“This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Luke 4:21
Dear Ones:
It was a momentous day, when Jesus, after returning from the wilderness, where He was tempted by the devil, and having already taught in the synagogues “in the power of the Spirit,” stands up in his hometown synagogue of Narareth, reads Isaiah 61:1-2, and then declares: “THIS DAY is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” In that moment, in particular, Christ made a statement that would set him apart from being just a carpenter, the son of Joseph, to being the Anointed One, the Messiah and Savior of the world. Why this moment, and why this particular statement? From that moment on, He would be engaged in His mission, a heavenly one that would encompass the entire world, and all of mankind. Why the specific message? In that statement He is revealing that God, with the Father’s blessing and favor upon Him, and the manifestation of the accompanying power and authority from on High, has been vested in Him to accomplish His mission.
We might ask the question: “What does this have to do with us?” We are not the Messiah, nor the Savior of the world. On the contrary, we are sinners, devoid of any true spiritual Life without the intervention of God. Jesus Christ has always been, not only our pattern, but the very fulfillment of that pattern. He IS Christianity. At thirty years of age He is baptized by John, and though He HAS the Spirit of God, there must be the recognizable, special anointing of God for His mission. That gentle anointing will be the demonstrated and declared power and authority of God by which Christ will speak and work. It is the same with us. We belong to God by virtue of the Spirit, and His testimony within our hearts. But for every disciple of Christ, there is a measure of the Spirit given, a special anointing if you will, for the accomplishment of the task and mission given him from God. Like Christ, when once the will of God is clearly revealed to us, and faith is given to grasp the provision of God in Christ by the Spirit for the task set before us, then we too, like Christ must take our stand and declare that “this day” is our declared commitment to God for His will to be done in and through our lives, for His glory.
As was the mission of Christ, so is ours. Though we are not the Author and Finisher of the work of redemption, we do enter into His works. As Paul put it: “God…hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Cor. 5:18) The same Spirit that anointed the Lord Jesus to “…preach the gospel to the poor and to heal the broken-hearted,” is the same Spirit that anoints us, leads us, and works in and through us to reconcile the world to Christ. May we be partakers of His blessed and victorious Life, by the Spirit.
Dear Father, give us grace to see and understand this anointing, and that to which You have called us. Make convincingly clear your blessed calling to each of us, and give us grace to boldly embrace and declare it. We thank You in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad