Isaiah 61:1-2
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.
It was with this passage of Scripture that Jesus chose to announce his advent to the world in the synagogue at Nazareth. Jesus, upon reading this aloud, declared “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” It is an odd thing to say and struck the hearers as such. Jesus had not, as yet, given any good tidings, bound up any brokenhearted, proclaimed any liberty, opened any prisons, wrought any vengeance, nor comforted any mourners. He had lived for thirty years in Nazareth, doing manual labor, quietly going to synagogue, and living a life largely undistinguishable from his neighbors. More recently, he had wandered off to be baptized by John. “What had come over him?” his neighbors wondered. The answer was there in the Scripture: The Spirit of the Lord was upon him (as He had always been). Jesus was announcing that he—-he himself—-was New Years Day incarnate and that all the joyous revolutions, fresh beginnings, new hopes, and glorious second chances there ever were or ever will be were all summed up in him. He went on to prove it in a big way, but the seed of it was not in the deeds he did, but in the Spirit who empowered the deeds!
