When Jesus launched his ministry, he used the missional words of an ancient prophet to do so. With these words, he launched not only his public ministry but also the inauguration of the coming of the dream of God. We read these words of declaration in Luke:
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (4:16-21)
Jesus purposely found these words in the scroll and read them, but what he did that had never been done in any synagogue by any reader was to declare that these words were being fulfilled by their reader. He announced the dream of God in his reading. Through Isaiah, Jesus declared that the dream had begun with the coming of the Spirit of God, who enables the good news to be proclaimed to the poor, freedom to be given to prisoners, the blind to be restored, the oppressed to be set free and the year of God’s grace to begin. Let’s consider each of these for a moment, because they form the foundation of all mission and the contours of the dream of God.
Good News for the Poor
Jesus says that the Spirit’s work within him enables him to proclaim the good news to the poor. The proclamation of God’s good news as we see throughout the Bible revolves around the work of Christ, his death, his resurrection, his rule and his return to judge the living and the dead.
We see this throughout the first church in Acts. In the first postresurrection sermon, recorded in Acts 2, Peter announced the same dream of God as Jesus did in Luke 4. In this passage, we see Peter proclaiming Jesus Christ as crucified (v. 23), raised from the dead (v. 24), the rightful Lord of all (vv. 25, 29-35) and the one who will judge the nations. In this last regard we read,
I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Acts 2:19-21)
With these words, Peter added to the announcement of Christ by pointing out that it is not only the good news of God’s grace that is being offered to humanity, but also the warning of his dreadful judgment to come. We also read in verse forty, “With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’” The proclamation of the good news is always an expression of God’s grace and mercy as well as a warning of the certainty of his coming justice.
However, what made the announcement of Christ so significant was the fact that it was to the poor. The poor are at the heart of mission because their poverty is an expression of evil, of brokenness; it is antithetical to the dream of God. Poverty is almost always the product of greed, lust, selfishness and fear (forms of self-worship). As the good news of God’s dream goes to the victims of self-worship, God imposes his rule against all false gods who hold their victims hostage in poverty.
Freedom for Prisoners
In Christ’s announcement of the dream of God, he points out that there is freedom for the prisoners. In a Western culture where false and unjust punishment is rare, we struggle with wanting prisoners to go free. We want prisoners to be punished, to serve their time—and occasionally we want them executed. However, throughout history and in many places in our world today, many are imprisoned for a variety of unjust reasons—for standing up against evil, for being poor, for being the “wrong” ethnicity, for being female.
The concept of prisoner globally is more often related to exploitation rather than justice. Prisoners are frequently victims of others’ greed, lust, selfishness and fear (again, self-worship). In releasing those who have been imprisoned, God imposes his rightful rule over all false gods who victimize the marginalized and powerlessness, who are held hostage to their worldly power.
Sight for the Blind
Christ inaugurates the dream of God’s coming by proclaiming sight for the blind. The blind are frequently incapable of caring for themselves, of defending themselves, of holding jobs or negotiating their physical surroundings. The blind are often poor, often oppressed, often excluded from building wealth. In Jesus’ time, they were seen as doubly cursed by God. People thought their blindness was a form of God’s judgment.
In announcing the dream of God as sight for the blind, Christ not only corrected this theological error but also expressed God’s love, grace and mercy for the “least of these” and God’s intent to correct their handicaps. Medical infirmities are an expression of a world that is not right, a world that is antithetical to the dream of God. In God’s dream, people are not lame or sick; they do not lack the bodily capabilities God intended for all people. In God’s dream, the handicapped and infirm are made complete.
In the church’s mission, we see the centrality of both medical mission and healing. The church seeks to bring healing and wellness to all who are sick and handicapped. Either in this world or the next, that mission will be complete. When God’s dream breaks into the nightmare of this world, it comes with the power to heal, either supernaturally or through the sincere and loving expression of the medical sciences.
The Oppressed Set Free
Christ inaugurates the dream of God’s coming by setting the oppressed free. We do not have to be physically bound in an institution of punishment to be imprisoned. The oppressed today are in a unique form of prison and need to be set free. They are victims of others’ greed, lust, selfishness and fear. They are the girls of brothels, the boys of brick kilns. The oppressed are the farmers who farm lands that do not produce enough to feed their families—just enough to pay their government officials or landlords. The oppressed are those who, through urban poverty, lack of infrastructure and educational opportunities, have little or no hope of bettering their circumstances.
The oppressed are not merely poor; they are worse off—they are victimized in their poverty. In their need, they are exploited out of others’ self-worship. By setting these people free, Christ announces the evaporation of the power of all false gods who hold the poor in chains. Though their circumstances may not immediately change, by pledging allegiance to Christ, the oppressed are set free. Jesus’ pronouncement is not figurative but sets forth the unstoppable force of the dream of God that will one day be actualized. We read in Revelation that, as God’s dream comes to pass with the great judgment of the city of Babylon,
the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more—cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men. (18:11-13)
In this description of mourning over the judgment of the great city Babylon, we see the commoditization of human beings sold as slaves, and so we see the root of all oppression. Oppression is always, at its core, an act of commoditization, because it uses people as the solution to a desire to acquire power, status, possessions or security. Oppressed people are those who have been treated as the solution to someone else’s greed and selfishness. By setting the oppressed free, God imposes his rightful rule over all souls as the one who owns us all and alone has the right to determine our worth.
The Year of the Lord’s Favor
Finally, Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord’s favor. The concept of the “year of the Lord’s favor” can be traced back to the Israelite’s year of jubilee, a divinely established year of societal redistribution that was to occur every fiftieth year. In Leviticus, we are introduced to God’s intention in this yearlong celebration:
Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. (25:10-12)
This year was a year of freedom, a time when property went back to the original clan to prevent usury, oppression, manipulation and radical inequality. Just as important, however, was God’s intention to give land, animals and his people a yearlong rest and to have them enjoy only what grew naturally without work. God loves rest; God loves peace; God loves joy and celebration. In this we see the heart of his dream. It is not a dream of mere sustenance and justice; it is one of celebration, where all things flourish.
In the year of jubilee, we see that God’s dream comes when we are able to experience joy in its fullness. A lack of joy and celebration often comes as a result of greed, lust, selfishness and fear. In establishing seasons of grace, redistribution, joy and celebration, God usurps the power of self-worship. Nothing can corrupt or take away the joy that comes with jubilee. Jesus’ announcement begins an era of grace—an endless epoch of the jubilee of God.
The final judgment will obliterate all that stands in the way of jubilee, and Revelation 22 describes what the eternal jubilee of God looks like for all peoples:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (vv. 1-5)
In the announcement of the dream of God in Jesus’ first public message, we see the end of time. We see God’s dream unleashed on a world of pain and suffering. In this, we see the foundation for all mission, a dream that is beyond justice, beyond salvation, beyond rescue. We see restoration and flourishing. And in the end we see joy.
Taken from Making All Things New by R. York Moore. Copyright © 2012 by R. York Moore. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426. IVPress.com
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