The Lutheran Hour
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"The Messianic Mission"
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Text: Luke 4:14-21
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Let us pray. Lord Jesus, Messiah of all nations, we come before you today asking you to send the Holy Spirit into our hearts, that we may receive the Good News of life and salvation that you have procured for us through your gracious sin atoning work; your life lived in perfection for us imperfect sinners; your punishment of death for we who are deserving only of eternal death in hell; your glorious resurrection to assure us that we poor sinners can be triumphant over death, through faith in you. Help us today to see and receive by faith, and with thankful hearts, the forgiveness of sins, new life, and eternal salvation you have won for us poor sinners through your accomplished Messianic mission. In your name we pray, Amen.
Our text for today is taken from the Gospel of Luke, the fourth chapter, beginning at the 14th verse: “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth where he had been brought up; and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 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 preach good news to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 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, and he began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son?’ they asked.”
In our time and culture we are used to seeing people inducted into public office by taking an oath of public service, with their hand laying on a Bible and the other uplifted as a pledge of sincerity. In our Lutheran Church, ordination into the Office of the Holy Ministry is signified through the laying on of hands.
In ancient times, in the land of Israel as well as in other lands, kings and priests were placed into office through ceremonies that included being anointed with oil. These were the “anointed ones” – people set aside for special purposes. In our English language we have two words, one derived from the Hebrew language and the other from Greek that mean the anointed one. Those two words are “Messiah” and “Christ.”
In His revelations to his chosen people Israel, given through the preaching and writing of the Prophets, God promised to send his special Anointed One or Messiah to deliver His people from their temporal and spiritual enemies. While every king and priest was an anointed one, the eyes of the people were looking toward that one Anointed One – that singular Messiah, who would come to deliver them from their enemies.
During the Christmas season our focus was on the promises of God, fulfilled in the sending of His only-begotten Son Jesus into this world as a human being, “conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.” In this season of the church year that we call Epiphany, we see Jesus manifested in various ways as the long awaited Messiah. He is revealed to the Wise Men as the promised King of Israel. At the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized, we see him revealed as the promised Messiah by the voice of the Father speaking from heaven, and the Holy Spirit coming upon him in the form of a dove. We saw him revealed as the Messiah through the sign given at a wedding in Cana of Galilee, when he turned the water into wine. And now in today’s text, Jesus is once again revealed, this time through his personal testimony, that he was indeed the Messiah promised through the prophets, and he used an Old Testament text to reveal his special Messianic mission.
Our text finds Jesus visiting his hometown of Nazareth in Galilee. He is among family and friends and acquaintances. His reputation as a teacher and a miracle worker had made its way to his hometown. The people of his hometown were wondering about him. “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” the citizens were asking. They were amazed at the stories they were hearing about His miracle-working power and His preaching.
Shortly after coming to Nazareth, our text relates that “on the Sabbath Day he went into the synagogue as was his custom, and he stood up to read.” He was handed the scroll that contained the prophet Isaiah’s writings and unrolled it until he came to the portion that we know as Isaiah chapter 61. He read this portion, then took his seat (it was customary in those days to give a sermon sitting in a chair) and his opening words were a clear declaration and assertion that he was indeed the Messiah that they had been looking for: “Today, he said, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
The words that Jesus read were written some 700 years before his birth. They were written originally to bring comfort to God’s people, the nation of Israel. Israel at that time needed comfort. As a nation they had left the Lord. They were worshiping at the temple, but in daily life were betraying the Lord through their contemptuous and sinful living. The rich were robbing the poor, oppressing them, and then refusing to divide their bread with the hungry. They were not concerned about the homeless, or willing to offer clothing to those who had none. They were turning down the pleas of their own flesh and blood for help and sustenance. God declared through Isaiah that they were a “wicked” and “evil” people. Through Isaiah, God was calling his people to repentance, but they did not heed that call. Isaiah is grieved and prophesied that the mighty nation of Babylon would come and destroy the nation and lead them away into captivity far from their native land. Even the faithful of the land, few in number, believed Isaiah’s words and knew that they also would be taken into captivity by a foreign power. They were broken hearted, along with Isaiah, and mourned over the grievous situation which had fallen on them and their nation.
To bring comfort to these mourners, God through Isaiah, gave a promise that better days would follow. He would send them a Savior, the Messiah, his Anointed One. He would bring comfort and new hope. He told them of a child that would be born for them, a son to be given to them whose name would be called “Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” (Is. 9:6) He foretold that this Savior or Messiah would be born of a virgin. He foretold that the Messiah would come as the Savior of all mankind and not just of Israel alone. He described how the Messiah would suffer and die for the sins of all people; and how he would rise triumphantly from the dead.
