Luke 4:18

Luk_4:18-22

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor

The acceptable year of the Lord

Every Christian would wish to know what were the first words spoken by Jesus as a preacher of good tidings.

Two of the evangelists seem to gratify this natural curiosity. According to Matthew the Beatitudes were the inaugural utterances of the Galilean gospel; according to the third evangelist, not the sermon on the mount, but the sermon in the synagogue of Nazareth. There is reason to believe that neither of the sermons occupied the place of an inaugural discourse. Luke himself knows of things previously done, and we may assume said also, in Capernaum (verse 23). Why then does he introduce this scene at so early a place in the narrative? He has selected it to be the frontispiece of his Gospel, showing by sample the salient features of its contents. Probable that for St. Lukes own mind the emblematic significance of the scene lay chiefly in these two features: the gracious character of Christs discourse, and the indication in the close of the universal destination of the gospel.

These were things sure to interest the Pauline evangelist. It is a worthy frontispiece, in respect both of the grace and of the universality of the gospel.

1. In the first place the text of Christs discourse was a most gracious one; none more so could have been found within the range of Old Testament prophecy. Made more gracious than in the original by the omission of the reference to the day of vengeance, and by the addition of a clause to make the Messiahs blessed work as many-sided and complete as possible.

2. If Christs text was full of grace, His sermon appears to have been not less so. That this was so the evangelist indicates when he makes use of the phrase words of grace to denote its general character. That phrase, indeed, he reckoned the fittest to characterize Christs whole teaching as recorded in his Gospel, and on that very account it is that he introduces it here.

3. In respect of the universal destination of the gospel, the scene is also sufficiently significant. The attempt on the life of Jesus foreshadows the tragic event through which the Prophet of Nazareth hoped to draw to Himself the expectant eyes of all men. The departure of Jesus from His own town is a portent of Christianity leaving the sacred soil of Judea, and setting forth into the wide world in quest of a new home.

4. The two features most prominent in this frontispiece are just the salient characteristics of the Christian era. It is the era of grace, and of grace free to all mankind. And on these accounts it is the acceptable year of the Lord. It is acceptable to God. It should be acceptable to us. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)

The interrupted sermon

In the course of His first preaching tour Jesus came to Nazareth. It was the Sabbath. He entered the synagogue according to His custom. Observe--for the greatest revolutionist the world had ever seen the current forms and church services of the day sufficed. He was even willing to pour the new wine into the old bottles till the old bottles burst. He enters the village synagogue--His parish church. He offers to read the lesson; He ascends the pulpit; the clerk hands up a roll of the prophet Isaiah; before Him are a curious medley of faces--the eastern women veiled behind lattice-work on one side, the men of the village with a sprinkling of the tradesfolk and gentry on the other. He unrolls the scroll and finds the place, Isa_61:1. I wish our clergywould always take care to find the right place--the suitable text--the passage in season. In this case it was actually the lesson for the day. So out of routine the Lord brings life. He reads, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. Ah, without that spiritual concentration in the pulpit as well as in the pew, priest may preach and people may hear in vain: He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. Yes, you neglected, suffering people, the Saviour of the world places you on a level with the favoured of the earth. The permanent and the spiritual belongs to you as much as to them; the same Father; the same love revealed; the same heaven beyond--are for you. To heal the broken-hearted. What a lift there is for the sorrowful in the sympathy of God, that steals like summer light into the darkened room; no despair can ever quite keep it out. Recovery of sight to the blind. The mists of passion, the clouds of prejudice, the veil of selfishness, the pall of spiritual ignorance, lo, at a touch the scales fall off, you see yourselves as others see you, you know as you are known, your heart grows pure, you see God. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. There He stopped. The next words of Isaiah are, The day of vengeance of our God. He would not break into that new train of thought which might clash with the spirit of His sermon. The last words of the text should be words of peace, though the end was to be tumult. He closed the book, and sat down to deliver His sermon. We shall never know what the sermon was. It began with a searching application; no beating about the bush. This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. It ended with that fierce storm of invective which was the Lords dauntless reply to the rage of an envenomed minority. He has fascinated the majority. They wondered at the gracious words, &c.; but the conceited gentry could not bear to be lectured by a Carpenter, and they soon let Him know it. Enough of that, they cried. A sign! a sign! you can do wonders at Capernaum; give us a taste of your quality here. A miracle is worth all this talk--unwholesome, democratic talk about the poor, and a message for all men, and pray what is to become of us if we are to be mixed up with the rabble? It was all over with the sermon. The knot of malcontents expressed their dissent loudly, and were resolved to break up the meeting. So Christ cast His bread upon the waters. The last words maddened His adversaries, but they struck the second key-note of His ministry. The first was peace on earth; goodwill towards men. A gospel of healing, liberty, illumination, and comfort for all, beginning with the lowest of the people. The second key-note was an implacable opposition to bigotry, heartlessness, and formalism. You want a sign? You shall have one. My signs are the seals of my teaching. Those who accept my teaching get my signs. You will have none of my message, you shall have none of my miracles. You are no better than your fathers, who persecuted the prophets. Were they not outcasts and rejected wanderers? There were many widows in Israel, but Elias only healed the Gentiles son at Sarepta. There were many lepers in those days, but Eliseus only healed Naaman the Syrian. Syrian lepers and Gentiles go into the kingdom before you. They would hear no more; they rose in their fury, hustled Him out of the building, hurried Him up the steep, rocky path to the summit of the hill, and would have cast Him down, but His friends, doubtless some of those sturdy Galilean fishermen, rallied around Him and got Him clear of the village. In one way or another He passed through the crowd, on His way back to Capernaum and the Galilean shore. He left Nazareth, never apparently to return. The secluded mountain village had indeed cast Him out--the world received Him. (H. R. Haweis, M. A.)

The matter of Christs preaching

I. I preach that the great atonement for sin has been offered.

II. I preach that the guilty may be forgiven.

III. I preach that the slave may be emancipated.

IV. I preach that the lost inheritance may be regained. (G. Brooks.)

The Gospel and the poor

That our Lords ministry was eminently a ministry for the poor is a commonplace which need not be insisted on. His relations were poor people, with the associations, the habits, the feelings of the poor. He passed among men as the carpenters Son. He spoke, it would appear, in a provincial north-country dialect, at least commonly. His language, His illustrations, His entire method of approaching the understandings and hearts of men, were suited to the apprehension of the uneducated. When He spoke the common people heard Him gladly. When He was asked by what signs He could prove His claims, He replied, among other things, The poor have the gospel preached to them. His first disciples were poor men. As they looked back upon it, the grace of His example was felt by His disciples and servants to consist pre-eminently in this:--That, though He was rich, &c.

1. Notice the marked connection, in this and other passages, between the preaching of the gospel to the poor, and the gift of the Eternal Spirit.

2. The work of preaching the gospel to the poor is far from being either commonplace or easy. Notice two mistakes which have been made in undertaking it.

(1) It has failed sometimes from a lack of sympathy with the mental condition and habits of the poor.

(2) The other mistake has been in an opposite direction. Men who have sympathized warmly with the mental difficulties of the poor have endeavoured to recommend the Christian faith sometimes by making unwarranted or semi-legendary additions to it, and sometimes by virtually mutilating it.

3. These considerations, then, may lead us to reflect that the connection implied in the text between the presence of the Spirit and the task of evangelizing the poor, is not, after all, so surprising. To be sympathetic, yet sincere; true to the message which has come from heaven, yet alive to the difficulties of conveying it to untutored minds and hearts; sensible of the facilities which a few unauthorized additions or mutilations would lend to the work in hand, yet resolved to decline them--this is not easy. For such a work something higher is needed than natural quickness of wit or strength of will, even His aid who taught the peasants of Galilee in the upper chamber to speak as with tongues of fire, and in languages which men of many nations could understand. And the effort for which He thus equipped them continues still; and His aid, adapted to new circumstances, is present with us as it was with them. (Canon Liddon.)

Ministry for the poor

To awaken a spiritual interest in the poor is my object.

1. The outward condition of the poor is a hard one, and deserving of our sympathy--though not necessarily wretched. Give them the Christian spirit, and they would find in their lot the chief elements of good.

2. The condition of the poor is unfriendly to the action and unfolding of the intellect--a sore calamity to a rational being.

3. I proceed to another evil of poverty--its disastrous influence on the domestic affections.

4. Another unhappy influence exerted by poverty is that it tends to breed discontent, envy, and hatred--hence crime.

5. I pass on to another sore trial of the poor--the temptation to make up for their anxieties and privations by resorting to debasing gratifications--drink, &c. Yet--

6. The highest culture is in reach of the poor, and is sometimes attained by them. The great idea on which human cultivation especially depends is that of God.

7. We are solemnly bound, therefore, to cherish and manifest a strong moral and religious interest in the poor. Every man whom God has prospered is bound to contribute to this work. The Christian ministry is a blessing to all, but above all to the poor. If there be an office worthy of angels, it is that of teaching Christian truth. The Son of God hallowed it by sustaining it in His own person. (W. E. Channing, D. D.)

Christ the great Harmonizer

The gospel is the great harmonizer of all the conflicting interests of human society. It alone can elevate the masses; it alone can reclaim the fallen. Dr. Alexander MLeod, in his Christus Consolator, says that when Orsted first exhibited to Frederika Bremer the beautiful and now familiar experiment of sand-grains upon a glass plate arranging themselves, under the influence of a musical note, in symmetrical and harmonious figures, this reflection passed through the mind of the lady: A human hand made the stroke that produced the note. But when the stroke is made by the hand of the Almighty, will not the note then produced bring into exquisitely harmonious form those sand:grains which are human beings, communities, nations? It will arrange the world in beauty, and there shall be no discord, and no lamentation any more. This is right. That divinely musical note is the preaching of the glorious gospel of Christ.

The power of Christs sympathy

Some time ago, a Christian young lady was visiting a lunatic asylum, and her soul was filled with sadness and pity with the sights she saw. By and by she was led into a room where there was but one patient, a young girl of the same age as herself. She was standing in the corner of the room, her face almost touching the wall. IN stony hopelessness she stood, immobile and rigid as a statue. She neither looked nor spoke. She might have been as dead as the statue she represented but that she still stood on. It was a heart-breaking spectacle. Will you speak to her? asked the doctor, we can do nothing with her. She has been thus for days; but one like yourself might move her. The young lady, trembling with emotion, with one upward cry to heaven for help, stepped forward, gently laid her hand on the listless form and, with tears in her eyes, spoke one sentence of yearning sympathy and compassion. The poor patient turned, gazed for one moment, her form quivered, and she burst into tears! The doctor exclaimed, Thank God, she may be saved! The visitor could never recall the words she had used; but they had done their work. This poor, wrecked girl, who thought that nobody knew or cared for her, had felt the heart that pitied her, the hand stretched our to help her. O the power of tears! the magic of sympathy I It is the sympathy of Christ that calls a mad, despairing world to itself--to its better self. (Christian Journal.)

The cold comfort of worldly philosophy

Some years ago (says Dr. MCosh) I had a call at my house in Ireland by a young nobleman with whom I was at that time intimate, and who has since risen to eminence as a statesman (I mean Earl Dufferin), who introduced to me his friend Lord Ashburton. The nobleman introduced took me aside and said, You know that I have lately lost my dear wife, who was a great friend of Mr. Carlyles; and I have applied to Mr. Carlyle to tell me what I should do to have peace, and make me what I should be. On my making this request he simply bade me read Goethes Wilhelm Meister. I did so, and did not find anything there fitted to improve me. I went back to Mr. Carlyle, asking him what precise lesson he meant me to gather from the book; and he said, Read Wilhelm Meister a second time. I have done so carefully, but I confess I am unable to find anything there to met my anxiety; and I wish you to explain, if you can, what Mr. Carlyle could mean. I told him that I was not the man to explain Carlyles meaning--if, indeed, he had any definite meaning. I told him plainly that neither Goethe nor Carlyle, though men of eminently literary genius, could supply the balm which his wounded spirit needed; and I remarked that Goethes work contained not a little that was sensual. I did my best to point to a better way, and to the deliverance promised and secured in the gospel. I do not know the issue, but I got an eager listener. Carlyle wished to persuade his mother, a woman of simple but devoted piety, that his advanced faith was the same as that which she held firmly, and so much to her comfort, only in a somewhat different form. But, in fact, the mothers faith was crushed in the form in which the son put it, when it became a skeleton, as different from the life which sustained her as the bones in our museums are from the living animal. (Dr. MCoshs Certitude, Providence, and Prayer.)

Prayer helps emancipation

This instructive anecdote relating to President Finney is characteristic. A brother who had fallen into darkness and discouragement was staying at the same house with Dr. Finney over night. He was lamenting his condition, and Dr. F., after listening to his narrative, turned to him with his peculiar earnest look, and with a voice that sent a thrill through his soul, said, You dont pray: that is whats the matter with you. Pray--pray four times as much as ever you did in your life, and you will come out. He immediately went down to the parlour, and taking the Bible, he made a serious business of it, stirring up his soul to seek God as did Daniel, and thus he spent the night. It was not in vain. As the morning dawned he felt the light of the Sun of Righteousness shine upon his soul. His captivity was broken; and ever since he has felt that the greatest difficulty in the way of men being emancipated from their bondage, is that they dont pray. The bonds cannot be broken by finite strength. We must take our case to Him who is mighty to save. Our eyes are blinded to Christ the Deliverer. He came to preach deliverance to the captive, to break the power of habit; and herein is the rising of a great hope for us.

Christ the Emancipator

A doctrine with which the hearts of men are universally in sympathy. Men want the restrictions and limitations around them to be destroyed. It is not merely the few who are actually in dungeons that want it. Thousands are in dungeons, around whom no stone wall is reared. Men in general have a consciousness of being prisoners, without actually being under military rule and ward. Men are bearing bonds, and are bruised, who are not in the actual relation of service; the consciousness of circumscription, of limitation, and of suffering under various forms of bondage, is universal.

1. The first blow which Christ strikes for the enlargement of mens liberty wears the appearance of the opposite; it is at the tyranny of sense and sensuousness in the individual. Man cannot run away from himself. Christ emancipates him from this bondage by introducing him into the higher course of nature; into that sphere in which, in his relations to God, he is acted upon precisely as in a family children are acted upon by the living presence and power of a good father and mother. Then the Divine influence becomes more active in him than the flesh, and he achieves a victory over himself--the nobler nature having gained ascendancy over the lower.

2. Christ delivers us from our bondage to secular conditions. The light and life that we receive by faith make us superior to our circumstances, so that we can maintain our manhood, not only in spite of adverse surroundings, but even by reason of them; working out through adversity and trouble what men in prosperity and joy fail to find.

3. Christ is an Emancipator in another way also. There is a power given to men through faith in Him, to set themselves free from the great source of those cares, infirmities, and annoyances which chiefly afflict life. If pride be essential to a noble character-and it is; if the love of praise be one of the civilizing elements--and it is; if both of these influences conjoined under right directions and inspirations tend to ennoble, to soften, to sweeten, and to beautify human nature--and they do: on the other hand, pride and vanity in their corrupt forms tend to bring upon men in the most acute ways many sufferings which afflict them--for our troubles are mainly of our own making. He who is nervously sensitive to praise is in great distress when he fears the withdrawal of praise or popularity. He who has an intense consciousness of his own excellence and desert is continually harried and annoyed and irritated by a lack of that respect and appreciation of which he has himself so supreme a sense. All the world are over-proud, or over-vain, or both; but he who has subdued his pride, and, by the love of God shed abroad in his heart, has turned it to higher and nobler uses; he who, lacking nothing of sensibility to praise, yet believes in the presence of God, wants praise only for supernal things, and disdains the offering of praise for things meagre and mean and low and vile; because he sets his standard, not according to the current ideas of human society, and not according to the ways of men who are unillumined, but according to that higher and nobler manhood which was revealed in Jesus Christ--he is emancipated from this universal bondage.

4. Christ emancipates from the bondage which comes through ignorance and superstition. It is for men to choose whether they will govern themselves or be governed. It must be one or the other. (H. W. Beecher.)

Christs method of emancipation

How strangely Christ comported Himself! The Jewish people were at that time living under one of the worst forms of Roman despotism, and there was a universal desire all over Palestine that the land should be emancipated; yet He never said one word to that effect, or performed one act towards that purpose. The prisons of Judea were crowded, to be emptied by the executioner, and hundreds of thousands were lying in hopeless darkness; yet we do not hear of Him taking up a single case. There was slavery, with all its cursed attendant influences, spread through the civilized world; yet in all our Lords discourses we do not find a single word of reference to this condition of affairs. When He died there was not one prison less in the land, nor one prisoner; there had been no casting away of chains or manacles, and the black darkness of the people had not been lightened. Nor did His apostles, when they took up His work after Him, disturb the order of society, or revolutionize government by the sword. On the contrary, they enjoin most explicitly, Obey the magistrates; obey the powers that be; obey the laws that are meant for good, however badly they may be administered. And so men sometimes say that Christ did nothing at all, that He came on a fools errand. But, remember, there are different ways of doing the same thing. Christ came to raise the human race, to develop it one step higher, to construct kingdoms, establish arts, rear manufactories, elevate knowledge--to make men happier, truer, more perfect everywhere. He came to dothis, not by working outwardly, but by working inwardly. He did not come to found new institutions, or to overturn old institutions. He came to produce such a state of heart in man throughout the whole race, that the unavoidable outworkings of this new power would be Ultimately to change all institutions and redeem the world from animalism, crime, and oppression. Look at this internal working of Christ. He deals with men, not in the mass, but one by one; and He deals with the moral sentiments, subjecting all the others to them. The whole order inside a man is changed by the influence of Christianity from lower to higher, from flesh-man to spirit-man. The sovereign and central force employed in this transformation is love. Christ undertakes to reconstruct the dispositions of men by bringing into supreme agency this transcendent love.

1. Christs gospel was a more perfect disclosure of the great natural law as applied to men than had ever been understood, or is understood to-day. There is an unused principle in the human soul which, brought out by the stimulus of the Divine afflatus, can cleanse the whole lower nature of man and deaden the passions, not by direct attack, but by giving principle and authority to their opposites, and shape to the inspiration-the central principle--love. It was there before Christ came, only men did not know it; and so, until brought out by Christ, it was a dead thing. He has put life into it, and through it into men.

2. Christianity never has been, and never can be, contained wholly in the New Testament. The gospel is only a hint and a guide to a higher nature, which needs to be developed. If I take a handful of wheat from my granary, there is a promise of a hundred bushels in it--only a promise, however. It must be sown before the promise can be realized. So with the gospel. Everything of knowledge that tends to the elevation of the human family is an unfolding of Christianity. If there is anything good for man, capable of reconstructing his nature, it is part and parcel of that human nature which is broader than the earth and deeper than eternity; it is part of that Divine nature by which a man is raised up to the glorious florescence of manhood and carried up to the angels; and I hold and rejoice in everything that develops man, and assists in the building of the new world.

3. The progress of this new kingdom has been very much hindered by the materializing influences of man.

(1) The incarnation of spiritual forces in outward institutions. Men are always apt to pay more attention to the form than to the spiritual reality it embodies.

(2) The substitution of ideas for forces. What is being a Christian but to be the embodiment of tender-heartedness, generosity, self-denial, self-sacrifice--a desire for the welfare of others, even though at the expense of yourown? What is Christianity, if not this? Names are nothing; being is everything. The power of the gospel is the promulgation of dispositions. It is the heart-life. The heart wears the crown, ,and the intellect is its servant, walking behind it, asking what it shall and shall not do.

(3) The substitution of worship for morality. How can a man who is living in sin love God? How can a man be a partaker of the love of peace and joy if he has not the spirit of long-suffering, gentleness, forgiveness, within him? Morality is Gods method when developed to the uttermost. Men will not be accepted for being so obsequious to God, while they remain indifferent to their fellows.

(4) The substitution of justice for Divine love. When we can open spring flowers by spring frosts, when we can ripen summer fruits by summer thunder-storms, and bring tranquillity by tempests, then you may by rigour and threat have Gods work in the soul--Gods humility, love, patience, self-sacrifice, forbearance, temperance. We hardly know our God under such doctrine. Oh, Sun of Righteousness! Thou art not known by the tempest, nor by the earthquake, but by-the still, small voice--love; and religious truth will never be thoroughly understood until men are transformed into love, with that system which enthrones God as the universal cause, who knows how to suffer most because He loves.

4. The road to liberty is a very simple one. Once change the unit and you change the sum; begin with changing individuals, and you transform local public sentiment. Laws, customs, and institutions must take on the same form. No royal road to liberty, largeness, and freedom, except that which comes from the perfection and exaltation of human nature; no true nobility until mankind touch mankind, neighbourhood neighbourhood, nation nation. We are scattered here and there. When are we to collect in communities like bands of Christian graces all attuned to each other, working out a visible result? When that time comes men will say, Human nature never was so beautiful before as it is here. That is gospel. It appeals to, and changes, the heart. (H. W. Beecher.)

The slavery of unrest

We do not require to be delivered from Egyptian bondage, or Grecian cruelty, or the Roman yoke; but we have lust, and we have passion, and we have the restlessness of care, and we have the fears of anxiety, and we have vanity and ambition, and a thousand other incendiaries and tyrants which abuse our bosom while yet under the bondage of sinful nature, and which still abuse the peace and welfare of all who have not been emancipated by the Cross of Christ. The captivity of sin seems no captivity to many. There are sleeping draughts of pleasure with which tim devil serves his servants. There are vain shows of pride, and castle-buildings of ambition, and dreams of wealth, by which the spirits of people are charmed away from the thought of their condition. But it is a miserable trick played off on the immortal soul, and at every instant it is liable to a fearful exposure. It is a fabric of grandeur built over a horrid sepulchre, on which it totters and shakes, and at length falls on the ambitious wight who trusted thereto. It is a wretched bondage to be captive to sin, though you were at large without any on the earth to make you afraid. It is not the narrowness of the dungeon, or of his knowledge, wealth, or power, that makes a man a slave; it is the disrepose, the unrest of the mind, the coveting the things we cannot have, the fearing of things we cannot avoid, the meeting of things we cannot brook, the hoping for things we cannot have, the enjoying of things we cannot keep. Thus to be, is to be in slavery; and not to be thus, is to be free What unchristian man is there who is not thus? There is a discord between our spiritual man and this our earthly habitation, which nothing but the religion of Jesus can appease. (E. Irving, M. A.)

