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, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Hey listeners, this is Nick from Scripture Central, and today's podcast addresses the question,

why does Jesus announce that Isaiah chapter 61 versus 1 and 2 is fulfilled?

Early in Jesus' ministry, Luke records that Jesus returned to his childhood home in

Nazareth.

While Jesus was there,

he stood in the synagogue, picked up the Isaiah scroll, went right to the passage, and read from Isaiah chapter 61, verses 1 and 2, before the men of the synagogue there on the Sabbath day.

The passage which Jesus chose to quote would introduce Jesus as the Messiah to all present.

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, to preach the acceptable year

of the Lord. Isaiah chapter 61, verses 1 and 2 deals with imagery relating to the Jubilee

Year, a time set apart in the law of Moses for debts to be forgiven and slaves to be set

free. This may have had a special significance for the people, as a

jubilee year had likely ended shortly before Jesus began preaching publicly. In addition,

as Cary Mulestein notes, these verses were clearly understood to be a messianic prophecy, at least

partially because the verse begins by saying that the speaker has been anointed.

Messiah means anointed one. Messianic themes are strengthened by similar language

that this oracle would draw the mind to in Psalm 72, which describes the Lord's

anointed king in similar terms as Isaiah does. Jesus would demonstrate the messianic

...