What Isaiah spoke of through God’s inspiration, the people of God took to heart and hoped and prayed through long ages to see these words fulfilled. And now at Nazareth a man called Jesus tells them: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!” These words written by Isaiah were a brief but full declaration of his Messianic mission. He is declaring boldly to the people, “I am that anointed one – the Messiah God promised to send and this is my mission!”
Various positive images are brought to us by Isaiah’s prophetic words about the mission of the Messiah. He is “anointed to preach good news to the poor.” He is “sent to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.” He is bringing “recovery of sight for the blind.” He is sent “to release the oppressed.”
However, all these images point back to the drastic condition in which all humankind finds itself. That is the condition we call sin. All of us, since the fall of our first parents in paradise, are full of sin. Scripture declares “All have sinned” and “There is none righteous, no, not one.” And where there is sin, there is death and hell. The Apostle Paul has written: “The wages of sin is death.” And by death he does not mean just the physical death of our bodies; he is talking about the eternal punishment we deserve on account of our sins. We are all by nature in spiritual poverty, and “all our righteousness is as filthy rags.” We are all prisoners to sin and its consequences. We are all by nature blind to God and the things of God. We are oppressed and weighed down in sin and subject to eternal damnation and separation from God.
All this is bad news. But Jesus, the eternal Son of God, who in time and space was born as a true human being, he the God-Man, the Messiah, brings Good News concerning “the year of the Lord’s favor” that is, the time of God’s gracious deliverance from the sin, death and hell that fallen humanity deserves on account of sin. Jesus was now proclaiming with these words of Isaiah that the time had come for the spiritually poor sinners to receive the riches of God’s grace! He was announcing that the time had come for those in the prison house of their own sins to find freedom from the guilt and consequences of sin! He was declaring that the time has come for the spiritually blind to see the great things God is doing to bring eternal life to those in the darkness of death!
But the Messianic mission involved more than proclamation. The proclamation of Good News could only come if sin and its “wages” of death were destroyed through the action of a gracious God. That gracious God had acted by sending his eternal Son into this world as a man to accomplish our deliverance from sin and death. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatian Christians stated quite emphatically: “But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” (Gal. 4:4,5)
In the sending of his Son into this world as a true human being, God’s grace and mercy for sinful humanity was being carried out. The Messianic mission was not a pipe dream, but a promise that became a concrete reality in Jesus of Nazareth. He came to deliver us from the punishment due to us on account of our sins. And how was this accomplished? Scripture affirms that Jesus was without sin, but he was willing to take into his own person all our sins, and bear the punishment for them in our place. Peter tells us that Jesus “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree…by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Pet. 2:24) When he wrote this he must have been thinking of the prophetic words spoken by Isaiah concerning the coming Messiah, that he would be “wounded for our transgressions” and “bruised for our iniquities.”
The Apostle Paul also reminds us that Jesus “was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Rom. 4:25)
In Aledo, Illinois some years ago a circuit court jury convicted James Gibson, an 18- year-old high school senior of voluntary manslaughter for stabbing his teacher to death. The jurors fixed the punishment at one to seven years in the state penitentiary. They felt extremely sorry for him because of the ordeals that he would be put through in that prison. They all went up to shake his hand and wish him well. Seven of the jurors were weeping. Some embraced him, and one said, “God bless you, my boy.” The farm-raised student, who had remained poker-faced throughout the nine-day trial, had tears in his eyes. The jurors were moved to sympathy and compassion over the fate of the young man, but not one of them said, “Let me serve your sentence.” But this is what Jesus, in His Messianic mission did for us. He served our sentence, dying a terrible death on the cross, suffering the agony of hell, and then rising victorious from the grave. God can now say to us guilty ones, “You are free; your punishment and your guilt have been transferred from you to Jesus Christ. You are free.” This is what the big word “justification” means. We are declared righteous and free from sin on account of the work of the Messiah. And by his resurrection, Jesus’ Messianic mission is verified as being “mission accomplished.”
All that Jesus has done for us through his life, death and resurrection has ushered in “the year of the Lord’s favor.” Through the Good News proclaimed in Word and Sacrament, God’s gracious favor comes to us. He has manifested to us poor sinners, through his Messiah, his great compassion and love for us. We have been set free from sin, death and hell by Jesus. God invites you, whoever you are, no matter how great your sins, no matter how black and ugly your life has been; no matter how far you have drifted from God; he desires to save you by inviting you to believe the wonderful Good News that you have a wonderful Savior – Jesus the Messiah! His Messianic mission is still going on at this present time, drawing sinners to himself and granting them forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. He is still doing what needs to be done. He is working tirelessly through his Church, through the ministry of the Gospel, through this ministry of “The Lutheran Hour,” and through other Christians to call us to repentance and faith in him, so that we may be saved eternally.
Even now, by the power of the Spirit with which Jesus was anointed, our Savior is drawing you to himself and to the riches of his grace. He is calling all of us to a new life. He is inviting you and me to become a part of his Messianic mission by proclaiming to others the Good News that our Savior has come and has ushered in this time of “the Lord’s favor.”
