Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Luke 4:18–21
“[Jesus] 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’ ” (vv. 20–21).
Isaiah is one of the most beloved of all the Old Testament prophets, for his book is full of words of comfort for the repentant and some of the clearest descriptions of the work of the Messiah. The church has been right to look to Isaiah for assistance in understanding the identity of the Savior and His work. After all, today’s passage makes it clear that Jesus Himself understood His own ministry as a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. When He read from the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth, He stated that He fulfilled it (Luke 4:17–21). In other words, Jesus claimed to be the truest expression of Isaiah’s oracles, which had first been spoken by Isaiah some seven hundred years before Jesus’ teaching in Nazareth.
The specific text that Jesus read that day was Isaiah 61:1–2. In its original context, Isaiah refers to his own preaching of the end of the Jewish exile. The exile took place after Isaiah died, so the prophet foresaw a day when the Jews, suffering captivity in the land of their enemies, would need to hear a word of rescue. They would need to hear that the Lord was ending their exile and bringing them home.
By applying the text of Isaiah to His own ministry, Jesus was claiming to be a prophet greater than Isaiah. More than that, Christ was saying that He was the One to bring about the true end of the exile from the place of God’s blessing. This could happen only through the forgiveness of sins. Scripture makes it plain that the Jews were exiled to Babylon because of their impenitent, flagrant breaking of the covenant by their ongoing wickedness (Deut. 28:15–68; 2 Chron. 36:15–21). Consequently, the only way back was through the pardon of their sin (Deut. 30:1–3). Thus, the vocation of our Savior included the proclamation of the good news to the poor and liberty to the captives, and the giving of sight to the blind (Luke 4:18). Jesus came to redeem those who recognize their spiritual impoverishment and captivity to sin and turn to Him for rescue. This occurs, in part, through our Lord’s work to open the eyes of the spiritually blind to their sin, His power to do so demonstrated in the fact that He could also restore physical sight through His miracles (e.g., see 18:35–43).
Jesus does not read all of Isaiah 61:1–2, leaving out the note that the return from exile would also be a day of vengeance on the enemies of God and His people. Our Lord was hinting that judgment was being delayed, that the days of His earthly ministry would not be the day of divine wrath on sinners but a day of salvation.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
God, through Jesus Christ, will pour out final wrath on His enemies, but that was not what Jesus came to do in His first advent (John 3:16–17; Rev. 19:11–21). He came instead to bring the day of salvation, which even now continues (2 Cor. 6:2). One day Jesus will return to bring wrath, but today we proclaim the gospel of salvation to all, imploring them to repent and believe so that they will escape divine judgment.
FOR FURTHER STUDY
- Ezekiel 18
- Luke 19:1–10
- Romans 2:4
- 2 Peter 3:9
THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
- Numbers 4–5
- Mark 4