This is the Year of the Lord's Favor

Luke 4:16–21 ESV

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and 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 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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.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.”

20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Setting

Jesus went as usual to church on Sabbat

custom to let visiting Rabbis give the sermon

scroll, hand it to teacher, it’s Isaiah, stands to read v18-19, sits to preach

shortest sermon ever, all eyes on him - “today this is fulfilled in your hearing”

Shortest sermon ever… but theres quite a lot in it.

Simply put - Jesus is announcing his mission.

“to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”

but… what?

To understand what’s being said, we need to hear it with the ears of those there. They knew exactly what Jesus was talking about.

Why? Because they grew up in the OT. They didn’t just treat it like a history book. They were waiting it’s promises.

This language is Jubilee language.

Now, for some of you that know your Bible’s I just got your attention, but for others of us more new to Christianity I want to help you out.

Jubilee - a special year - every 49 years (every seven sevens) Every 50 years was jubilee! Trumpets announced it, and with it came

the freeing of bond servants from their debt.

once pharaohs slaves - never again - so free every 7

all loans against lang - forgiven. every 50 all land went back to its original tribe and family.

so what it really looked like - was all God’s people are freed. No more bondage, you are going home.

But it was more than a festival, more than an economic reset, it was a sign. A prophecy.

just like passover, just like the Jewish day of atonement, Jubilee pointed forward to the coming messiah. It’s about jesus.

and that’s the language Jesus uses here.

Good news to the poor, setting the captives free, sight to the blind.

And the point of the greater Jubilee is not just “no more debt” financially - but your sin debt to God is paid.

Physical poverty relief is a sign of future spiritual poverty relief.

And so the good news - my friends - is that today we live in the time of Jubilee! Your sin debt can be paid!

The trumpet blasts the Gospel truth and you can rejoice! no longer a slave, but a son.

You’re goingi home.

NOW! let’s dig a little deeper.

We should also say, this is more than just a physical representation of a spiritual reality.

Jesus said “that when he sets a man free he is free indeed”

free from sin debt. but what about actual debt? to visa? mastercard? debt to stupid decisions?

Debt to a thief that stuck you with a high interest rate when you were to young to know better?

The two - spiritual debt and financial - they are related.

Example - if we took a map and put a pin everywhere that has been heavily influenced by Christianity - take out the same map, diff color pins, and start putting them wherever slavery has been abolished, the economy has grown to save many from poverty, near total literacy, increased life expectancty, eradication of diseases, less infant mortality… literal sigh tto the blind. . .

after a moment you’ll notice you’re putting pins on top of pins.

spiritual poverty and earthly poverty are related - spiritual slavery and actual slavery - cnonected.

Example: why were the children of israel in slavery to pharoah. If you pay close attention to the story its because they worshipped the egyptian gods and refused to cry out to the god of the covenant until things got really really bad. When they turned to God, they were set free. Its connected

Dualism: we live in a dualistic worldview. For example: when we sin, the bible says its coming from our heart. But what do we do? We blame our brain, our stomach-- i was hungry-- our emotions. We blame temptations. We announce victimhood

but if I blamed my fists when I attacked someone - my hormones for commiting adultry - youd throw somethign at me.

we excuse sin w/ platitudes - “Boys will be boys” “well you know how women are” “kids these days...”

we’ve accepted cultural stereotypes as true,

But the Bible tells us that sin is sin and we ought repent.

We think that th gospel has good news for our hearts, but for our chemicals, our hormones, our emotions, our children, our family, our town, our relationships..well that's going to require earthly powers to altar. No, its all connected. When you experience spiritual freedom you will begin (not perfectly or automatically or even totally) but you will begin to experience freedom in all of life.

Mistakes with these passages

Some read this and say “see? Jesus cares for the poor, therefore we need to government to come in and fix it!” More taxes, more coercion.

Some read this and say “ah, but this is just a spiritual freedom, not a literal one.

but here, we have a saying to keep us centered - All of Christ - in all of life.

Lets say that revival breaks out in a country. Real revival, real reformation. From the bottom and works its way all the way up to the top.

A nation that follows Jesus, will no longer allow for things like slavery. And over time the Gospel works it’s way into the hearts of the people and true transformation happens.

But watch out - there is a false Gospel. A temptation to turn from Christ towards another savior. A belief that through the power of the state, we can remove sin, slavery, suffering from the world.

and rid the world of the real problem.

This hs happened many times in history. “Those Jews… those are the real problem.”

A nation that submits to Jesus, can expect true freedom - all the way down.

A nation that exalts itself. Nebachadnezzar.

And Jesus - is inaugurating this kingdom

But wait - didn’t they try to throw Jesus off a cliff?

Luke 4:28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.

but why? they were poor, oppressed, enslaved… by the gentiles. Why would they lash out against jesus?

Luke 4:27 there were many lepers[a] in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

in other words, this jubilee favor flows not against the gentiles, but to them.

and the people of Israel hated him for it.

Why? Because the Jews and Romans were constantly at odds. Uprisings happened often, quashed by armies.

The Jews didn’t realize that the struggle wasn’t between the oppressed Jews and the oppressor Romans - but between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light.

But the year of Jubilee is for the whole world. For any and all who would believe. No matter who you are.

There is a parallel for us today.

We’re fighting over government power, rule of law by the state, who can be in control, who can ...

And whoever is in control - well it’s Jubilee for me, but not for you.

And Jesus is coming, not just to liberate the poor, not just POC, not just Jews or Gentiles, but to liberate the righteous from oprression by the wicked.

to liberate believers from the slavery of satan.

Do you want this? Of course you do. Then hear the trumpet and believe!

What about my sin and my evil? What about all our sins? What about our corporate sins as a nation? Can we just be set free?

Do you know how the year of Jubilee was initiated in the Old Testament?

with the day of atonement. It was kicked off with the sacrifice of the lamb for the sins of the people of God.

Do you get it? The atonement has been made. The trumpet is sounding.

Repent, believe and be FREE

and have everlasting life.

who the Son sets free is FREE INDEED

and if you choose to sit in sin and death, then you remain in darkness. bondage. but you do not have to.

He’s announcing that he’s been annointed (set apart, commissioned) for a task.

what task? to preach good news to the poor. but preaching is not just talking about somehitng - it’s proclaiming it with POWER annointed power.

And what was this good news? The Gospel - an emancipation proclamation to the slaves of sin and satan.

To whom?

The poor - the dispossessed - the marginalized - the exploited

specifically - the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed.

isaiah promised future relief - Jesus announced that it was at hand.

Mary even spoke of this in Luke 1:53

“he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty”

Ok, so in order to say this we have to make a few observations.

First - Isaiah, Mary and Jesus both recognize - there is a hierarchy. a pyramid of power.

notice - they don’t object to the pyramid though. they didn’t say everything will be flattened. They did however make it clear… the pyramid would flip.

The Jews listening weren’t stoked either. Because Jesus made it clear this was a global event, he wasn’t just saying the Jews will be in power again.

in other words - they could imagine the liberation of the Jews from Rome, but not of the gentiles.