We know that this time of the Lord’s favor will not go on forever. This time period will close at the day of our death or when Jesus comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Thus there is an urgency in this declaration concerning this time of the Lord’s favor. The Apostle Paul testified to this urgency when he wrote to the Corinthian Christians: “We appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain…Behold, now is the favorable time; behold now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:1-2b)
May this “now” move us, by the power of the Spirit, to receive God’s grace and favor without any delay! Amen.
Lutheran Hour Mailbox (Questions & Answers) for January 25, 2004
Topic: Does God Forgive Recurring Sins?ANNOUNCER: Does God forgive recurring sins? We’ll discuss that question with Pastor Ken Klaus, I’m Mark Eischer.
KLAUS: Hi Mark. First I’d like to thank Dr. Kalthoff for being with us today. I appreciate him sharing the Lord’s message. With that, let’s get on to our topic.
ANNOUNCER: Alright. It comes to us from a listener who writes, “My husband is an alcoholic. Now he’s a good man, he doesn’t beat us, he doesn’t spend the children’s college money on booze, he knows he’s an alcoholic and repents regularly. I believe him when he says he’s trying to change, but he keeps slipping back into the old habits. Would he go to heaven? After all, he’s still living in his sin.
KLAUS: An interesting question. Let’s start with our answer this way. Mark, what saves us from our sin?
ANNOUNCER: Faith in Jesus Christ, the Savior from sin.
KLAUS: What would keep a soul out of heaven?
ANNOUNCER: Lack of faith in Jesus.
KLAUS: So the answer would be that this man, as long as he is a Christian, can be saved. Christians are forgiven saints and sinners, all at the same time.
ANNOUNCER: Well good, that was a pretty simple answer for today.
KLAUS: But Mark, there’s more.
ANNOUNCER: So it’s not so simple?
KLAUS: Not so simple. Mark, there’s no question the Lord forgives our sins. He offers forgiveness to His children every day, for all their sins, even the little ones they didn’t know they’ve done. Like we said, we’re God’s children, not because of what we do, but because of what Jesus has done for us.
ANNOUNCER: By grace we are saved.
KLAUS: So since we’re saved by grace and God forgives our sins, we might as well just keep on sinning, right?
ANNOUNCER: Well that doesn’t seem right.
KLAUS: It isn’t right.
ANNOUNCER: If you had that kind of attitude, it’s almost like you’re trying to, I don’t know, take advantage of God, like you might be making light of His grace.
KLAUS: Well said Mark. Here, let me read two verses from the Book of Romans. First from Chapter 5, “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus.” St. Paul was saying because of Jesus, we’re forgiven. Now, here’s the first verse of Chapter 6, “What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” You see, some people thought they could take advantage of God’s forgiveness and grace. Since God was going to forgive, they lost their motivation for a life of ongoing repentance. Some went so far as to say, “let’s commit some really good sins so people can see how really great is God’s forgiveness.”
ANNOUNCER: What would St. Paul say to that logic?
KLAUS: Well, let me read further. St. Paul asked his question, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” Then he answered that question, “By no means. We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Then St. Paul talks for a bit of how, when you’re baptized, Jesus takes over. In Galatians, he said we’re buried with Christ. The old life of sin is drowned in baptism and it is now Christ who lives in us.
ANNOUNCER: Now that doesn’t mean we keep repeating the mistakes of the old life?
KLAUS: Not as long as we can help it. Repentance doesn’t just mean saying, “I’m sorry God, I goofed.” It means that you turn your back on your sin, quit looking over your shoulder at the old life. True, we will stumble; we will fall back, but that doesn’t mean we should take this process of forgiveness for granted. We shouldn’t plan on stumbling. If you plan on stumbling, you’re lying to yourself; trying to lie to God. But in Jesus, empowered by the Spirit, we can lead a new life.
ANNOUNCER: Now getting back to today’s question, I think in this case, a lifestyle change would be a good thing?
KLAUS: True. Repentance is serious business. Before we close Mark, I’d like to say just a word or two more. First, life is never static. Either that alcoholic man is going to get worse, or he’s going to get better. If he ever starts taking his forgiveness for granted, as something God owes him, it will be very easy for him to quit the struggle, to give in and get worse. If that happens, the devil wins. Second, that man needs to know his problem is not his own. What he does is affecting others. He’s forced his wife into worrying. Already now he has children who are being hurt. They hear his words of repentance, they are willing to forgive, but for how long? How long will it take before they, who can’t see what’s in his heart, say to themselves, “Dad’s word is worthless.” Dad needs to seriously pray and struggle and strive to make his repentance stick – for his sake, his wife’s sake, his children’s sake. And of course, so that the world may see the transforming power of God in his life.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.