To Do One Is To Do the Other...

Then Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. And when He stood up to read, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me,

because He has anointed Me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to release the oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Then He rolled up the scroll, returned it to the attendant, and sat down [to teach]. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him, and He began by saying, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16-21, quoting Isaiah 61:1-2)

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"When Jesus, therefore, announced good news to the poor, his proclamation was for those who were needy in every sense of the term. What is significant for our present concern are two items:

• First, our gospel is not simply that of "saving souls;" it is rather, as with Jesus, the bringing of wholeness to broken people in every kind of distress. Mission simply cannot be divided between "spiritual" and "physical." To do one is to do the other, and both constitute the global mission of the church.

• Second -- and especially is this so in Luke's gospel -- the "poor" to whom Jesus comes are represented by every kind of first-century outcast - the traditional poor, sinners, Samaritans, Gentiles, and women. Luke (himself a Gentile) had come to recognize that the heart of ministry of Jesus was "salvation for all." In his Gospel he especially included those narratives that illustrated the total "cross-section" of society to whom Jesus came.

- Listening to the Spirit in the Text - Gordon D. Fee: Eerdmans, 2000