordan River. He has also noted that the Spirit of the Lord has led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted and that Jesus leaves that wilderness experience and returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.

Everything about Jesus’ ministry from this point on is marked by the presence and power of the Spirit. Jesus, who left his own omni-everything behind when he came to earth and entered humanhood, now walks in the power of God’s presence in a new way. A way that models the empowering that comes upon his followers in Luke’s sequel, The Acts of the Apostles.

This “Spirit of the Lord” is on Jesus because, following Isaiah’s prophetic message, the Spirit has anointed him. That is first evident with Jesus when the Spirit descends on him like a dove. The Spirit manifests Himself in different ways – there is something very unpredictable, at least to the human mind, about the manners and methods of the Spirit. The Spirit does not appear in the same way every time. It is not because the Spirit is unstable, but simply because His ways are so far beyond us as mere mortals.

But one thing that is consistently clear is the Spirit’s ultimate purpose. He comes, He anoints, and He empowers to cause people, including God’s only Son, Jesus, to do the work of God the Father, to bring Glory to God the Father, and to bring to life God’s Kingdom among His creation, particularly mankind.

The Spirit has anointed Jesus to preach or proclaim good news to the poor. The poor, by whatever definition or category we speak, are those who lack, who are weak, who are without, who are destitute, downtrodden, and in over their heads, be that poverty spiritual, physical, emotional, material, social, relational, or mental in nature. What can good news for the poor mean other than that they who are poor will no longer be poor? As Mary said in her wonderful song back in the first chapter of Luke, “He has been mindful of the humble state of his servant” and “has done great things for me.”

The poor are those who do not have recourse to solve their poverty, do not have means to get out of their situation. But good news means that all that is changing, that the poor now have someone fighting on their behalf.

As this is an inaugural address, Jesus is not laying out all the specifics of his plan to rescue the poor. This comes clearer as we read through this gospel and then as it is clarified in the Scriptures as a whole. For now, Jesus is simply and profoundly declaring his intent – he has come to bring good news to the poor. Whatever we choose to make of it, this is the central message of Jesus coming to earth. He has come to declare God’s goodness to those who are without and outside of God’s blessings. As Isaac Watt’s famous Christmas carol extols, he has come to make his blessings known “far as the curse is found.” This is joy to the world indeed.