The Anointed Servant

In the book of Isaiah, chapter 61(1-2) we read these words:

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me;
 he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted,
 to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor… to comfort all who mourn…”

Throughout the book of Isaiah, we find these passages that describe a servant who would be empowered by the Spirit of God to bring healing, hope, justice, and peace to a people in desperate need. 

Sometimes it’s kind of hard to decipher who is this person that Isaiah describes. Was it an individual person, a prophet – perhaps Isaiah himself? Or, perhaps, was the servant Israel as a whole – the community? 

For the first Christians, as they reflected back on these servant passages, they thought about Jesus’ life, they thought about his incarnation – God stepping into the world in the flesh… They remembered his first sermon recorded in the Gospel of Luke (chapter 4) when Jesus read this very text and said, “This prophecy has been fulfilled in your hearing…”

It is a promise of salvation in the broadest sense… It is not just something that happens when we die and go to heaven… No. Here we see God’s deliverance is real, tangible, and this-worldly. It can be seen by others. God’s salvation is meant to transform the world here and now. And as we follow Jesus, we are invited to participate. His Spirit empowers us to take on this servant role so that as we are being healed, we are at the same time enabled to heal others. 

Let us pray: Gracious God, there are many of us today, even now, who need to hear your good news. Our broken hearts need to be bound up. And there are aspects of our lives from which we need to be freed. Heal us, O God. Grant us your mercy and your peace. And then use us as instruments of your grace; through Jesus Christ. Amen.