The acceptable year of the Lord: Jubilee year

If you turn to Leviticus

25. you will see what the arrangements of the Jewish jubilee were. It wasintended to cure four great political evils which oppressed that nation, and which have oppressed many nations since--viz., slavery, debt, chronic pauperism, and alienation of the land from the people. The Jewish jubilee was a system intended to abolish by anticipation all these four great evils. Every fiftieth year every man who had been a slave was set free; he could not be kept in slavery after that year of jubilee. Every one was then restored to freedom; the nation took a fresh start of freedom. Men became slaves for various reasons; they might have been captured in war, they might have sold themselves into slavery in the payment of debts, or in several other ways--but in the year of jubilee all were set free. There might have been an accumulation of debts which they were unable to pay off altogether, but at this jubilee debts were all cancelled. Chronic pauperism was to be cured by making certain provisions every seventh year and fiftieth year, by which those who had sunk through incapacity, or illness, or intemperance, or from whatever cause it might be--at this time they had an opportunity of starting again. It was not possible for any family to part with its hereditary property irrecoverably: at the year of jubilee all went back to its original owners. Such was the system; but there is no proof that it was ever carried out. Neither the Old Testament nor any other history affords the slightest evidence that these laws were ever observed as a whole. When they are examined, one can see such difficulties that it would require strong evidence to convince us that such laws had worked at all. Still they remained on the statute-book, and therefore formed the ideal and the hope of the people; but the ideal never came. Why did it not come? Because these laves presupposed a condition of morality, of brotherliness, of good feeling among the people, which never existed. When laws are pitched in too high a key they become as it were dead laws. The laws do not precede morality; they follow it, they perpetuate, they register it. A nation tins to raise its standard of morality; then the laws can be made which will perpetuate that morality; but you cannot make the laws first. It would be of no use for any Government now to make some law far above the standard of existing morality, because the law could not be worked. That was the case in Judah. It would presuppose a willingness to part with their property, a willingness to give up their slavery; it would presuppose willing industry again on the part of the people, and a greater level of mental and moral equality among them than ever existed; and so the law remained simply a dead letter. (J. M. Wilson, M. A.)

The jubilee spirit in Christianity

The Jewish jubilee was a legislation which never worked. Let us see what Christianity has done instead in the way of social reform.

1. Christianity has abolished slavery. Not by preaching direct political action, but by preaching the equality of all men as children of God. It has given men a new interest in one another, and a new relationship to one another, secretly transforming human character, so that slavery became impossible and melted away as ice--which will not melt under blows--melts before the sun.

2. If, again, you consider how cruelly debtors were oppressed, you will see how wonderfully that has been changed by the influence of Christ. Some of the best Romans that ever lived complacently consigned their debtors to slavery; and in other countries debtors were imprisoned and their lives rendered hopelessly miserable; but Christianity has greatly altered such things, and has compelled mankind to treat debtors with humanity.

3. The evil of chronic pauperism still faces us, and we can see no conceivable method of getting rid of it, except by a wider spread of true Christian feeling among the whole population. What else can we look to? Legislation? How can legislation do it? Legislation will not make people industrious, and skilful, and self-restraining. Nothing else but Christian principles of love and virtue will do that.

4. Alienation of land. Legislation could not completely get rid of this evil, for the simple reason that the nation is not yet good enough. If to-day there were three acres and a cow given to every man in England, before ten years, or even one year, had elapsed there would be some with thirty acres and ten cows, and the rest with none. The nation has not sufficiently advanced in morality, industry, and self-control for such an equality to exist, and the attempt to force it would only produce idleness. But reform will come in the way Christ indicated: it will come from the inner spirit. When men become better, then happiness and prosperity will naturally follow. There is no cure for the evils of this world--its competition, and crushing, and failure--except this inner reform of the spirit, the faith in Christ, and the love of God and of man. Like all Gods laws, it works slowly; but it is sure, and in the end it will bring about that for which it was framed. (J. M. Wilson, M. A. )

The joy of acquiring liberty

In the dark days of American slavery, a very fine Mulatto woman and her nearly white boy were raffled for. Two kind men paid a share each for the woman and her boy, so that they might have two chances for their freedom. After all the others who had a share in that lottery had thrown the dice, the poor woman was so overpowered by hopes, fears, and solicitude, that she could not throw for herself. Her boy, therefore, threw for her, and was unsuccessful. Then the boy had to throw for himself, and there many hopes and prayers that he might win. And he did, and the joy of the mother and son, on acquiring their liberty, was indescribable. So Jewish parents and their children rejoiced in the year of jubilee as they went forth from bondage to liberty, and from poverty to posseses the inheritance of their fathers. But, when Christ makes us free, by the truth, from spiritual ignorance, sin, Satan, and evils, into the glorious liberty of the children of God, with its precious and eternal heritage of blessings, we then feel--

A day, an hour of virtuous liberty,

Is worth a whole eternity of bondage.

(Henry R. Burton.)

Nazareth and its good news

The Lord here, quoting Isaiah, states His mission to be the preaching of the acceptable year of Jehovah. Let us inquire what the acceptable year of the Lord is, and how He preached it.

I. THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD. This expression corresponds to that of Paul, the accepted time, the day of salvation (2Co_6:2); and means that there is a time when God accepts or shows favour to the sinner. It is what Ezekiel calls the time of love; what our Lord calls the time of visitation (Luk_19:44); and what we usually call the day of grace. Every era has its character, and the character of this is grace. In it the long-suffering of God gets full vent to itself, and His almighty love is pouring itself down upon an unworthy world.

II. How CHRIST PREACHED THIS ACCEPTABLE YEAR. This preaching of the acceptable year was to run through His whole life and ministry.

1. In His person He preached it; for His mere presence upon earth among sinful men was an announcement of it. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

2. He preached it by what He did. He went about healing all manner of sicknesses, and all manner of diseases.

3. He preached it by what He did not do. He did no deeds of terror, and wrought no miracles of wrath or woe.

4. He preached it by what He said. His words were all of grace; and even the sharp rebukes against scribes and Pharisees were the warnings of grace, not of wrath. (H. Bonar, D. D.)

The work of Christ

I. OUR FIRST INQUIRY SHALL BE RESPECTING THE CHARACTER OR CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE PERSONS DESCRIBED IN MY TEXT.

It seems clear that this whole passage is metaphorical! for, allowing that a literal sense may be applied to parts of it with propriety, yet there are other parts which will not bear that sense. These images serve only to present, under different aspects, the sad state of those whom Christ came to deliver, and the blessed effects of that deliverance.

1. Their actual condition is represented as very deplorable; for what image can express greater misery than that of captives treated with the barbarous rigour of those times; immured in dungeons; loaded with fetters; bruised with stripes; perhaps like Zedekiah, the unfortunate king of Judah, deprived of sight as well as liberty. Yet this is a very just image of every mans condition who is under the power of sin.

2. Yet it is possible that there may be this state of sin, comprehending all these awful circumstances of misery and danger, without any concern about it, or even any distinct perception of it. This, however, is by no means the case with the persons here represented. They are not only captives, but they are broken-hearted in their bondage. All such expressions denote the true Christian temper, that which our Lord inculcated under the names of humility and poverty of spirit; and which both Christ and His apostles meant by the more significant word, repentance. It includes a consciousness of demerit; a due sense of the evil of sin. This frame of mind may comprehend different degrees, or even kinds, of uneasiness, on account of sin. The metaphors which are here used illustrate these. It is one kind of distress to feel the pressure of poverty; it is another to endure the yoke of bondage; and a third, to lose the organ of sight.

II. BLESSED BE GOD, HOWEVER, THERE ARE SOME WHO KNOW THEIR UNWORTHINESS, AND ARE HUMBLED ON ACCOUNT OF IT. These are the persons intended in my text, and such will gladly hear the gracious office which the Redeemer sustains to save them. This office is here delineated under several views. Is the state of sinners described as a state of great suffering? Christ brings them deliverance. As a state of bondage? He grants them liberty. Under the image of a broken heart? He communicates peace and consolation. Or under that of poverty? He tells them of recovered birthrights, and of a glorious inheritance above. Let us briefly consider these several offices.

1. Christ takes away the sin of those who truly repent and apply to Him by faith.

2. They are freed also from the power of sin.

3. It is the office of the Saviour to impart peace to the soul.

4. The title to a glorious inheritance is also conferred by Him upon those that believe. As in the year of jubilee every inheritance which had been sold reverted to its original owners; as every debt was cancelled and every captive set free--in the same way does the gospel proclaim a jubilee to repenting sinners. It institutes a new order of things for them; with new resources, and hopes, and privileges, and prospects. (J. Venn, M. A.)

The gospel jubilee

Such is the tendency of Christianity; such are the gifts of the Holy Ghost poured out upon the Church; and such is the spiritual jubilee; such the acceptable year of the Lord which Christianity proclaims to the world and the misery thereof.

I. CONSIDER THE JUBILEE OF THE GOSPEL AS REGARDS THE FIRST PROMULGATION by Christ and His apostles.

II. THE PROGRESSIVE CONVERSION OF MANKIND.

III. THE MISERY AND SORROW THIS DISPENSATION HAS BEEN INSTRUMENTAL FROM TIME TO TIME IN RELIEVING. The tendency of Christianity and the gospel is to infuse, in proportion as it is understood, brotherly love, and sympathy with every effort which is made for the relief of individual suffering, as well as for the emancipation of the world. It is directly opposed to oppression and cruelty; it abstains from questions of earthly politics and disputes about particular forms of government; it avoids all factious and dangerous innovations, and goes to the support of existing order, which, although it may in some cases be defective, is infinitely better than the wild disorder of uncontrolled passion and fierce self-love. It therefore enjoins obedience to the magistrates, and calls upon its followers to fear God and honour the king, giving thanks always for all things unto God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I apprehend the union of these two points shows the tendency of Christianity to dispose all governors, propagators of laws, and all in authority, towards all measures of relief, justice, equity, and the consideration of the poor. It is the means of communicating every blessing to society, and insensibly tends to break every yoke, and set right every disorder. (Bishop Daniel Wilson.)

Preaching the gospel

I. Let us notice that JESUS CHRIST BEGAN HIS WORK IN NAZARETH WITH A QUOTATION FROM THE BIBLE. The source of all Christian power is in preaching the Word.

II. It is well to keep in mind that WE HAVE A MUCH LARGER BIBLE THAN JESUS HAD. We have the New Testament as well as the Old Testament: what He spoke as well as what He expounded. It is not what we say about the truth that helps and saves souls, but the truth.

III. When people come to us for help, the thing to do is simply to FIND SOMETHING IN THE WORD FOR THEM.

IV. CURIOUS AND DIFFICULT QUESTIONS THAT CHRISTIANS ASK HAVE THE SIMPLEST SORT OF ANSWERS IN THE WORD. AS to grounding our hope firmly, Mat_7:24 is better than anything we can say ourselves. To encourage a man who fears ridicule, Mar_10:48 is excellent and effective. Exo_2:1-10 is a far better illustration of Gods care for children than that stock story of the little child in the corn-field. Once a member of our Church came to me to ask what she ought to try to look at when she shut her eyes in prayer. And all I could think of was to read her two or three verses about Bartimaeus. A smile ran over her whole face as she rose suddenly, and said, Good morning. Then I asked whether her question had got the answer. Oh, yes! she replied, gratefully; I ought to see what the blind man did before his eyes were opened; he saw he was blind, and he seemed to see Jesus there waiting to be prayed to.

V. WE MUST BE EXCEEDINGLY FAMILIAR WITH GODS WORD in order to use it skilfully. The times arrive often very suddenly in which we are called to make answer or to give advice; and to work powerfully one must work ingeniously. The gifted authoress of English Hands and Hearts once saw a man close by the brink of a river, and believed he was going to commit suicide. It seemed perfectly clear to her that if she should appear to suspect his purpose, he would avoid her, and wait till she passed out of sight. So she quietly kept on her walk, but, as it approached the spot where he was watching, she said aloud, as if just to herself, Psa_46:4. It was all she could do. Two years afterwards a speaker in Exeter Hall related the incident in his own sad life, and told how the text saved him and converted him, and now he added the wish that he might some time know the Christian woman who had done him the favour. So they met and clasped hands, and thanked God together. But how did she happen to know the right verse, then? Such a thing did not happen: that lady knew her Bible thoroughly.

