Original Meaning

THE NEXT LARGE section of Luke’s Gospel (4:14–9:50) describes Jesus’ ministry. It is dominated by teaching and miracles. Throughout the section the main question is, “Who is Jesus?” Various answers surface, such as teacher and prophet. These offices only begin to tell the story, for Jesus is much more than these titles suggest. The key reply comes from Peter in 9:18–20: Jesus is “the Christ of God.” He develops what this messianic role means in the verses that follow this confession. Strong opposition will rise up against Jesus and his followers, and he will be rejected as Messiah. In the midst of such opposition, Jesus begins to instruct the disciples that they must love differently than sinners do, for they must love their enemies.

Luke 4:14–44 summarizes Jesus’ powerful teaching and healing ministry. After noting in 4:14–15 how that ministry is drawing attention, Luke gives an exemplary day in the synagogue, where Jesus declares himself and his ministry to be the fulfillment of promise (4:16–30). Then follows a series of miracles that show his ability to cast out demons and heal (4:31–44). Those in Capernaum want him to stay, but his call requires that others hear about the kingdom of God as well. The unit shows the extent of Jesus’ claims and authority.

Luke 4:14–15 (cf. Matt. 4:13–17; Mark 1:14–15) introduces and summarizes the general character of Jesus’ ministry during its early Galilean stage. Since Galilee is Jesus’ home, it is not surprising that his ministry begins there. Exposure to Jesus in Galilee will be a requirement for apostolic selection (Acts 1:21–22), so this period is foundational for building up a base of disciples.

As with his temptations, Jesus is under the guidance of the Spirit. Luke loves to note how Jesus is responsive to God’s leading. As he ministers, his fame spreads.1 In the ancient world, these reports went by word of mouth. It is debated whether the reference to the power of the Spirit also alludes to Jesus’ miraculous activity.2 However, Luke makes it clear when Jesus’ miracles are in focus (5:17; 6:19; 8:46). What catches people’s interest is his teaching, so much so that they “praise” him. This word (doxazo) is normally reserved for praise to God.3

Luke goes on to illustrates his point (4:16–30). When Jesus preaches in the synagogue in Nazareth, the people are impressed with him, though not necessarily persuaded. In this important passage, we get a glimpse of how Jesus preaches in the synagogues and what he has to say about himself and his activities. Unlike the Sermon on the Plain (6:20–48), where the topic is the ethics of the disciple, Jesus here describes his mission.

This account of Jesus’ teaching ministry should be paired with Luke 4:31–44, which highlights his ministry of miracles. Jesus combines word and event. His message of love is supported by his ministry of compassion. Luke has transferred the synagogue event here from its location in Matthew 13:53–58 and Mark 6:1–6a.4 He details the nature of the exchange in the synagogue of Nazareth, so that we know much more about this scene than we do from the other Synoptics; this indicates its importance and representative character. This event becomes a snapshot of what Jesus’ entire Galilean ministry will be like: People will be amazed at his teaching and claims, but they will not flock to him.

The message of freedom in this passage is so distinct that it has become a central text for a theological movement known as “liberation theology.”5 This theology teaches that Jesus sides with the poor. In its more radical forms it advocates the use of any and all means of disruption to help those in power yield their oppressive grip on social structures so that the poor are no longer trapped in their social status. It sees a strong political message and overtone to Jesus’ message. Only a careful assessment of the passage itself can answer whether and in what way such emphases are present.

According to his custom, Jesus is in the synagogue on the Sabbath, a presence that reflects his respect for the worship of God. To appreciate what happens here, one must understand the synagogue service order. Our knowledge of such a service comes from ancient Jewish sources such as the Mishnah, the Jewish codification of their oral law.6 To have a service, ten men must be present. The congregation recites the Shema, the confession recorded in Deuteronomy 6:4–9. Then they share in prayer—some of them set prayers, such as the Tephillah (also called the Shemoneh Esreh and the Eighteen Benedictions). Then comes a reading from God’s Law, the Torah, followed by a reading of the Prophets. These texts are read in Hebrew and translated into Aramaic, the dominant language of the region. Then follows an exposition that usually ties the readings together, and the service closes with a benediction.

Presumably Jesus speaks during the exposition section of this service. This may explain a peculiarity in his citation, for he not only cites Isaiah 61:1–2, but mixes into it an allusion to Isaiah 58:6.7 The mixture may well represent a summary of a larger reading or set of remarks.

The text begins by certifying that the Spirit is on the speaker. In the context of Isaiah, the remarks foresee a prophetic figure who declares the arrival of divine salvation for the nation. The passage is not explicitly a Servant Song, but many of the themes of the Servant Songs are present. Since Jesus speaks of himself as fulfilling this text, he is the one to whom the text applies (v. 21). Insofar as the text speaks explicitly of being anointed by the Spirit, this anointing looks back to the bestowal of the Spirit on Jesus at his baptism by John (3:21–22).

Jesus’ task involves a message, and that message has an audience: the poor. It cannot be denied that “poor” here refers to those who live in a socially and economically limited environment. But according to the use of this term in the Old Testament and in Luke, that is not all that is intended here. The Old Testament background points to the anawim, the “pious poor,” the afflicted (2 Sam. 22:28; Pss. 14:6; 22:24; 25:16; 34:6; 40:17; 69:29; Amos 8:4; Isa. 3:14–15).8 These are the humble whom God will exalt (Luke 1:51–53) and who like the prophets suffer for being open to God (6:20–23; cf. the description in 1 Cor. 1:26–29; James 2:5). They are open to God and his way since they are frequently the first to recognize how much they need God.

To such spiritually open folks, Jesus proclaims release, recovery of sight, and freedom from oppression. The background to this imagery is the Year of Jubilee, in which all debts were declared null (Lev. 25:8–17). Just as the Year of Jubilee initiated a new start, so Jesus proclaims a new start through his offer of divine deliverance. He both proclaims that release and accomplishes it. His setting free of the blind probably alludes to both his miraculous work of the physically blind and his spiritual work of salvation, since Jesus brings light to those in darkness (see Luke 1:78–79).

The idea that Jesus actually brings liberty rather than merely proclaiming it alludes to Isaiah 58:6. Jesus actually uses this text in a contrastive way from its original setting. In Isaiah 58, God is making a complaint against the nation of Israel for not living out her calling in proper Sabbath worship. She has failed to be a source of liberty for those who are oppressed. The rebuke and call are especially clear in 58:13–14. Jesus will therefore do what Israel has failed to do: He will bring about the salvation of God and free those who suffer from the oppression that is a part of life (cf. also Luke 11:14–23, 31–32; 18:38–39; 19:37–38). This is why Jesus can speak of the arrival of “the year of the Lord’s favor,” the phrase that explicitly alludes to the release that came in the Jubilee Year.9

In sum, Jesus makes three points here: (1) He is anointed by the Spirit to perform a specific ministry; (2) he is a prophetic figure who declares the arrival of the new era; and (3) he will actually bring about the release that he proclaims. The combination means that Jesus functions as both prophet and Messiah.10 This combination is important, because the following verses compare Jesus to the prophets Elijah and Elisha, but his anointing recalls his messianic function.

Jesus concludes his remarks by telling his audience that they are seeing the fulfillment of these words of Isaiah. Now every Jew will know that Isaiah 61 was associated with the decisive end-time salvation of God, which Jesus will introduce. That program is going to come in phases, as will be made clear in the rest of Luke, but here Jesus notes that the fulfillment has started.

The crowd reacts with marvel at the words of grace spoken by Jesus and are overwhelmed by the content of his message. But assessment must follow. The issue of Jesus’ pedigree raises questions in their minds. This is Joseph’s son, so how can such a humble figure possibly be all the things declared by Isaiah. They cannot fit Jesus’ ancestry with his claims.11 Despite their amazement, they are skeptical.

Jesus responds with three points. (1) He cites a proverb expressing a request that one should do his work in his own backyard to prove his claims. The call for the physician to heal himself is a demand that Jesus do the works he has done elsewhere and show himself approved.12 The townsfolk want him to show his stuff. There is another possible implication in their choice of this proverb. It may suggest that though Jesus presents himself as one who can heal, they ironically believe he is sick in some sense. Something is not quite right with his claim of fulfillment. Something about Jesus needs treatment, unless he can prove otherwise.

(2) Jesus notes how a prophet is without honor in his own land. Jesus knows that many of Israel’s prophets in the Old Testament were not well received—a theme Luke notes elsewhere (11:49–52; 13:32–35; 20:10–12; Acts 7:51–53). God’s message often meets with rejection.

(3) Jesus then gets specific. He singles out the period of Elijah and Elisha, one of the lowest, most apostate periods of the nation’s history (1 Kings 17–18; 2 Kings 5:1–14). He reminds the people that during that time, the prophets did no work in the nation but they did heal a couple of Gentiles! This remark is strong for two reasons: (a) It compares the current era to one of the least spiritual periods in Israel’s history, and (b) it suggests that Gentiles, who were intensely disliked among the Jews, were more worthy of ministry than they were. Jesus is warning his audience that their reaction recalls some of the lowest years in Israel’s past. A choice surrounds Jesus, and to choose wrongly is to lose opportunity for blessing. In that sense Jesus’ message is like John the Baptist’s warning. The opportunity for blessing holds out an equal opportunity for judgment, if the wrong choice is made.

Jesus’ remark angers the crowd, and they want to remove him and cast him over the cliff—possibly an allusion to their perception that he is a false prophet worthy of complete rejection (Deut. 13:5–6). Instead Jesus walks away. The opportunity for blessing has become a moment when paradise is lost.

Bridging Contexts

THIS SECTION BEGINS with a glimpse of the importance of teaching for Jesus’ ministry. To be responsive to God, one must know what he desires and how he sees issues. Thus teaching from God is a central component to his ministry. What makes Jesus’ teaching stand out is the authority with which it is delivered, as this Gospel will make clear.

When one turns to the scene of Jesus’ preaching in the synagogue, it becomes evident that his mission is unique. The note of fulfillment he raises has at its base the message of release. Virtually every aspect of Jesus’ message and ministry has relevance to us. For example, when Paul and Barnabas preach in Acts 13, they call themselves “light” (Acts 13:47), using the same image that is applied to Jesus here. Their message parallels his message, and their call is an outgrowth of his. Jesus can therefore say to those who hear the gospel preached: To hear them is to hear me.

The kind of reaction Jesus gets shows that he does not fit our expectations about where the origins of God’s decisive agent ought to be. Some people never get past Jesus’ background. Would the God of the universe manifest his glorious message in someone of such humble roots? The answer in part comes in Jesus’ own message. He preaches to the pious poor, so that in reaching out to them, he is someone who can identify with them. The picture of a grand, regal, and elite Messiah is what most expected. The fact that Jesus is merely Joseph’s son is too much for them. As the complaint in John 1:46 puts it, “Can anything good come from [Nazareth]?” As we already noted in the infancy material, God sometimes surprises us by the way he works and how he chooses to reveal himself.

The nature of Jesus’ criticism and the crowd’s reaction to it are also significant. Jesus warns that failure to respond positively to him risks making the doubting generation equal to the worst days in Israel’s history. Those thus criticized and warned respond with anger. Both the warning and the response are elements we need to hear today.

Some may ask whether the presence of a synagogue audience and the use of Isaiah mean that Jesus’ remarks are uniquely aimed at Israel. In one sense, Jesus is inviting this specific audience to participate as a faithful “remnant” in God’s plan. Later, Jesus will explain how those who refuse the invitation lose out on something that is offered to others (14:15–24). The party will not be delayed or put off; instead, the invitation to celebrate is extended to others. What is offered here is still part of the promise Jesus offers to all, both to those inside and those outside the nation of Israel (Eph. 2:11–22).

Contemporary Significance

IT IS IMPORTANT to appreciate how central good teaching is to ministry. In an era when feelings and interpersonal relationships are high on the agenda, it is wise to reflect on why Jesus spent so much time instructing people. One of the fundamental biblical assumptions is that human cultures distort reality. Our minds need reshaping and renewing, so that our feelings and reactions will be more like what God desires (Rom. 12:1–2).13 In a provocative summary, Walsh and Middleton have analyzed our culture’s total commitment to science, technology, and economics this way:

We are living in the “last days” under the economy of the unholy trinity. The promised land is just around the corner, and we are in the final stage of secular “redemptive history.” Just as God the Father sent the Son to effect our salvation, and the Holy Spirit now dwells with us to apply that salvation to our lives in the here and now, so it is in the redemptive history of secularism. The absolutization of science in the Renaissance fathered a tremendous technology which brings salvation, and the blessing and presence of these humanistic deities are today mediated to us through the economistic consumer society in which we live and move and have our being. The high god, scientism, in its omniscience conceived a divine plan and sent the son of technical mastery to subdue nature for our benefit. Divine reason took on flesh in the scientific-technological conquest of the natural world.

