“Jesus Preaches the Liberating Gospel”
(Luke 4:14-21 – Epiphany 3 – January 26, 2025)
Luke 4:14-21 – 14Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. 15And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 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; 19to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” 20Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Dear Redeemed in Jesus Christ:
When Jesus attended worship in His hometown of Nazareth, He was invited to stand up and read from the scroll and preach. He read from today’s Old Testament lesson in Isaiah 61:1-3. God had foretold the Jews that they would be sent into exile in a foreign land due to their sins. Yet through Isaiah, He promised that after 70 years, He would bring their release. That prophecy was partially fulfilled when the Lord liberated them from captivity and returned them to their homeland in Judah. But the prophecy found its complete fulfillment in Jesus, the Messiah who came to bring God’s people a far greater spiritual deliverance. We have Jesus’ word on this, as He begins to preach, saying: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (vs. 21).
So today, let us hear how “Jesus Preaches the Liberating Gospel” as pictured: 1) Setting us free from our poverty in the riches of His grace, 2) Setting us free from our captivity in the liberty of God’s children, 3) Setting us free from our oppression to live in His acceptance and peace.
1) Setting us free from our poverty in the riches of His grace
Jesus begins reading from the scroll: “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” (vs. 18). Here, the poor are not those without money or comforts of this life, but they are the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3). It is sinners who realize they have nothing to offer God except a life of sin. They cannot possibly repay God for their huge debt of failing to keep His holy Law, not even with all their best works or costliest sacrifices. They are simply beggars of His grace and mercy.
Certainly, the Jews would have felt this poverty of spirit in exile for their sins, as they awaited the Lord’s deliverance. But it is also our spirit today, as we bow before God with broken and contrite hearts, confessing our sins and asking His forgiveness, as we say: “I, a poor miserable sinner, confess to You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended you and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them, and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.” (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, p. 61)
Psalm 34:18 says: “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” Jesus comes to us in our spiritual poverty to preach the riches of His Gospel, as we read in 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” In His love for us, the Son of God left behind all the riches of His heavenly glory, and humbled Himself as the Son of Man. He took on Himself the poverty of our sin. He humbled Himself even to the point of death on the cross to pay the debt of our sins (Philippians 2:8). And Jesus rose again to declare to us His blood-bought forgiveness, won at the cross. He heals our broken hearts with His Word of pardon and peace with God.
Therefore, rejoice believers! Jesus says to you: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 5:3). He comes to set you and me free in the riches of His grace, in the riches of His Kingdom and everlasting life!
2) Setting us free from our captivity in the liberty of God’s children
As Jesus preaches His Gospel, He sets us free from our captivity in the liberty of God’s children. He pictures this also as He reads in the scroll: “He has sent Me to… proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.” The word “captives” pictures prisoners of war who have been dragged away by conquerors, perhaps wasting away in the blinding darkness of a dungeon. Surely the Jews would feel that darkness in exile for their sin. But through the fall into sin, Satan conquered and captivated the world; he held every sinner in the dark dungeon of his dominion. No sinner is able to liberate himself from that dark prison, despite his best efforts and best intentions.
How often have we felt the captivating effects of sin? We want to give up certain bad habits, to change wrong behaviors into good, to treat people around us better. But we end up falling back into the old patterns, feeling the guilt and shame again. Even the apostle Paul felt the captivating effects of sin, as he lamented in Romans 7:22-24: “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Left to ourselves, there would be no escaping that dark dungeon of sin and its wages of death. But Jesus has not left us to ourselves. He has come to proclaim liberty to the captives. The word for “liberty” is the same word used in the New Testament for forgiveness. It means to “send away.” We were liberated from the guilt and condemnation of our sins when God sent them away from us to the cross. There, Jesus suffered and died for our sins. He paid with His own precious blood to take them all away and out of God’s sight forever. Psalm 103:12 says: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”
Jesus has come “To proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Isaiah 61:1). He has conquered sin, Satan, and death for everyone. He has thrown open the prison doors, calling all people out into the light of His salvation and freedom. Sadly, many still languish in the darkness, blinded by impenitence and unbelief; seeking a false kind of liberty in self-chosen paths of sin, seeking in vain a path to freedom and salvation by their own good works and life.
There but for the grace of God would we go also. But Jesus came to us, proclaiming recovery of sight to the blind. By the power of His Gospel, the Holy Spirit opened our eyes to the light of freedom in Christ. Jesus took us by the hand and led us out of Satan’s dark dominion, and into the light of His Kingdom, and “into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). As such, we want to live in the true freedom of the Gospel; using our liberty to live holy lives to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20).
3) Setting us free from our oppression to live in His acceptance and peace
Jesus sets us free to live in the light of a new day, free to live in His acceptance and peace. He pictures this as He reads in the scroll: “He has sent Me… to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
The word for “oppressed” pictures those who feel broken, crushed, dispirited. Even the believing Jews felt this in exile, especially when taunted by their captors. Yet they found relief and release through faith in the promised Messiah, who was coming to bring them liberation in His everlasting Kingdom and peace.
Today too, as believers living in exile in this fallen world, we may feel oppressed. Already we are set free from the condemnation and rule of sin and Satan; Christ has set us free. Yet we still feel the troubling effects of sin in this world. We feel it in the pain of broken relationships. How often do we feel crushed with regrets over the past, painful memories and scars caused by sin? How often do we feel dispirited with fears about the future, death, judgment? In all this, Satan taunts and tempts us, accuses and assails us, trying to bring us into captivity under his oppression.
But we are never without hope; for if God is for us, who can be against us? Satan has no charge against us, since God Himself has justified us in Christ. None of the troubles or trials in life, nothing in the present or the future, no dark forces of evil, not even death, can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:31-39). Truly, Jesus sets us free to live each day in His favor and peace.
This is what Jesus means by “the acceptable year of the Lord.” This recalls the Year of Jubilee, which God commanded the Israelites to celebrate every 50th year. In this year, all who in poverty had sold themselves as slaves, were set free at last. All debts across the land were cancelled. All property that had been sold in time of desperate need was returned to the original owners, so they could keep their inheritance in the Promised Land. And the land was given rest (Leviticus 25). What a time of jubilation for so many who had been impoverished and oppressed with troubles of life! And when at last God liberated His people from exile, and He brought them home, imagine what joy there was throughout the Promised Land!
But that Year of Jubilee with its restoration, release, and rest, pictured the greater spiritual Jubilee which Jesus Christ, the long-awaited Messiah has come to bring. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). In Christ, we live in the acceptable year of the Lord. In Christ, we live in God’s favor and peace as His redeemed, restored, and forgiven children. In Christ’s sacrifice, our entire debt of sin is forgiven. In Christ’s cleansing blood, we are baptized and washed pure and holy in God’s sight. In Christ, all things are made new. In Christ, we are given an inheritance in the Promised Land of heaven.
So let us rest our souls in His promises and rejoice in the Lord always! Today Jesus preaches His liberating Gospel, setting us free to live in the riches of His grace; free to live in the liberty of God’s children; free to live in His acceptance and peace. And one day, He will bring us home with that joyful multitude dressed in white, free from all sorrow, pain, and death; to live forever in the glorious freedom of the saints.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.