VI. We should be PATIENT ANY HELPFUL IS INSTRUCTING OTHERS how and where to find the proper passages for Christian effort.

VII. We can find here the EXPLANATION WE SEEK FOR SOME FAILURES that appear so mysterious, AND FOR SOME SUCCESSES that are so admirable. Those Christians have done most service who have in every instance trusted the Word for the power of the truth in it. Dr. James W. Alexander put in one of his letters, near the end of his career, the statement that, if he were to live his public life over again, he would dwell more upon the familiar parts and passages of the Bible, like the story of the ark, the draught of fishes, or the parable of the prodigal son. That is, he would preach more of the Word of God in its pure, clear utterances of truth for souls. When the saintly Dr. Cutler of Brooklyn died, the Sunday School remembered that he used to come in every now and then during the years of his history and repeat just a single verse from the superintendents desk; and the next Lords Day after the funeral they marched up in front of it in a long line, and each scholar quoted any of the texts that he could recollect. The grown people positively sat there and wept, as they saw how much there was of the Bible in the hearts of their children which this one pastor had planted. Yet he was a very timid and old-fashioned man; he said he had no gift at talking to children; he could only repeat Gods Word. Is there anybody now who is ready to say that was not enough for some good? (C. S.Robinson, D. D.)

Christ the fulfilment of prophecy

On an artists table some colours are lying. You glance at them, and that is all, for to you they have no meaning. A month after you come in, and you are attracted by a beautiful picture. The picture has been painted with the colours you saw before, but how different is it now when they are harmoniously blended. So Jesus Christ gathers into harmony in Himself the before ill-understood prophecies and types of the Old Testament; only then we see what they fully mean. It is like the childrens picture-block puzzles. Take the pieces from the box, and you have a number of blocks of all sizes, colours, and shapes. Build them back, carefully fitting them into each other, and when each is in its proper place, you find you have a complete picture. So the types and prophecies are only understood when they are fitted into Christ. Jesus, then, takes some pictures from the Book of Isaiah, and declares that these show forth His mission. The first picture is that of a messenger bringing good news to the poor--news of a kingdom prepared for them; the next shows a message of consolation brought to those in sorrow; the third is the picture of one promising liberty to some men shut up in a narrow cell; in the fourth a blind man is receiving his sight at the healing touch of a prophet; in the fifth the bonds are being struck from the feet of men whose limbs have been bruised by the irons; and the sixth shows the open gate of heaven. (Sunday School Times.)

A full text

When we have once measured these words, we shall be reminded of the tent of the Arab chief: when folded it could be carried in his hand, but when spread it was wide enough to shelter his whole tribe. A study of the incident under which they were spoken in the synagogue of Nazareth is peculiarly rewarding, because it looks off in so many directions; into remote Jewish history, into present customs, to the nature of the gospel, to its manifold methods of working, to the heart of Gad, to the inspiration of Christ; and, finally, it discloses the weakness and evil of human nature when its prejudices and traditional thoughts are assaulted. It is as rich in material and association that a book could legitimately be made from it. It would be a book historical, ecclesiastical, political, theological, ethical, psychological, and the treatment would not be forced. (T. T.Munger.)

Deliverance both physical and moral

The peculiar feature of this quotation from Isaiah, which Christ makes His own, is its doubleness. The poor--but men are poor in condition and in spirit. The captives--but men may be in bondage under masters or circumstances, and also under their own sin. The blind--but men may be blind of eye and also in spiritual vision. The bruised--but men are bruised in the struggles of this rough world, and also by the havoc of their own evil passions. Which did Christ mean? Both, but chiefly the moral, for He always struck through the external forms of evil to the moral root, from which it springs, and of whose condition it is the general exponent. And He always passed on to the spiritual end to which external betterment points. He was no reformer playing about the outward forms of evil--hunger, poverty, disease, oppression--giving ease and relief for the moment. He does indeed deal with these, but He puts under His work a moral foundation, and crowns it with a spiritual consummation. Dealing with these, He was all the while inserting the spiritual principle which He calls faith. Unless He can do this He is nearly indifferent whether He works or not. If you cannot heal a mans spirit, it is a small thing to heal his body. It you cannot make a man rich in his heart and thought, it is a slight matter to relieve his poverty. At the same time, Christ will not separate the two, for they are the two sides of one evil thing. Poverty and disease and misery mostly spring out of moral evil. They are not the limitations of the finite nature, but are the fangs of the serpent of sin And so Christ sets Himself as the Deliverer from each, the origin and the result, the sin at the root, and the misery which is its fruitage. (T. T. Munger.)

Christ the true Liberator and Enlightener of the world

Bartholdis gigantic statue of Liberty Enlightening the World occupies a fine position on Bedloes Island, which commands the approach to New York Harbour. It holds up a torch, which is to be lit at night by an immense electric light. The statue was cast in portions in Paris. The separate pieces were very different in appearance, and, taken apart, of uncouth shape. It was only when all were brought together, each in its right place, that the complete design was apparent. Then the omission of any one would have left the work imperfect. In this it was an emblem of Holy Scripture. We do not always see the object of different portions; nevertheless each has its place, and the whole is a magnificent statue of Jesus Christ, who is the true Liberty enlightening the world, casting illuminating rays across the dark rocky ocean of time, and guiding anxious souls to the desired haven. (Freeman.)

Christ alone can heal the brokenhearted

I could build a Corlears engine, I could paint a Raphaels Madonna, I could play a Beethovens Heroic Symphony as easily as this world can comfort a broken heart. And yet you have been comforted. How was it done? Did Christ come to you and say: Get your mind off this; go and breathe the fresh air; plunge deeper into business? No. There was a minute when He came to you, perhaps in the watches of the night--perhaps in your place of business, perhaps along the street--and He breathed something into your soul that gave peace, rest, infinite quiet, so that you could take out the photograph of the departed one and look into the eyes and face of the dear one and say: It is all right; she is better off; I would not call her back. Lord, I thank Thee that Thou hast comforted my poor heart. I thought I should go crazy for a while, but the rough sea has become the smooth harbour. Oh, how hard it was for me to give her up, and I shall never be the man that I was before; but the Lord gave and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. There are Christian parents here to-night who are willing to testify to the power of this gospel to comfort. Your son had just graduated and was going into business, and the Lord took him. Or your daughter had just left the young ladies seminary, and you thought she was going to be a useful woman and of long life; but the Lord took her, and you were tempted to say: All this culture for nothing. Or the little child came home from school with the hot fever that stopped not for the agonized prayer, or for the skilful physician, and the little child was taken. Or the babe was lifted out of your arms by some quick epidemic, and you stood wondering why God ever gave you that child at all, if so soon He was to take it away. And yet you are not repining, you are not fretful, you are not fighting against God. What has enabled you to stand all the trial? Oh, you say, I took the medicine that God gave my sick soul; in my distress I threw myself at the feet of a sympathising Saviour, and when I was too weak to pray, or to look up, He breathed into me a peace that I think must be the foretaste of that heaven where there is neither tear, nor a farewell, nor a grave. Come, all ye who have been out to the grave to weep there--come, all ye comforted souls, get up off your knees. Is there power in this gospel to soothe the heart? Is there power in this religion to quiet the worst paroxysm of grief? Tell me. There comes up an answer to comforted widowhood, and orphanage, and childlessness, saying: Ay, ay, we are witnesses! (Dr. Talmage.)

Christ the Healer of the broken-hearted

I. THE CONDITION OF THE PERSONS SPOKEN OF IN THE TEXT is one of extreme distress and misery. They are broken-hearted. All their happiness is gone. All their hopes are blasted. Nothing is left to them but wretchedness and despair.

1. It implies that they have a sorrowful consciousness of the existence of this evil within them.

2. They are also dissatisfied with their condition, and earnestly desire deliverance from it. Like men oppressed with sickness, they are not in a state in which they can be at ease.

3. They are sensible likewise of the deadly nature of the disease under which they are suffering. They know that it is a mortal disease; not merely painful and loathsome, but dangerous and fatal.

4. To this sorrowful consciousness of their sinfulness, this dissatisfaction with their condition, and this dread of futurity, is added a despair of healing their spiritual diseases by any means of their own.

II. But why does the Physician of souls thus deal with us? Why cannot He apply His healing balm at once to our wounds? WHY MUST WE BE BROUGHT INTO SO DISCONSOLATE A STATE, BEFORE WE ARE MADE ACQUAINTED WITH PARDON AND PEACE?

1. In answer to this inquiry we may observe, that God thus afflicts His penitent children, in order that sin may be embittered to them; that they may have a heartfelt knowledge of the misery and shame which it is able to produce, and thus learn to regard it with hatred and fear.

2. The sinner is made broken-hearted, that he may be willing to be healed by Christ in His way and on His terms.

3. A further reason why the returning sinner is thus torn and smitten, may be, that the deliverance vouchsafed to him may be more highly valued.

4. It may also be the will of God to give the penitent a deep sense of his wretchedness, in order that the great Physician of his soul may be more warmly loved.

III. Let us proceed to consider THE ENCOURAGEMENT WHICH THE DECLARATION BEFORE US IS CALCULATED TO AFFORD TO EVERY BROKENHEARTED MOURNER.

1. It plainly implies that it is the will of God that the brokenhearted should be healed. He has sent a Messenger from heaven to bring peace to them.

2. The declaration in the text teaches us also, that God has given to Christ authority and power to heal the broken-hearted.

3. The declaration before us assures us, too, that Christ is willing to heal all the broken-hearted who apply for His aid; that He is ready to exercise the authority and power which He has received. Here, then, is a rich source of encouragement to every mourner. The God against whom he has sinned, has sent a Messenger from heaven to heal him; and He whom He has sent, rejoices to bind up the broken-hearted. He has infinite compassion to pity, as well as infinite power to relieve. A review of our subject points out to us, first, the persons to whom the ministers of the gospel are to administer comfort.

2. The text affords us, secondly, a test by which we may try our spiritual comfort.

3. We may infer also from the text, that true contrition of heart is one of the greatest blessings which God can bestow on man.