When the disciples of the new religion gathered at the industrial revolution, the spirit of capitalism was outpoured. And now in these last days we are filled with this spirit and empowered to do mighty acts of production and consumption, looking for and hastening the day when the invisible hand will cause the blessings of the economistic age to trickle down to all nations. And in that day everyone, great and small, will have prosperity. From the beginning of time never has such a day been; wealth will cover the earth, and weeping and toil will be no more.

In the words of Canadian songwriter Bruce Cockburn, our modern prophets have offered us

something for nothing, new lamps for old,

and the streets will be platinum, never mind gold.

But as Cockburn continues,

Well, hey, pass it on.

Misplaced your faith and the candy man’s gone.

How the vision is shattered! The age of unlimited economic expansion is coming to an abrupt close. We are coming up against the limits of creation itself. God’s covenantal curses are raining on our heads for our idolatrous disobedience. The secular gods have not delivered. When a culture’s gods fail, the time is ripe for serious world view reconsideration.14

It takes careful cultural discernment to know how to respond to the subtleties our culture feeds us.

Since Jesus’ ministry was built around his teaching and since he showed that God’s will was not what the religious culture was delivering, then how careful should we be to make sure that our communities are well instructed and grounded in God’s truth! Such instruction means careful pastoral preparation of messages, including giving the pastor enough time to do it as well as developing training institutions that focus on substance. Encouragement should be given to underwrite students who seek to train for ministry, not by seeing how quickly they can complete their training, but how deeply grounded they will be when they emerge to enter ministry. A colleague of mine has asked how may of us would be proud and comforted to hear from a heart surgeon before we are wheeled into the operating theater that he got his degree in a year or two! How much more for those who minister to the soul! If teaching is central to effective ministry of the church, then solid training should be at the top of the list. Is it any accident Jesus trained his disciples for over three years to prepare them for their role as apostles?

It is not merely a matter of teaching doctrine and facts, but also of relating that teaching to life and putting flesh and blood on it. I often tell my students that the ministry is as much exhortation and encouragement as pure teaching. We speak to hearts, not just minds. But there must be content to send to the heart, or else we are ministering with nothing more than what a person can get in the lifestyles section of the bookstore or what they can receive from their neighborhood counselors.

The major application emerging from the scene where Jesus preaches in the synagogue involves the nature of his mission. The church’s call is but an extension of Jesus’ mission. The fulfillment he proclaims is part of the fulfillment that the church proclaims. Values reflected in this mission should be reflected in the church’s outreach. For example, the church should engage in its preaching and evangelistic task with an understanding that the gospel message is more suited to those who are poor and already live in a dependent context. Independent, well-to-do people often have a false sense of security about life, as if it is really within their control. Our culture tells people to take control of their own lives—as if they can grab life by the reins and steer their own way. The poor, however, live under no such delusions and are usually better prepared to turn toward God.

Despite this potential openness of the poor and the suitability of the gospel for them, ministry groups often target the wealthy. Ministry in the inner city or in less visible locales are often hard to launch and sustain. The church, of course, is called to offer the gospel to all people, so ministry to these other social groupings is not wrong. But the text does raise the question of whether more effort should be made to minister to those groups for whom the gospel may be an easier fit.

We ought also to raise the question about how best to reveal our concern and compassion for those in need. Sometimes in saying, “God loves you and has a plan for your life,” an act of compassion illustrates our claim more than any opening evangelistic line. True, the gospel is not primarily a commitment to change society but hearts. Yet when hearts are changed, compassion emerges and society is changed. Expressing concern for people can become a powerful tool in evangelism. Jesus communicated this sense of redemption to notorious sinners and those who stood in dire need. His relating to people’s pain had much to do with it. The people not only heard his message of repentance, forgiveness, release, and fulfillment of promise, but they also saw his compassion and care.

