In today’s gospel reading from Luke, Jesus is asked to read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. As we just heard, he chose to read the following words, (listen carefully):

“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.”

Then Jesus began His teaching with these words:

“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Now Jesus was at the synagogue in Nazareth, His home town, when this took place. According to Luke, after being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went into the wilderness to fast and pray. While He was in the wilderness, He was tempted by the devil for forty days. Having overcome this trial of temptations, Jesus now goes to His hometown filled with the Spirit of the Lord. Why His hometown? Jesus must go and reveal His true identity to those who know Him best before He can begin His ministry on earth.

The reading from Isaiah that Jesus chooses to read describes Jesus’ mission statement of what He has been called by the Lord to do. As members of Christ’s Body, these words from the prophet Isaiah are also the Church’s mission statement. Notice, I did not say commission, but mission. There is a difference. The Great Commission was Jesus’ marching orders to His disciples (and now the Church) of spreading Jesus’ ministry throughout the world. While mission describes the ministry of Jesus which is now the Church’s ministry.

Please turn to page 1179 in your pew Bibles. We are going to look at the passage of scripture in the gospel of Matthew, chapter twenty-eight, verses sixteen through twenty. Keep in mind that the following event took place after Jesus’ resurrection and right before His Ascension into Heaven. These are Jesus’ last words to His disciples so they are very important. The scripture reads:

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

I believe that one of the greatest hindrances of the Church’s obedience in fulfilling the Great Commission is the lack of understanding as to just what we the Church are supposed to be proclaiming. I also believe that Jesus’ first teaching and His choice of scriptures that He read from the prophet Isaiah are critical to what we the Church are called to do. If we take the time to study Jesus’ ministry on earth and His ultimate sacrifice of His life for all peoples, I believe that we will see the fulfilling of Isaiah’s words.

Jesus ministry was directed to the poor and downtrodden in society. He did not go to Herod’s Palace and sit with Herod’s advisors to advise the King of Judea on matters of the State; instead, Jesus did just the opposite by seeking out the outcasts of society. In fact, the only record we have of Jesus in Herod’s palace was when He was taken there as a prisoner and was ridiculed.

The ministry of Jesus happened in peoples’ homes, in the streets and roads, in the open fields of Judea and along the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  Although He first announced the beginning of His ministry in a synagogue; He was rarely found teaching in them. The teachers and scribes came to wherever Jesus was to listen to Him. He did not go to them.

Why would even the teachers of the Law of Moses seek out Jesus? What was it that drew them to Him? Jesus introduced something new into the teachings of Moses. In a culture that was divided and bound by class and gender, Jesus focused on the mercy and love of God.

To those who had been ostracized by who they were through birth or circumstances, Jesus brought them hope. Isaiah reads, “He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.”  Even though society had turned their backs on the poor and downtrodden, Jesus brought them the good news of God’s love. Jesus let them know that God had not turned His back on them.

To those who were held in the bondage of sin, Jesus proclaimed to them the forgiveness of God. This was in fulfillment of Isaiah’s words, “He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives.” In fact, it was this proclaiming of forgiveness for known sinners that often got Jesus into trouble with the authorities. The Judaic authorities believed that only God had authority to forgive sins. Jesus’ forgiveness and setting the ‘captives of sin’ free from their bondage through a transformation of a new life as new creations was seen as blasphemy.

Jesus not only healed physically blind people of their blindness, but also opened the spiritual eyes of those who had been spiritually blinded by false doctrines. We see this in the case of Nicodemus, who came to Jesus in the darkness of night to learn from Him. Through Jesus’ revelation of God’s Word concerning the importance of spiritual transformation through regeneration, Nicodemus eventually became one of Jesus’ followers. At Jesus’ death, it was Nicodemus who went with Joseph of Arimathea to bury Jesus. This new spiritual insight that was received by Nicodemus fulfilled Isaiah’s words of prophecy, “recovery of sight to the blind’.

When Jesus intervened in the stoning of the adulterous woman, He fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy “to let the oppressed go free”. Jesus saved this woman’s life from certain death by inviting her oppressors that were “without sin” to cast the first stone. After the woman’s accusers left her unharmed, then Jesus told the woman, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.” The woman was let go by Jesus to sin no more.

The last line of Isaiah’s prophecy “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” was fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection. The year of the Lord’s favor was a Judaic custom that marked the ‘year of jubilee’ in which restoration was made. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, restoration to God was made for all who accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

As we have seen, the prophetic words of Isaiah were fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Now it is our turn. We the Church have been commissioned by Jesus to continue His ministry on earth. As St. Paul told the Corinthians in his first letter to them, “For in the Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free…” As the Body of Christ, the Church consists of many different members. Through our baptism, we have all been given different gifts to do the ministry of the Lord. Not one of us can say to another member that their gift of ministry is unimportant, for we need one another’s gifts to do the work of the Lord.

Imagine what this world would be like, if the Church focused on working together in unity and harmony to do the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. The poor would hear the good news, the captives would be released, the blind would see and the oppressed would be set free to serve the Lord God. Then we would enter into the fullness of the ‘Jubilee of the Lord’ as God’s restoration of humanity through Jesus Christ was fulfilled. What a different and blessed place this earth would be in which to live as new creations transformed into the image of Jesus.