4. The text reminds us, lastly, of the sin and folly of despair. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4:18-19 The time of the Lord’s favor refers to the Year of Jubilee (Lev 25:8-55), when debts were erased, slaves were freed, and land was returned to its original owners. In Isa 61, the Year of Jubilee is a metaphor for God’s salvation.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 4:18-19. Πνεῦμα Κυρίου ἐπʼ ἐμὲ· οὗ εἵνεκεν ἔχρισέ με· εὐαγγελίσασθα. πτωχοῖς, ἀπέσταλκέ με, ἰάσασθαι τοὺς συντετριμμένους τὴν καρδίαν·—ἀνάβλεψιν, ἀποστεῖλαι τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει· κηρύξαι ἐνιαυτὸν Κυρίου δεκτὸν καὶ ἡμέραν ἀνταποδόσεως) Isa 61:1-2, LXX: πνεῦμα—ἀνάβλεψιν· καλέσαι, κ.τ.λ. Several particulars here are worthy of being noticed. I. The Hebrew accents give us a most effective stopping. II. οὗ εἵνεκεν signifies the same as יֹען, for this reason because, on account of this inasmuch as. So Num 14:43, Οὗ εἵνεκα ἀπεστράφητε, because ye are turned away from. Ammonius says οὕνεκα signifies the same as ὅτι. The sense in this passage is, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me. Even then already Jesus implied distinctly that He was the Christ. It is from His anointing, that the abiding of the Spirit of the Lord on the Christ is deduced. As the[continuous] state of personal union [the union of His humanity and Divinity], so that of His anointing flows from the act. III. From the anointing flows the especial, nay, the preaching peculiarly characteristic of this Prophet, viz., that of the Gospel; from the oil flows the joy [i.e. from the anointing oil comes the joy, answering to the “good tidings,” Isa 61:1, and “the oil of joy,” Luk 4:3]: from the ‘sending’ [l. c., Luk 4:3] comes the “healing [Luk 4:18: in Isaiah “to bind up”] of the broken-hearted.” IV. This very clause, curare contribulatos corde, “to heal the broken-hearted,” as the translator of Irenæu[46] has it, I am induced to retain chiefly on the authority of Irenæu[47], although others have omitted it.[48] V. Καὶ τυφλοῖς ἀναβλεψιν, is not taken from Isa 42:7, but from Isa 61:1. So the words are found in the LXX. translation for the Hebrew ולאסורים פקחקוח. Moreover פקח in the books of the Old Testament, denotes not every kind of opening whatever, but that of the ears once; besides, very frequently, the opening of the eyes. For this reason the seventy translators have referred it in this passage to the blind. However, Isaiah spake of such an opening of the eyes, as is vouchsafed, not to the blind, but to those set free from the darkness of a prison (see Isa 61:1), as the writer of the Chaldee paraphrase rightly saw. VI. ἈΠΟΣΤΕῖΛΑΙ ΤΕΘΡΑΥΣΜΈΝΟΥς ἘΝ ἈΦΈΣΕΙ, is taken from the preceding part, Isa 58:6, ἈΠΌΣΤΕΛΛΕ ΤΕΘΡΑΥΣΜΈΝΟΥς ἘΝ ἈΦΈΣΕΙ; whence the Israelitic ἌΦΕΣΙς is made by accommodation to answer to the ἌΦΕΣΙς, effected through the Messiah. The minister, of his own accord, handed to our Lord, in the synagogue, the book of Isaiah: it was therefore a portion from Isaiah which was the one usually read on that Sabbath. Isa 61:1-2, was not the Haphtara (or publicly read portion) at all: but there was a Haphtara, consisting of Isa 57:13 to Isa 58:14, and that too on the day of expiation, which in the Ord. Temp., page 254; Ed. ii., page 220, 221, and Harm. Ev., page 186, etc., we have shown, corresponded on that year (which was the twenty-eighth of the Dion. era.—Not. Crit.) with the Sabbath mentioned in Luke. From which it is evident, that an ordinary and an extraordinary lesson were joined together by the Lord in His reading, and by the Evangelist in writing the account of it. VII. As to the words ΚΑῚ ἩΜΈΡΑΝ ἈΝΤΑΠΟΔΌΣΕΩς. See App. Crit., Ed. ii. on this passage.[49] In this clause, THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD upon ME, contains a remarkable testimony to the Holy Trinity [the Spirit, the Father, and Jesus]. Jesus was full of the Spirit, Luk 4:1; Luk 4:14.—οὗ εἵνεκεν) The [50] in ἝΝΕΚΑ passes into ΕἸ, not only poetically, but also Ionically and Attically.—ΠΤΩΧΟῖς, to the poor) In Israel, and subsequently among the Gentiles. Regard is had to them also in ch. Luk 6:20.—ἄφεσιν, remission [but Engl. Vers., deliverance]) The word is here employed with great propriety.[51]

[46] renæus (of Lyons, in Gaul: born about 130 A.D., and died about the end of the second century). The Editio Renati Massueti, Parisinæ, a. 1710.

[47] renæus (of Lyons, in Gaul: born about 130 A.D., and died about the end of the second century). The Editio Renati Massueti, Parisinæ, a. 1710.

[48] A, Iren. 260, Hil. 577, retain the clause. BDLabc, Orig. 2,636; 4,13, Hilar. 92, omit it. Some MSS. of Vulg. omit, others retain it.—ED. and TRANSL.

[49] Vulg. etc., add “et diem retributionis.” b has “et diem redditionis;” a, “et diem redemptions.” But ABD Hil. 92, and Rec. Text reject the addition, which manifestly is interpolated from Isaiah, and is appropriate, not to the Gospel message of peace delivered at Christ’s first Advent, but to His second Advent to judgment.—ED. and TRANSL.

[50] Laudianus: Bodl. libr., Oxford: seventh or eighth cent.: publ. 1715: Acts def.

[51] Literally, referring to the setting free a captive; spiritually, to the remission of sins and the deliverance of the captive sinner.—ED. and TRANSL.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_4:18-19. Isa_61:1-2, following the LXX. freely. The historical meaning is: that He, the prophet, is inspired and ordained by God to announce to the deeply unfortunate people in their banishment their liberation from captivity, and the blessed future of the restored and glorified theocracy that shall follow thereupon. The Messianic fulfilment of this announcement, i.e. the realization of their theocratic idea, came to pass in Christ and His ministry.[85]

οὗ εἵνεκεν] in the original text יַעַן: because, and to this corresponds οὗ εἵνεκεν: propterea quod, because, as ΟὝΝΕΚΕΝ is very frequently thus used by the classical writers. The expression of the LXX., which Luke preserves, is therefore not erroneous (de Wette and others), nor do the words ΟὟ ΕἽΝΕΚΕΝ introduce the protasis of a sentence whose apodosis is left out (Hofmann, Weissag. u. Erf. II. p. 96). The form εἵνεκεν (2Co_7:12) is, moreover, classical; it occurs in Pindar, Isthm. viii. 69, frequently in Herodotus (see Schweighaüser, Lex. sub. verb.), Dem. 45. 11. See generally, Krüger, II. § 68. 19. 1 f.

ἔχρισε] a concrete description, borrowed from the anointing of the prophets (1Ki_19:16) and priests (Exo_28:41; Exo_30:30), of the consecration, which in this instance is to be conceived of as taking place by means of the spiritual investiture.[86]

ΠΤΩΧΟῖς] the poor עֲנָוִים. See on Mat_5:3. Theyin the original Hebrew the unhappy exilesare more precisely designated by αἰχμαλώτ., as well as by the epithets, which are to be taken in their historical sense typically, τυφλοῖς and τεθραυσμένους (crushed to pieces), whereby the misery of the ΠΤΩΧΟΊ is represented as a blinding and a bruising. According to the typical reference to the Messiah, these predicates refer to the misery of the spiritual bondage, the cessation of which the Messiah was to announce and (ἀποστεῖλαι) to accomplish. Moreover, the LXX. varies considerably from the original Hebrew (doubtless the result of a various reading which mixed with this passage the parallel in Isa_42:7), and Luke again does not agree with the LXX., especially in ἀποστεῖλαι τεθραυσμ. ἐν ἀφέσει, which words are from Isa_58:6, whence Luke (not Jesus, who indeed read from the roll of the book) or his informant relating from memory having taken them erroneously, but by an association of ideas easily explained mixed them up in this place.

ἘΝΙΑΥΤῸΝ ΚΥΡΊΟΥ ΔΕΚΤΌΝ] an acceptable year of the Lord, i.e. a welcome, blessed year belonging to Jehovah, whereby is to be understood in the typical reference of the passage the Messianic period of blessing, while in the historical sense the blessed future of the theocracy after the exile is denoted by the words שְׁנַת־רָצוֹן לַיְהֹוָה, i.e. a year of satisfaction for Jehovah, which will be for Jehovah the time to show His satisfaction to His people (comp. Luk_2:14). The passage before us is strangely abused by the Valentinians, Clemens, Hom. xvii. 19, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, and many more, to limit the ministry of Jesus to the space of one year,[87] which even the connection, of the original text, in which a day of vengeance against the enemies of Gods people follows, ought to have prevented. Even Wieseler, p. 272, makes an extraordinary chronological use of ἐνιαυτός and of σήμερον, Luk_4:21, in support of his assumption of a parallel with Joh_6:1 ff. in regard to time, according to which the sojourn of Jesus in Nazareth is said to have fallen on the Sabbath after Purim 782. The year is an allusion to the year of jubilee (Lev_25:9), as an inferior prefigurative type of the Messianic redemption. The three infinitives are parallel and dependent on ἀπέσταλκέ με, whose purpose they specify.

ἐν ἀφέσει] a well-known constructio pregnans: so that they are now in the condition of deliverance (Polybius, i. 79. 12, xxii. 9. 17), comp. Luk_2:39.

[85] Comp. Schleiermacher, L. J. p. 270 f.

[86] Observe the difference of tense, ἔχρισε … ἀπέσταλκε: He anointed me, He hath sent me (and I am here!); also the lively asyndeton in the two verbs (ἀπέστ. without καί), as well as also in the three infinitives.

[87] Keim also, D. geschichtl. Chr. p. 140 ff., has very recently arrived at this conclusion in view of Origens statement, de princip. iv. 5 : a year and a few months, and that too on the ground of the calculation of the Baptists death, according to the account of Josephus, Antt. xviii. 5, concerning the war of Antipas against Aretas. The testing of this combination does not belong to this place. But the Gospel of John stands decidedly opposed to the one-year duration of Christs official teaching. See, besides, the discussions on the subject in Weizsäcker, p. 306 ff.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 4:18-19 contain the text, Isa 61:1-2 , free reproduction of the Sept [45] , which freely reproduces the Hebrew, which probably was first read, then turned into Aramaean, then preached on by Jesus, that day. It may have been read from an Aramaean version. Most notable in the quotation is the point at which it stops. In Isaiah after the “acceptable year” comes the “day of vengeance”. The clause referring to the latter is omitted. ἀποστεῖλαι τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει (Luk 4:19 ) is imported (by Lk. probably) from Isa 58:6 , the aim being to make the text in all respects a programme for the ministry of Jesus. Along with that, in the mind of the evangelist, goes the translation of all the categories named poor, broken-hearted, captives, blind, bruised from the political to the spiritual sphere. Legitimately, for that was involved in the declaration that the prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus.

[45] Septuagint.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To have fixed on any passage announcing His sufferings (as Isa 53:1-12), would have been unsuitable at that early stage of His ministry. But He selects a passage announcing the sublime object of His whole mission, its divine character, and His special endowments for it; expressed in the first person, and so singularly adapted to the first opening of the mouth in His prophetic capacity, that it seems as if made expressly for this occasion. It is from the well-known section of Isaiah's prophecies whose burden is that mysterious "SERVANT OF THE LORD," despised of man, abhorred of the nation, but before whom kings on seeing Him are to arise, and princes to worship; in visage more marred than any man and His form than the sons of men, yet sprinkling many nations; laboring seemingly in vain, and spending His strength for naught and in vain, yet Jehovah's Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and be His Salvation to the ends of the earth (Isa. 49:1-26, &c.). The quotation is chiefly from the Septuagint version, used in the synagogues.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. The Spirit of the Lord] This is found in Isa 61:1; but our Lord immediately adds to it Isa 42:7. The proclaiming of liberty to the captives, and the acceptable year (or year of acceptance) of the Lord, is a manifest allusion to the proclaiming of the year of jubilee by sound of trumpet: see Le 25:9, c., and the notes there. This was a year of general release of debts and obligations of bond-men and women; of lands and possessions, which had been sold from the families and tribes to which they belonged. Our Saviour, by applying this text to himself, a text so manifestly relating to the institution above mentioned, plainly declares the typical design of that institution. - LOWTH.

