some good news for a change

Isaiah 61 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,
² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
³     and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord
    for the display of his splendor.

This passage is part of today's reading in the One Year Bible. It was a prophetic message given by Isaiah thousands of years before the birth of Christ. In Luke 4 we read that after Jesus returned from His time of temptation in the wilderness He reads from this passage in the synagogue and makes this proclamation;

²⁰ And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.²¹ And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

So the mission and the message of Jesus, to proclaim good news to the poor. The good news Jesus is talking about is not a message of financial freedom. While God does provide for all our needs, He is really not all that concerned with our financial security. Our security should be in Him. The good news Isaiah and Jesus are talking about is the gospel. That's what the word gospel means, good news. Likewise the poor that are mentioned are not just those without material things they are the poor in spirit as Jesus says in Matthew 5.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

To be poor makes one aware of their need. So to be poor in spirit makes us aware of our need in things of the spirit. When we ackowledge our neediness in the spirit we make way for the filling and annointing of the Holy Spirit in us and on us. This poverty of our own spirit and provision of the Holy Spirit is what grants us "the kingdom of heaven". The good news is that for us, the poor in spirit it is not a future promise but a present one.

Jesus said in John 14: ¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.¹⁵ “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth.

So the promise of the kingdom of heaven is not just a promise of a future eternity, but rather a promise and a call to continue to do the works that Jesus did. If we are to join and continue the work that Jesus did and was called to do let's return to the Isaiah passage and see more of that mission. To bind up the brokenhearted and proclaim freedom for captives. To be brokenhearted is to be without love. Jesus mission was in part to declare and display God's unconditional love for His most precious creation, mankind. Without God people are bound up by many things. People mistakenly try to fill the needs of their brokenheartedness with everything from bad relationships, to material riches or various addictions. None of these deliver joy to the brokenhearted. God's love alone can bind the wounds of hurting souls. This work too, we are called to join with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

To proclaim freedom to the captives. Once again this speaks not of a physical captivity. Man's focus on our physical needs are in a large part what caused so many of the Israelites to miss Jesus as the Messiah. They looked for a political deliverer. They thought wrongly that the Messiah would come to free them from their political captivity. The captivity that God is most concerned with is the captivity we have to evil through our carnal nature. It is freedom from our bondage to sin that Jesus came to proclaim, a release from the power of darkness in our lives.

All of this, the good news is to completely change things in our lives and the lives of others. To give beauty instead of ashes, to give joy instead of mourning, to give a garment of praise instead of despair. 

So wherever you find yourself today, whether in need of hearing the good news or called to share the good news, know that the kingdom of heaven is near to you.