Another major application of this passage centers on the nature of salvation. The one metaphor that dominates Jesus’ declaration of fulfillment here is release. The picture of Jubilee, which foresees a total release from all enemies and debt, wonderfully describes the essence of salvation. The books are wiped clean; all legal obligations are removed through the grace Jesus provides. In addition, there is a new way of seeing, so that life from the old perspective is now appreciated as darkness and blindness. One needs only to look at Jesus’ compassionate ministry through miracles to see the sense of release that so many experienced from what he did. These miracles, as we shall argue shortly, are an audio-visual of deeper realities that are at the center of his work.

According to this passage, the church must care about the oppressed. There is much discussion today about how our culture fails to take responsibility for its actions, becoming instead a culture of victims in which everyone else is blamed for my problems but there is no recognition of the sin and responsibility I bear for the present situation. Whether it be bad parents, the other gender, a poor environment growing up, or some other outside constraint, our culture says I am who I am because of outside forces.

Such a cultural reading reflects blindness. For while it recognizes the pervasive presence of sin in the world, it ignores my own personal contribution to that mix. Sin is in every house but my own. Such a distorted view of reality cannot help us deal with what is really wrong in our world, since the one person each of us has most access to is our own individual soul. Yet Jesus focuses less on how to change societal structures and more on how to change the individual. Structures cannot change until the people who operate them are changed. The world of “I want” ends up crushing others who get in the way. With an honesty about sin and a compassion for others comes the possibility of reversing the oppression that reigns in the world.

Part of the liberty of the gospel is coming to the Father with the recognition that he supplies what we really need to release us from perspectives in life that chain us down and cause us to mistreat others. This is why in other texts where Jesus describes his mission, he makes it clear that he focuses on calling sinners to repentance and on finding the lost (5:31–32; 19:10). The way to start fixing what is wrong in the world is to start with fixing ourselves. Only then will we have the eyes to see how we contribute to the problems that sometimes make the world a painful place of broken relationships.

As the church calls people to take a serious look at themselves, patterning itself after Jesus in his comparison of the current generation to the spiritually empty days of Elijah and Elisha, the church must also understand that many will not respond with joy to the mirror held up to their faces. Sometimes rejection is an indication of success, not failure. This is because the gospel does not tickle the ears of its hearers with compliments. It can be hard to look into a truly reflective mirror and see what is there.

The church has a difficult task. On the one hand, to discuss redemption and release we must mention sin. On the other hand, the offer of the gospel is ultimately positive, so that the goal is not a message of doom but of hope. Granted there is a choice at stake, but the offer is made to anyone who will enter. God has an open door for any heart that is open. The risk of the church is that we will become selective in our choice of sins or set a decidedly negative tone as we risk becoming defensive in the face of a hostile culture. Abortion or homosexuality are bad, but somehow divorce, greed, covetousness, mental cruelty, or abuse of power are tolerable. To have credibility in identifying sin, the list cannot be selective or prioritized in such a way that some sins are less dangerous or more dignified than others.

Though Jesus outlines his mission here, the application emerges when we reflect on the entirety of his career that mirrors the values of his divinely-commissioned ministry. I always am left wondering when I consider Jesus’ ministry as a whole that although he challenged all sin, he tended to be clearer about the more subtle sins we tend to downplay. These ideas and applications reflect what it means to gain liberty and adopt a new perspective that the gospel calls us to possess.

One final note emerges. Sometimes blessing surfaces in surprising places. When Elijah and Elisha began their ministry, they would have been dumbfounded had someone told them that their major miracles would involve a widowed Gentile and a leprous Syrian, neither of whom were in their target audience. In other words, this passage warns us against being able to figure God out. Jesus’ reference to Elijah and Elisha illustrates that some of those whom God blesses (Gentiles) were not among those one would have expected him to bless (Israel), given the nature of the promise at the start. We must remain open to God’s turning our ministries in directions we do not anticipate. Sometimes a closed door in one field is an open door to another opportunity.

Such changes can take various forms. I know of many people with opportunities to minister who say, “I don’t have any experience at that!” In the process they may be turning away from something fresh God may do. Note that when God did open up the gospel to Gentiles in Acts, he had to convince the church that this new direction was possible (Acts 10–11). He had to reveal and support that revelation with his continued direction. Only as the church allows itself to be so led in reaching out to people—not by changing the essence of the message but by thinking through the various ways God can reach those is need—will the church penetrate the various groups of lost people he calls us to reach.