He hath anointed me] I have been designed and set apart for this very purpose; my sole business among men is to proclaim glad tidings to the poor, c. All the functions of this new prophet are exercised on the hearts of men and the grace by which he works in the heart is a grace of healing, deliverance, and illumination; which, by an admirable virtue, causes them to pass from sickness to health, from slavery to liberty, from darkness to light, and from the lowest degrees of misery to supreme eternal happiness. See Quesnel. To those who feel their spiritual poverty, whose hearts are broken through a sense of their sins, who see themselves tied and bound with the chains of many evil habits, who sit in the darkness of guilt and misery, without a friendly hand to lead them in the way in which they should go-to these, the Gospel of the grace of Christ is a pleasing sound, because a present and full salvation is proclaimed by it; and the present is shown to be the acceptable year of the Lord; the year, the time, in which he saves to the uttermost all who come unto him in the name of his Son Jesus. Reader! what dost thou feel? Sin-wretchedness-misery of every description? Then come to Jesus - He will save THEE - he came into the world for this very purpose. Cast thy soul upon him, and thou shalt not perish, but have everlasting life.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.—The passage that follows reproduces, with a few unimportant variations, the LXX. version of Isa_61:1-2. The words “to heal the broken-hearted” are not in the best MSS. “To set at liberty them that are bruised” is not found in the present text of Isaiah. It is a legitimate inference that the passage which Jesus thus read was one in which He wished men to see the leading idea of His ministry. Glad tidings for the poor, remission of sins, comfort for the mourners, these were what He proclaimed now. These were proclaimed again in the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. We cannot fail to connect the opening words with the descent of the Spirit at His baptism. That was the “unction from the Holy One” (1Jn_2:20) which made Him the Christ, the true anointed of the Lord.

Recovering of sight to the blind.—The English version of Isaiah rightly follows the Hebrew in giving “the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” The blindness is that of those who have been imprisoned in the darkness.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. he hath anointed me] Rather, He anointed (aorist); the following verb is in the perfect. The word Mashach in the Hebrew would recall to the hearers the notion of the Messiah—“il m’a messianisé” (Salvador). “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power,” Act_10:38. In illustration of the verse generally, as indicating the work primarily of Isaiah, but in its fullest sense, of Christ, see Mat_11:5; Mat_5:3, &c.

the poor] i. e. the poor in spirit (Mat_11:28; Mat_5:3), as the Hebrew implies.

to heal the broken-hearted] Omitted in א, B, D, L.

recovering of sight to the blind] Here the LXX. differs from the Hebrew, which has “opening of prison to the bound.” Perhaps this is a reminiscence of Isa_42:7.

to set at liberty them that are bruised] This also is not in Isa_61:1, but is a free reminiscence of the LXX. in Isa_58:6. Either the text of the Hebrew was then slightly variant, or the record introduces into the text a reminiscence of the discourse.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,.... By whom is meant, the third person in the Trinity; so called, to distinguish him from all other spirits; and who was given to Christ as man, without measure, whereby he was qualified for his great work: and intends the Spirit of Jehovah, with all his gifts and graces, who was, and abode on Christ, as a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, of counsel and of might, of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord; he was upon him, and in him, the first moment of his conception, which was by his power; and he visibly descended on him at his baptism; and the phrase denotes the permanency and continuance of him with him:

because he hath anointed me; or "that he might anoint me": the Ethiopic version renders it, "by whom he hath anointed me"; for it was with the Holy Ghost he was anointed, as to be king and priest, so likewise to be a prophet: hence he has the name Messiah, which signifies anointed: and this unction he had, in order

to preach the Gospel to the poor: in Isaiah it is, "to the meek"; which design the same persons, and mean such as are poor in spirit, and are sensible of their spiritual poverty; have low and humble thoughts of themselves, and of their own righteousness; and seek to Christ for durable riches and true righteousness, and frankly acknowledge that all they have and are, is owing to the grace of God: and generally speaking, these are the poor of this world, and poor in their intellectuals, who have but a small degree of natural wisdom and knowledge: to these the Gospel, or glad tidings of the love, grace, and mercy of God in Christ, of peace, pardon, righteousness, life and salvation by Christ, were preached by him; and that in so clear a manner, and with such power and authority, as never was before, or since; and for this purpose was he anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows:

he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted; whose hearts are broken, and made contrite by the word of God, under the influence of the Spirit of God, and with a sense of sin; and are wounded with it, and are humbled for it; and are in great pain and distress, and even inconsolable, and ready to faint and die; for a wounded spirit who can bear? now Christ was sent to heal such persons by his own stripes, by binding up their wounds, by the application of his blood to them, which is a sovereign balm for every wound; by the discoveries of pardoning grace to their souls, and by opening and applying the comfortable promises of the Gospel, by his Spirit, to them:

to preach deliverance to the captives; who are captives to sin, Satan, and the law; from which, there is only deliverance by him; who saves his people from their sins, redeems them from the law, and leads captivity captive; and which liberty and deliverance are preached and published in the Gospel, and by Christ the author of them:

and recovering of sight to the blind; which in the prophet is, "and the opening of the prison to them that are bound"; and which the Septuagint render, as here in Luke, and the Chaldee paraphrase in part agrees with it, interpreting it thus, "to the prisoners", "be ye revealed to the light" now because persons in prison are in darkness, and see no light, therefore they are represented as blind; and both are the case of sinners, they are in the prison of sin and of the law, and are blind, ignorant, and insensible of their state; until Christ both opens the prison, and sets them free, and opens their eyes, and gives them spiritual sight; when he says to the prisoners go forth, to them that are in darkness show yourselves, Isa 49:9

To set at liberty them that are bruised: these words are not in Isa 61:1 but in the Septuagint version of Isa 58:6 from whence they seem to be taken, or else from Isa 42:7 it being allowable for a reader in the prophets, to skip from place to place, which our Lord here did, in order to explain this passage more fully.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Ver. 18. He hath anointed me to preach] Therefore the gospel is a sure saying, and worthy of all acceptation, since it is an effect of the Holy Spirit: doubt not its excellence, authority, certainty, sufficiency. See my "True Treasure."

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me - Or, I speak by divine appointment. I am divinely inspired to speak. There can be no doubt that the passage in Isaiah had a principal reference to the Messiah. Our Saviour directly applies it to himself, and it is not easily applicable to any other prophet. Its first application might have been to the restoration of the Jews from Babylon; but the language of prophecy is often applicable to two similar events, and the secondary event is often the most important. In this case the prophet uses most striking poetic images to depict the return from Babylon, but the same images also describe the appropriate work of the Son of God.

Hath anointed me - Anciently kings and prophets and the high priest were set apart to their work by anointing with oil, 1Ki 19:15-16; Exo 29:7; 1Sa 9:16, etc. This oil or ointment was made of various substances, and it was forbidden to imitate it, Exo 30:34-38. Hence, those who were set apart to the work of God as king, prophet, or priest, were called the Lord’s anointed, 1Sa 16:6; Psa 84:9; Isa 45:1. Hence, the Son of God is called the “Messiah,” a Hebrew word signifying the “Anointed,” or the “Christ,” a Greek word signifying the same thing. And by his being “anointed” is not meant that he was literally anointed, for he was never set apart in that manner, but that “God had set him apart” for this work; that “he” had constituted or appointed him to be the prophet, priest, and king of his people. See the notes at Mat 1:1.

To preach the gospel to the poor - The English word “gospel” is derived from two words - “God” or “good,” and “spell,” an old Saxon word meaning “history, relation, narration, word, or speech,” and the word therefore means “a good communication” or “message.” This corresponds exactly with the meaning of the Greek word - “a good or joyful message - glad tidings.” By the “poor” are meant all those who are destitute of the comforts of this life, and who therefore may be more readily disposed to seek treasures in heaven; all those who are sensible of their sins, or are poor in spirit Mat 5:3; and all the “miserable” and the afflicted, Isa 58:7. Our Saviour gave it as one proof that he was the Messiah, or was from God, that he preached to “the poor,” Mat 11:5. The Pharisees and Sadducees despised the poor; ancient philosophers neglected them; but the gospel seeks to bless them - to give comfort where it is felt to be needed, and where it will be received with gratitude. Riches fill the mind with pride, with self-complacency, and with a feeling that the gospel is not needed. The poor “feel” their need of some sources of comfort that the world cannot give, and accordingly our Saviour met with his greatest success the gospel among the poor; and there also, “since,” the gospel has shed its richest blessings and its purest joys. It is also one proof that the gospel is true. If it had been of “men,” it would have sought the rich and mighty; but it pours contempt on all human greatness, and seeks, like God, to do good to those whom the world overlooks or despises. See the notes at 1Co 1:26.

To heal the brokenhearted - To console those who are deeply afflicted, or whose hearts are “broken” by external calamities or by a sense of their sinfulness.

Deliverance to the captives - This is a figure originally applicable to those who were in captivity in Babylon. They were miserable. To grant deliverance to “them” and restore them to their country - to grant deliverance to those who are in prison and restore them to their families - to give liberty to the slave and restore him to freedom, was to confer the highest benefit and impart the richest favor. In this manner the gospel imparts favor. It does not, indeed, “literally” open the doors of prisons, but it releases the mind captive under sin; it gives comfort to the prisoner, and it will finally open all prison doors and break off all the chains of slavery, and, by preventing “crime,” prevent also the sufferings that are the consequence of crime.

Sight to the blind - This was often literally fulfilled, Mat 11:5; Joh 9:11; Mat 9:30, etc.

To set at liberty them that are bruised - The word “bruised,” here, evidently has the same “general” signification as “brokenhearted” or the contrite. It means those who are “pressed down” by great calamity, or whose hearts are “pressed” or “bruised” by the consciousness of sin. To set them “at liberty” is the same as to free them from this pressure, or to give them consolation.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

By the poor are to be understood the Gentiles; who might truly be called poor, since they possessed neither the knowledge of the true God, nor of the law, nor of the prophets. (Origen) --- Isaias in this place speaks of himself, as a figure of the Messias. The captivity of Babylon, which is the literal object of this prophecy, was a figure of the then state of mankind; the return from this captivity announced by the prophet, and effected by Cyrus, represented the redemption of man, effected by Jesus Christ. (Bible de Vence)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

18. The Spirit of the Lord—The passage describes, in terms of beautiful figure, the office of the Messiah, as in the Messiah’s own words. The words are mostly quoted from the Septuagint version. The phrase bind up the broken-hearted in this place is of doubtful genuineness, and is omitted by Alford. The clause to set at liberty them that are bruised, is from Isa_58:6, and was probably made by our Lord a part of his text for preaching. The beautiful passages combined show that the jubilee, when the bondmen of Israel were to be emancipated, was held by him to be a type of the Gospel dispensation. Freedom is the spirit of the Gospel; emancipation from the bonds of slavery on the limbs, of ignorance on the mind, of sin upon the soul.

