He has come! That is the Good News!
With the recent celebration of Advent and Christmas, our minds and hearts have been focused on the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. But he didn’t just come as a baby to live as a human and to die. His death and resurrection, to atone for the sins of His own was His ultimate purpose, but He also came with a ministry purpose in life here on earth. His death and resurrection extended that ministry to those of us that have come much later in HIStory, that didn’t walk the streets of Judea in the first century AD. This purpose was foretold in Isaiah 61:1, hundreds of years before His earthly coming.
At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, He was teaching in the synagogues and on one Sabbath, He was given the scrolls of Isaiah to read. He opened them and found the place and read:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Isaiah 61:18-19
Then He said to all the synagogue, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” You would think the people would be overjoyed at this news. The long awaited Messiah, the One who had so many prophecies foretelling His coming, ministry and purpose, was among them. He had come! But instead they were filled with wrath and tried to throw him over a cliff. The refused to believe. They chose not to follow Him, not to learn from Him. They chose not to accept Him and His good news, His healing, His restoration, His liberty. They chose to live in anger and rejection, in unbelief.
As Christians, we can easily catch the spiritual meaning of this passage. Jesus brings the gospel, He will open our spiritually blind eyes, and set us free from our captivity to sin.
But His purpose goes deeper than that. He is Good News for those who are poor. He sees your broken-heart and He cares. He’s here to heal that. He’s here to restore vision to your life. And He’s here to set you free from oppression.
Jesus doesn’t want you trapped in abuse, living in cognitive dissonance, with no resources and a broken heart. He wants you to have freedom and wholeness. He wants you freely whole.
He has come! And He is here–for YOU! Come to Him. Believe Him.
This Reflection goes along with a mixed media Bible Journaling page (pictured). You’ll find the video for that here.
Living Coram Deo
SDG!
~ Liberty
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