The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, because Jehovah hath anointed me to announce glad tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and opening of the prison to them that are bound;
Jesus read this verse aloud in the synagogue at Nazareth and said it came true that day. It names the One anointed, the Spirit resting on Him, and the people He came to reach — and He stopped reading halfway through the next verse.
Three Persons in the opening words
The capitals in "Lord GOD" mark the divine name. Read that way, the opening line names three.
The words that were read by our Lord all show grace, without any reference to the law of Moses. There is a veiled reference to the three Persons of the Godhead. Our Bibles print GOD like this in capitals because it is really the great name, Jehovah. So the opening words mention three: the Spirit of Jehovah, the Lord Jehovah Himself, and the "Me." That "Me" is the Anointed One, or the Christ, sent to be the Proclaimer and the Minister of the grace. The tragedy was that when a voice of great grace sounded in the synagogue at Nazareth, the people neither trembled nor rejoiced. They rose up in anger to kill the One who proclaimed "the acceptable year of the Lord."
The Spirit rests on Him as man
The anointing does not describe His deity. It describes the place He had taken.
He who is God had become man, and stoops to act as such among men. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." It is the man Christ Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord was not upon Him as God, but as man, and so anointed Him to preach the gospel to the poor.
That anointing had a visible moment. At the Jordan, "the heavens were opened and the Spirit, like a dove, descended on Him... Thus the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled" (Ernst-August Bremicker).
Who the message is for
One writer works from an older translation. There Isaiah says "the meek" and Luke says "the poor"; the ESV reads "poor" in both. He treats the difference as deliberate.
Nor are we to forget who He brings such glad tidings to. Isaiah says, "to the meek." Again, the Holy Spirit sets the truth in Luke, but not in the literal words. There we read it is "to the poor," for that is what "the meek" were in the state of things which then existed in sinful Israel. Jesus Himself was "meek," and He was also "poor."
Liberty, and the year behind the word
The verse proclaims liberty to captives. That language had a history in Israel.
There may be a reference to the year of Jubilee (a picture of the millennium) when servants were set free, debts were cancelled, and family possessions were restored to their original owners. But the grace granted by the Lord brought lasting blessings for their souls.
Not a promise repeated, but a promise kept
He did not read the words as a promise still waiting.
He presents Himself in this character: "The Spirit of Jehovah is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor … to preach the acceptable year of Jehovah." Here He stops. The Lord leaves out what follows in the prophet: the deliverance of Israel by the judgment that avenges them of their enemies. Now Jesus does not announce promises, but their fulfilment in grace by His own presence.
The gap in the middle of a verse
He stopped reading in the middle of a sentence. One writer points to what has filled the gap since.
"To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." Compare this with Luke 4:17, and you will find that the Lord shut the book in the middle of this verse. So far the Scripture was fulfilled. Those who heard Him little thought what would come in between. Before the book of wrath and vengeance is opened, this long period of more than 1800 years of grace would come first. Yes, this long period lay hidden in the middle of that verse.
The unread half is still unread
So the announcement He made has not run out.
He made known the glad tidings of good things to the fallen and low, to the tax collectors and sinners, to the poor, to the meek. The common people heard Him gladly as He told of the grace and goodness of the heart of God, of forgiveness and salvation and blessing. It is still the day of salvation. The acceptable time has not yet run its course. The day of vengeance is not yet here.
Summary
- Sent — One line names three: the Spirit of Jehovah, Jehovah who anoints, and the "Me," the Anointed One He sends.
- Anointed — The Spirit came upon Him not as God but as man, and the dove at the Jordan showed it.
- Poor — The good news goes to the meek, the broken-hearted, the captive and the bound. In Israel then, the meek were simply the poor.
- Free — The liberty He proclaims echoes the Jubilee year, when slaves went free and families got their land back.
- Unfinished — He shut the book mid-verse, before "the day of vengeance." The whole age of grace hides in that pause. While it lasts, the acceptable year still stands.