Anointed me—The Greek word is the very term from which the title Messiah or Christ is derived. In the passage the mission of Messiah is to the poor and the broken-hearted, the captive, the blind, and the bruised. To these he is an emancipator and a physician. And this point is to be specially marked, as it will supply the key to the proverb quoted in Luk_4:23.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. St. Luke here quotes, with a few important variations, from the LXX of Isa_61:1, Isa_61:2. The clause, "to set at liberty them that are bruised," does not occur the present text of Isaiah. The bright, comforting words of the great prophet the Lord chose as giving a general summary of what he designed to carry out in his ministry. It could be no undesigned coincidence that the opening words of the passage contain a singularly clear mention of the three Persons of the blessed Trinity the Spirit, the Father, and the Anointed (Messiah). Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, etc. The common interpretation referred this passage to the state of the people on the return from the Captivity. Nothing, however, that the people had yet experienced in any way satisfied the brilliant picture painted in the great prophecy. A remnant certainly had returned several centuries back from their distant exile, but the large majority of the chosen people were scattered abroad; their own land was crushed under what seemed a hopeless servitude; poverty, ignorance, universal discontent, reigned alike in Jerusalem, garrisoned with Roman legionaries, and in the most distant of the poor upland villages of Galilee. Only could deliverance come and a golden age of prosperity return with the promised Messiah. This was the interpretation which the choicest spirits in Israel applied to the great Isaiah prophecy read that sabbath day in the little synagogue of Nazareth. This was the meaning which Jesus at once gave to it, only he startled his hearers by telling them that in him they saw the promised long-looked-for Deliverer. We only possess, it is evident, the very barest abstract of the words of the Teacher Jesus on this occasion. They must have been singularly eloquent, winning, and powerful to have extorted the wonder and admiration alluded to in the twenty-second verse.

The poor and the gospel.

A most significant fact that the first work of the Messiah should be his "preaching the gospel to the poor." What is the significance of it?

I BY THE POOR DIVINE TRUTH IS MOST NEEDED. Their life on earth is the hardest; it is often one of unremitting toil; often one of severe privation, almost destitute comfort and enjoyment; often one of serious and hard oppression, in which the strong will of another robs of all liberty of action. The past is sad, the present gloomy, the future dark. There are no pleasures in recollection, and there is no relief in hope. How precious, how necessary, to these are the joys which earth cannot give and cannot steal the treasures which enrich the heart, the hopes which reach beyond the grave!

II BY THE POOR, DIVINE TRUTH IS MOST APPRECIATED. "How hardly do they that have riches enter the kingdom of heaven!" Their time is occupied, their minds are filled, with pursuits and pleasures which are on an earthly plane, and things higher and worthier are hidden from view. The poor, though they have indeed their own temptations and their own errors and failings, are yet more likely to see the Divine hand beckoning to them, and to hear the heavenly voice calling them to wisdom and service and eternal joy. And, as a fact, they do. The common people still hear Christ gladly, while the wealthy and the strong and the famous are sitting at the feet of "the world," to learn its wisdom and to seek its favor.

III TO THE POOR, DIVINE TRUTH IS CLEARLY AND MARKEDLY OFFERED. It was, in fact, a very great thing to say, "To the poor the gospel is preached." It was one of the "watermarks" of Christianity that our Master made his appeal, not, as philosophy and theology had done before him, and as science in our day is doing, to human learning and influence, but to the unlettered and the lowly, to the multitude and the millions among men, to the common human heart. Other systems had tried to reach the lower levels by affecting the heights of society first. The gospel of Jesus Christ "moves upward from below." It teaches, cleanses, raises the people; and so it purifies and exalts the nation. This is the Divine method, and must be ours. It is for the Church of Christ to follow its Divine Master, to see that the signs of truth are about its handiwork, and amongst them this leading sign, that "to the poor the gospel is preached." If this feature should be absent, it will be time for the Church to be considering where it stands how near to or remote from its Master. C.

Healing the broken-hearted.

We have a supreme want, but we have a Divine remedy.

I THE BROKEN HUMAN HEART. There are two things which break hearts:

1. One is intolerable shame; the shame which comes from a crushing sense of sin; it may be of flagrant sin, such as commands the deep indignation and strong censure of our fellowmen, and involves the loss of our own self-respect; or it may be a sense of that common sin of which all the souls of men are guilty in the sight of God the keeping back from him of all that has been due to him, all the reverence and love of our hearts and all the service of our lives. Under a deep sense of sin, and therefore of condemnation, affected and afflicted with the consciousness of Divine disapproval and the fear of Divine punishment, the heart cries out for refuge.

2. The other is overwhelming sorrow; it may be some crushing disappointment, or it may be some wearing and trying sickness, or it may be some heavy and humiliating loss, or it may be some terrible bereavement and consequent loneliness of heart and life; under one or more of these overwhelming burdens the heart may be bowed down even to breaking.

II THE ONE DIVINE REFUGE. There is but one availing "Refuge of our soul" to whom we can flee with perfect assurance that in him we shall find what we need. Christ came "to heal the broken-hearted," and he does so by:

1. Offering us the most tender sympathy. He is the High Priest who is "touched with a feeling of our infirmities, having been in all points tried even as we are," and therefore able to enter perfectly into our griefs, whether of mind, body, or estate.

2. Ministering to us Divine comfort. By his Holy Spirit"s ministry he comes to us, and dwells within us, and acts powerfully though graciously upon our hearts; thus he lets the gentle dews of his comfort cool the heats of our fevered spirit, making himself known to us as the "God of all comfort," as that "One who comforteth them that are cast down.

3. Granting us effectual help; enlightening our minds, energizing our spirits, making us capable of doing that which has to be done, animating and reviving us, fitting us to take our part and do our work. In proportion as we are reverent and pure of heart in the time of our prosperity and joy, may we look for his indwelling and outworking in the "day of desperate grief" and of heart-brokenness. C.

Spiritual bondage and Christian freedom.

Who does not pity the captive? Saddening to the sympathetic heart is the thought of the man who is confined within his lonely and dreary cell, shut in from the beauties and melodies of nature, excluded from the haunts of men, debarred from all the activities of busy life, unable to enter his own home, compelled to unwilling solitude and separation from those he loves! There is no prayer that we breathe with a finer or fuller feeling than the petition, "Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee." Yet is there a bondage that is worse than any ever inflicted by stone walls and iron chains. It is

I THE BONDAGE OF SIN. Sin is at first a transgression, but it soon becomes a tyranny. It grows into a power; and it becomes a power which holds the soul in its grasp, so that it is practically enslaved; it attempts to rise, to move, to do that which befits it and for which it was created, but it finds that it cannot; it is held down; its way is barred. This is true of sin in all its forms, and it is true in a number of degrees, varying from an objectionable constraint down to an almost hopeless despotism. It applies to:

1. Error, which becomes an inveterate prejudice through which no light will break.

2. Folly, such as that of procrastination, which in no length of time weaves itself round the soul.

3. Vice, such as intemperance, or profanity, or impurity (more especially in some of its forms). There is no bondage more thoroughly deserving the name than this. The victim of vice is, indeed, "holden with the cords of his sins"; (Pro_5:22) they have him fast in the saddest and most degrading thraldom in which a human being can be held.

4. Vanity. How many a man is a wretched slave to the judgment of other men! The fear of their condemnation, or still oftener of their ridicule, impels him in a direction in which he knows he ought not to be going, ties him to a position from which he is longing to break away.

5. Rebellion against God; disloyalty, estrangement, the withholding of the heart and life from God"s service, so long maintained, that, when the soul thinks of repentance and return, it finds itself held to its wrong and sinful state.

II THE FREEDOM WHICH IS IN CHRIST. The gospel announces "deliverance to the captives." And how does it effect this blessed emancipation?

1. By giving to the sinner a deep sense of his sin, and filling his soul with shame of himself and loathing of his iniquity. When men have come to hate sin they are well on the road toward its conquest.

2. By taking back the penitent to the favor and love of God. Through Christ sin is pardoned and the sinner is restored. As one that loves God, and seeks above all things to enjoy his favor, the man "cannot sin;" he has acquired a reason and motive for purity and integrity which gives him the victory over sin. How can he grieve his heavenly Father, his Divine Redeemer, the Holy Spirit of God?

3. By giving him access to a source of Divine power. God is ready to dwell effectually within, and to work mightily upon the soul that seeks his presence and asks his power. We can do "all things in Christ who strengtheneth us." He makes us to know "the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe," in snapping the bonds that bound us, and investing us with "the glorious liberty of the children of God. C.

Spiritual blindness.

"The recovering of sight to the blind." We think of

I THE BADNESS OF BLINDNESS, and its degrees. "It must be very bad to be blind," we say; probably we but faintly realize what it means.

1. It is bad to be physically blind to look on no scenery, to read no book, to behold no countenance, to recognize no love in a human face, to grope our way in the thick darkness.

2. It is worse to be mentally blind to see, and not to see; to open the eyes on the beauty and wonder and glory of the universe and to recognize nothing beautiful, wonderful, glorious, there; to be as lonely in a library as in a cell!

3. It is worse still to be morally blind blind of soul, so that a man can see nothing degraded in drunkenness, nothing shameful in vice, nothing revolting in obscenity and profanity, nothing repelling in selfishness; so that a man can see nothing noble in generosity, nothing beautiful in beneficence, nothing regal in righteousness and duty, nothing sacred in human love.

4. It is worst of all to be spiritually blind worst, because that is the root and source of all the others; blindness of spirit, a darkness in which the soul fails to see the Highest of all beings, the loftiest of all truths, the greatest of all facts; a darkness in which the soul fails to recognize the essential truth that in God we "live, and move, and have our being," and that to him we are responsible for all we are and have; in which it is blind to our sorrowful state of guilt and condemnation in the sight of God.

II THE WORST FEATURE OF SPIRITUAL PRIVATION. That which is the best feature in physical is the worst in spiritual blindness. Under the merciful principle of accommodation, the blind became not only submissive, but contented and even cheerful in the darkness in which they dwell. They are able not only to speak of it, but to feel about it that it is "the shadow of God"s wing." That is a very happy thing; but that is the very worst feature of spiritual blindness. It is spiritual insensibility that is the most deplorable the fact that men don"t know that they don"t see; that they suppose themselves to know everything when they know nothing; that they are not aware what a world of truth and blessedness is around them and is accessible to them. Who shall reveal this to them?

III CHRIST THE GREAT RESTORER of our spiritual vision. And how does he make us see that to which, but for him, we should have remained blind?

1. By making quite plain and certain that which would have remained shadowy and uncertain. Many truths of vital importance men would, in his absence, have speculated upon and discussed, but they would not have known them. Coming to us from God, the great Teacher has turned these uncertainties into living and sustaining truth. He tells us authoritatively and decisively that God is the one Divine Spirit, the righteous Ruler of all, the Father of souls, condemning them in their sin, pitying them in their estrangement, inviting them to return; that God has determined that when we die we shall live again, shall come forth to a resurrection of condemnation or of life.

2. By bringing the truth close home to the eye of the soul. When our Lord lived on earth he did this himself in his own Person; e.g. in the cases of the woman of Samaria, the rich young ruler, Nicodemus, he brought the truth of the kingdom home to the heart and the conscience. Those lips are closed to us now; Christ speaks not now as he spoke then. But his Spirit is with us still, speaking through his Word and through his faithful servants, and through his providence.

3. By more fully enlightening the minds of those who go in faith to seek and to serve him. Unto all seeking and trusting souls he manifests his truth in ever-enlarging fullness; them he leads "into all the truth" they need to know; and to them it becomes gloriously true that the Spirit of the Lord has anointed him, their Savior, for "the recovering of sight to the blind. C.

The bruised.

"To set at liberty them that are bruised." And who may they be who are thus characterized? and in what way does Jesus Christ meet their especial need?

I BRUISED SOULS. We find these in:

1. Those who are chafed with the worries of life; whose disposition is such, or whose circumstances are such, that they are harassed and fretted by a multitude of minor conflicts with men and things; who are in danger of losing or have lost their mental equilibrium as the result of the perpetual strife.

