Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:14-21 NRSV)
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” This is good news isn’t it?
It is good news if you are poor, captive, blind, and oppressed. If you are not any of these things then this message does not pertain to you. And most of us in today’s society would say we are not poor, captive, blind or oppressed. We are just fine all on our own and we don’t need anyone or anything to help us out. We are self made people and have it all together all on our own. So then this good news is not for us. This good news is only for people who are willing to admit they are broken, poor, captive, blind and oppressed. We have to admit we can not do it on our own.
The good news of Luke is only good when we first see it as Bad News. The bad news that we are not who we can be. We are not who we should be. We are not who we ought to be, and we never will be on our own. But if we can admit we need His assistance, then He will be there to give us everything we need.
So admit you don’t have it all together and lean on Him…
aSacredRebel 