Waiting for Justice

Luke 4:17–19 ESV

17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

At Advent we wait. We wait for the fulfillment of the Servant Song in Isa 42.4

Isaiah 42:4 ESV

4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.

At Advent we wait and rest in the reality that God has broken in on our world, and nothing can derail his plan to bring forth justice to the nations. Nothing will cause him to grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth. The world is riddled with injustice and unrighteousness, but the kingdom of God is permeated with justice and goodness. This is the message that Jesus delivered to the Nazareth synagogue in Luke 4. And it’s the message he delivers to us this season.

Jubilee & Justice

In this section of Luke’s gospel, Luke is telling us about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry as an itinerant preacher, traveling through the surrounding country of Galilee teaching in the synagogues (Luke 4:14-15).

It’s interesting that his ministry begins this way after Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan. Following Jesus’ overcoming the devil’s temptations, Luke can say in 4:14, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.” He returns from the wilderness after proving himself to be the second Adam, the Son of God who will not give in to Satan’s temptations and tricks. Now his ministry can begin in full proclaiming the message of the kingdom of God.

Eventually comes to his hometown and Luke gives us a peek into the content of the message Jesus had been delivering throughout the region of Galilee. Jesus declares himself to be the fulfillment of the words spoken in Isaiah 61.

Luke 4:18–19 ESV

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The drama of this scene is thick. He rolls up the scroll, gives it back to the attendant, then he sits down to teach, to exposit this Scripture, and everyone in the synagogue is mesmerized. But no one is expecting what he says next. “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus is proclaiming here a world-wide jubilee. The jubilee to end all jubilees. Every 7th day was a Sabbath day. Every 7th year was a Sabbath year. Then, after seven cycles of Sabbath years (49 years) came the year of jubilee. The year of jubilee was a year of liberty. Slaves were set free. Debts were forgiven. Lost property was restored. The problem is that Israel never really faithfully celebrated the jubilee. It’s hard to give up all of that stuff; for money lenders to forgive all debts; for the wealthy to give up all of their servants; for people to give land back to the poor. So, Isaiah comes along and prophesies about the jubilee God would bring about; a jubilee to end all jubilees.

The world is indeed ruled by and riddled with injustice. Who have the worst of it in the world? The poor, those who are captives (enslaved), those who suffer from physical disabilities, those who feel the weight of oppression. It is the truth that everyone of us are needy. We are all poor in Spirit. Every one of us remains in bondage to sin if Jesus doesn’t break in and free us. Every one of us is spiritually blind without the grace of God breaking in to open our eyes that we might see our desperate need for him.

And we are tempted to over-spiritualize this passage to think that Jesus is simply talking about that aspect, those who are “poor in spirit,” those who are captive to sin, those who are spiritually blind, and those who are under spiritual oppression because of their sin. While those things are true, to over-spiritualize these words, or to only spiritualize these words is to miss God’s heart, desire, and plan for the light of justice to break in on a unjust world. A world that is unjust because of sin.

Here is the deal with the justice aspect of the good news. This proclamation of liberty and freedom is the totality of the deliverance that Jesus brings. So, it certainly includes freedom from the bondage of sin and addiction (forgiveness/liberty). But it most certainly also includes what makes for us being enabled to live with the dignity inherent in being one who bears the image of God. Jesus proclaims liberty from the things that mar us or prevent us from the dignity inherent in being an image bearer. It is both and, not either or. The redemption that he brings is full, whole, and complete redemption. It is a spiritual and a physical restoration to dignity as a child of God.

Some of the things that mar our dignity are our own doing. We embrace sin, ungodliness, unrighteousness and deny dignity to ourselves. We ourselves are willing to call evil good and good evil. In other words, we ourselves are unjust. Some of the things that mar our dignity are is imposed on us from the outside. Oppression, slavery, or man-stealing is still practiced and promoted in places around the world; unjust judges and societies where the amount of justice you receive is determined by how much money you have; corporate greed. Dignity marred from within and dignity marred from without. Jesus came to liberate us from both.

This has implications for how we do life as individuals and as a church, because it has implications for how we understand life. When we minister to those who are incarcerated we understand that both realities are in effect. People have broken the law. They’ve committed a crime. They’ve sinned. And there’s a price to pay when you commit a crime. People are responsible for their own actions. But very often, people haven’t had access to opportunity because of factors outside of their control. They’ve been set up to fail. Society is imbalanced, and justice isn’t distributed equally to all.

How amazing it is that in order to establish justice, Jesus embraced the full brunt of injustice (falsely accused, imprisoned, abused at the hands of authorities). He did it so that justice wouldn’t be about “just us.” As much as we should work and labor to address injustice, Jesus calls us to faith as we do it. He calls us to faith in him, and his unwillingness to become discouraged or weary until he has established his justice in the earth. That is our hope this Advent. That is our hope every day.