2. Those who are perplexed with the problems of life; who want to be mentally satisfied and to see that their theories agree with the existing facts, and who, finding these two things in frequent antagonism, are troubled thereby in soul; such men are never fixed in their convictions, but always thinking that these require readjustment.

3. Those who are smitten by the persecutions of life; who are continually coming into collision with men. They may have a combative habit, or they may be placed in human surroundings unfavorable to peace; but, from whatever cause, they are always in conflict, and are perpetually finding themselves the object of attack, of the ribaldry and the scorn of men; they bear a bruised feeling about them.

4. Those that are worn with excessive toil.

5. Those that are wounded by the heavier sorrows of life; from whom health, or reputation, or position, or fortune, or the object of strong and deep affection has been suddenly taken away.

II THE REFUGE THEY HAVE IN CHRIST. Jesus Christ does not "set at liberty" bruised souls as a deliverer releases bruised prisoners; but he does emancipate them by taking from them their suffering, and giving to them a large measure of spiritual freedom. He blesses these bruised souls, and proves to them a Divine Refuge.

1. By his sympathy. In each one of their distresses they can feel sure of the tender sympathy of their High Priest, "touched with the feeling of their infirmities.

2. By his example. In all points he has been tempted, or tried, even as we are. We bear no cross which he has not carried before us, and his was heavier than ours.

3. By his aid. He is ready, at our appeal, to strengthen us by his indwelling Spirit, and to grant us such strong sustaining grace that, instead of groaning under our blows, we may even glory in them. (2Co_12:9)

4. By his promises; those "exceeding great and precious promises," which not only cover the whole path of life, however long that may prove, but reach on beyond the horizon-line of death into the blessed and eternal future. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He hath anointed me - With the Spirit. He hath by the power of his Spirit which dwelleth in me, set me apart for these offices. To preach the Gospel to the poor - Literally and spiritually. How is the doctrine of the ever-blessed trinity interwoven, even in those scriptures where one would least expect it? How clear a declaration of the great Three-One is there in those very words, The Spirit - of the Lord is upon me! To proclaim deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised - Here is a beautiful gradation, in comparing the spiritual state of men to the miserable state of those captives, who are not only cast into prison, but, like Zedekiah, had their eyes put out, and were laden and bruised with chains of iron. Isaiah lxi, 1.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Lord

Adonai Jehovah. Isa 61:1

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me

"The Holy Spirit is with me in a special way." When someone says this, he is claiming to speak the words of God.

he anointed me

In the Old Testament, ceremonial oil was poured on a person when they were given power and authority to do a special task. Jesus uses this metaphor to refer to the Holy Spirit being on him to prepare him for this work. AT: "the Holy Spirit is upon me to empower me" or "the Holy Spirit gave me power and authority" (See: Metaphor)

the poor

"the poor people""

proclaim freedom to the captives

"tell people who are being held captive that they can go free" or "set free the prisoners of war"

recovery of sight to the blind

"give sight to the blind" or "make the blind be able to see again"

set free those who are oppressed

"set free those who are treated harshly"

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor

"tell everyone that the Lord is ready to bless his people" or "announce that this is the year that the Lord will show his kindness"

translationWords

Holy Spirit

anoint

preach

good news

preach

free

captive

oppress

favor

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

18. ἰάσασθαι τοὺς συντετριμμένους τὴν καρδίαν. Omitted by אBDL, Vulg[94] It[95] &c.

[94] Vulg. Vulgate.

[95] It. Old Latin Version (Itala).

18. ἔχρισέν με. ‘He anointed’ (aorist); the following verb is in the perfect. The word Mashach in the Hebrew would recall to the hearers the notion of the Messiah—“il m’a messianisé” (Salvador). “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power,” Act 10:38. In illustration of the verse generally, as indicating the work primarily of Isaiah, but in its fullest sense, of Christ, see Mat 11:5; Mat 5:3, &c.

εὐαγγελίσασθαι. Obviously the rendering of the A. V[100] “to preach the Gospel” connotes conceptions which could only have been imperfectly present to the mind of Isaiah, so that “to preach good tidings” (as in R.V[101]) is better.

[100] A. V. Authorised Version.

[101] R.V. Revised Version.

πτωχοῖς. To the poor in spirit (Mat 11:28; Mat 5:3), as the Hebrew implies.

ἀπέσταλκέν με. ‘He hath sent me,’ which, by the natural force of the perfect, implies, ‘I am now here.’

[ἰάσασθαι τοὺς συντετριμμένους τὴν καρδίαν.] Omitted in אBDL.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18-20.] The quotation agrees mainly with the LXX:—the words ἀποστεῖλαι τεθρ. ἐν ἀφέσει are inserted from the LXX of Isa 58:6. The meaning of this prophetic citation may be better seen, when we remember that it stands in the middle of the third great division of the book of Isaiah (ch. 49-66), that, viz. which comprises the prophecies of the Person, office, sufferings, triumph, and Church of the Messiah;—and thus by implication announces the fulfilment of all that went before, in Him who then addressed them.

18. πνεῦμα κ.] See Isa 11:2; Isa 42:1.

οὗ εἵν.] because, = יִעַן.

αἰχμ. ἄφ.] See ch. 13:12, 16.

τυφλ. ἀν.] See Joh 9:39. The Hebrew words thus rendered by the LXX, לַאֲסוּרִים פְּקַח־קוֹהַ, signify, ‘to those who are bound, the opening of prison:’ so that we have here the LXX and literal rendering both included, and the latter expressed in the LXX words of Isa 58:6.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. The quotation is given by the Evangelist somewhat freely from LXX, probably from memory and under the influence of other passages of Scripture. To argue that the Evangelist cannot be S. Luke, because S. Luke was a Gentile, and therefore would not know the LXX, is absurd. S. Luke was not only a constant companion of S. Paul, but a fellow-worker with him in dealing with both Jews and Gentiles. He could not have done this without becoming familiar with the LXX.

Down to ἀπέσταλκέν με inclusive the quotation agrees with LXX. After that the text of LXX runs thus: ἰάσασθαι τοὺς συντε τριμένους τὴν καρδίαν, κηρύξαι αἰχαλώτοις ἄφεσιν καὶ τυφλοῖς ἀνά βλεψιν, καλέσαι ἐνιαυτὸν Κυρίου δεκτόν. In many authorities the clause ἰάσασθαι τοὺς συντετριμμένους τὴν καρδίαν has been, inserted into the test of Lk. in order to make the quotation morefull and more in harmony with O.T. We have similar insertion Mat 15:8; Act 7:37; Rom 8:9; Heb 12:20, and perhaps 2:71. In the original the Prophet puts into the mouth of Jehovah’s ideal Servant a gracious message to those in captivity, promising them release and a return to the restored Jerusalem, the joy of which is compared to the joy of the year of jubilee. It is obvious that both figures, the return from exile and the release at the jubilee, admirably express Christ’s work of redemption.

Πνεῦμα Κυρίου ἐπʼ ἐμέ. In applying these words to Himself the Christ looks back to His baptism. He is more than a Prophet; He is “the Son, the Beloved One,” of Jehovah (3:21, 22).

With ἐπʼ ἐμέ (ἐστι) comp ἦν ἐπʼ αὐτόν (2:25).—οὖ εἴνεκεν. Not “wherefore,” as in Act 19:32, which here would spoil the sense, but “because,”a meaning which οὔνεκεν often has in class. Grk. Vulg. has propter quod.Comp. Gen 18:5, Gen 18:14:8, Gen 18:22:16, 38:26; Num 10:31, Num 14:43, etc. The Ionic form εἴνεκεν is found 18:29; Act 28:20; 2Co 3:10: but ἔνεκεν is the commonest form (2Co 7:12), and ἔνεκα also occurs before consonants (6:22; Act 26:21).

ἔχρισέν με. The Christ was anointed with the Spirit, as Prophets and priests were anointed with oil (1Ki 19:16; Exo 28:41, Exo 30:30). Unlike πέης (2Co 9:9), πτωχός “always had a bad meaning until it was ennobled by the Gospels” (6:20, 7:22; 2Co 6:10; Jas 2:5). It suggests abject poverty (πτώσσω = “I crouch”). See Hatch, Bibl. Grk. pp. 76, 77.

ἀπέσταλκέν με. Change from aor. to perf. “He anointed Me (once for all); He hath sent Me (and I am here)”: comp 1Co 15:4. We have had ἀποστέλλω of the mission of Gabriel (1:19, 26); here and ver. 43 we have it of the mission of the Christ; 7:27 of the Forerunner; 9:2 of the Twelve. Whereas πέμπω is quite general and implies no special relation between sender and sent, ἀποστέλλω adds the idea of a delegated authority making the person sent to be the envoy or representative of the sender. But πέμπω also is used of the mission of the Christ (20:13), of Prophets (Ver. 26, 20:11, 12), and of the Apostles (Joh 13:20, Joh 20:21). Strictly speaking, αἰχμαλώτοις means “prisoners of war” (αἰχμή and ἀλωτός) freq. in class. Grk. but here only in N.T The cognate αἰχμαλωτίζω occurs 21:24; 2Co 10:5; 2Ti 3:6; αἰχμαλωσία, Eph 4:8. Neither this metaphor nor that of τυφλοῖς ἀνάβλεψιν harmonizes very well with the year of jubilee, to which Godet would restrict the whole passage. Both might apply to captives in exile, some of whom had been blinded by their captors, or by long confinement in a dungeon.

ἀποστεῖλαι τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει. These words come from another part of Isaiah (58:6), and are perhaps inserted through a slip of memory. Jesus was reading, not quoting without book; and therefore we cannot suppose that He inserted the clause Lightfoot says that it was lawful to skip from one passage to an.other in reading the Prophets, but not in reading the Law (Hor. Heb. on Luk 4:17). That might explain the omission of a few verses, but not the going back three chapters. The insertion comes from the Evangelist, who is probably quoting from memory, and perhaps regards the unconsciously combined passages as a sort of “programme of the ministry.” The strong expression τεθραυσμένους is here applied to those who are shattered in fortune and broken in spirit.

For the pregnant construction, “send so as to be in,” comp. 1:17. The asyndeton throughout, first between ἔχρισεν and ἀπέσταλκεν and then between the three infinitives which depend upon ἀπέσταλκεν is impressive.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Anointed. See on Christ, Mt 1:1.

To preach good tidings. See on Gospel, Superscription of Matthew.

To the poor [πτωχοις] . See on Mt 5:3.

To heal the broken hearted. The best texts omit. So Rev.

To preach [κηρυξαι] . Better as Rev., proclaim, as a herald. See on 2Pe 2:5.

To the captives [αιχμαλωτοις] . From aijcmh, a spear point, and aJliskomai, to be taken or conquered. Hence, properly, of prisoners of war. Compare Isa 42:7 : "To bring out captives from the prison, and those who sit in darkness from the house of restraint." The allusion is to Israel, both as captive exiles and as prisoners of Satan in spiritual bondage. Wyc. has caytifs, which formerly signified captives.

To set at liberty [αποστειλαι] . Lit., to send away in discharge. Inserted from the Sept. of Isa 58:6. See on chapter Luk 3:3, and Jas 5:15. Them that are bruised [τεθραυσμενους] . Lit., broken in pieces. Only here in New Testament. Wyc., to deliver broken men into remission. The same Hebrew word is used in Isa 42:3. "a crushed seed shall he not break," which the Septuagint translates by teqlasmenon, a word which does not occur in the New Testament. In the citation of this latter passage (Mt 12:20, on which see) the word for bruised is suntribw, which the Septuagint uses for break.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.