The year of God's favor

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach 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, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion--to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness 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 (Isaiah 61:1-3).

In this reading from Isaiah, we are given words of comfort that can be hard to understand. We know that these words come from God Himself, because the prophet says: the Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me. But who are the poor He refers to? Who are the prisoners held captive in darkness? What is the Year of the Lord’s Favor? What is the Day of Vengeance? What is the Garment of Praise, and what does it mean to be called an Oak of Righteousness?

This promise of comfort begins with the command to preach good news to the poor. When we think of the poor, we immediately focus on their financial situation; but this is too narrow a focus. When Jesus spoke the Beatitudes (Matthew chapter 5), He showed us another dimension of poverty: He said blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. To be poor is to lack something essential for happiness; while this can be a lack of money, the most important thing we need to be content is a healthy relationship with our God. In Luke chapter 12, Jesus tells a parable of a rich man who turned out to be foolish, because he was not "rich toward God."

So who are the poor who need to hear the Good News? They are you and me. Regardless of our financial situation, all of us are poor towards God; none of us lives the life of holiness and service that God expects of us. When it comes to being filled with righteousness, we are all desperately poor. We need the charity of our Lord to give us what we need to be truly happy—the gift of His love and perfection.

The Spirit of God also describes us as prisoners, captives languishing in darkness. We are prisoners of sin and Satan; our sins are the chains that restrain us, and Satan uses them to control us like a master uses a leash to control his dog. Satan also uses darkness to keep us as his slaves—the darkness of ignorance. Living in the darkness of evil, we cannot see that we are prisoners to sick, twisted ideas and desires. All we know is that we are miserable living this way; we are brokenhearted, living with constant selfishness and betrayal instead of the love that we crave.

But the Spirit of God told Isaiah to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor. Back when Israel was an independent nation, some of the citizens owned other Israelites as slaves. This happened when someone was in desperate financial straits—sometimes, to keep body and soul together, such a person would willingly become a slave to one of his countrymen in exchange for money; in this way, debts could be paid and he would be guaranteed food and shelter over the years to come. How could anyone think about selling away his freedom, you might ask? It was because of the Year of Jubilee. By God’s decree, every 50th year was a year of freedom; every slave in the nation was to be freed. This was the Year of the Lord’s Favor. Everyone who sold away his freedom knew that someday he would regain his freedom as a gift from God.

We are living in the final year of the Lord’s favor. This final year began 2,000 years ago at Bethlehem, when God sent His Son to free us. When Jesus began His public ministry, listen to what He did and said: on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue…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…and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:16-21). We are living in the year of the Lord’s favor, the time in which we who are captive to sin and darkness are offered freedom to live in God’s light.

Jesus has the authority to free us because He is God’s Anointed One. In the Bible, prophets, priests and kings were dedicated to God’s service by anointing them; at a special ceremony, they would have oil placed on their heads as a sign that they were now God’s servants. Isaiah said that he was anointed, not with oil, but by the Spirit of God, who raised him up to serve the Lord. Jesus was anointed too—in fact, the term ‘Christ’ means "Anointed One." Jesus was also anointed by the Spirit of God, who visibly came down from heaven in the form of a dove when Jesus was baptized. Jesus was anointed as our prophet, priest, and king. Jesus was set apart from all other men to serve God, and His service consisted in this: that He free the people who were enslaved to Satan by their sins. He freed us by paying a ransom—He took our place as a captive of sin. Our sins were so many that the chains He took from us were a burden of unimaginable weight—a weight so terrible that it crushed Him to death. But the Son of God is stronger than sin, stronger than Satan, stronger than death itself—so He rose from the grave alive once more, the weight of our sins shed forever. He exchanged our captivity for His freedom, then defeated the enemies that had held us helpless. That, my friend, is the Good News that binds up the wounds of the broken hearted.

The result of this Good News is comfort for all who mourn. We mourn many things in this life, but the thing that causes us the greatest sadness and regret is the guilt we feel because of our sins. Because of our sins, we let ourselves down—we break the promise we made to ourselves to stay off the bottle, keep away from cigarettes, hold to the diet. Because of our sins, we hurt others—we get jealous, we lash out with our words and our fists, we break promises, we lie and steal and act as if we are better than everyone else. Because of our sins we drive away those we love, and we find that we cannot even trust ourselves. Worst of all, sin leads to death, for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). And so we mourn for what sin costs us—loss of love, loss of self-respect, loss of life itself.

But because of Jesus, that mourning can be put to an end. Jesus comforts us with the assurance that He can make right what we have messed up. The guilt of our past is removed; today is a new start, fresh with the possibility of love because Jesus offers to help us live differently. Romans chapter 6 tells us, when you were slaves of sin, you weren't concerned with doing what was right. And what was the result? It was not good, since now you are ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

God’s Spirit promises to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. I want you to notice something: all these good things come from outside ourselves! True joy does not come from a 12-step program or the power of positive thinking or finding a peaceful inner place through meditation. It is by the Spirit’s work that we can trade a beautiful crown of triumph for the ashes of defeat. It is the Spirit who anoints us to work for God with the oil of gladness and thus put to an end our mourning over lives of pointless sin. It is the Spirit of God who dresses us in a garment of praise, the robe of Jesus’ own righteousness that ends our despair over being dressed in the rags of spiritual poverty. God’s Spirit bestows these things on us; He grants them just as a president bestows a Medal of Honor. The difference is, we did nothing to deserve these medals—God pins them on us simply because He loves the way they make us look to Him.

All this brings about the result that we will be called oaks of righteousness. An oak is a big tree; it commands attention. In addition, an oak is a strong tree—it can withstand adverse conditions. Jesus wants us to be noticeable; He said let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). Our Lord also wants us to stand tough in the face of adversity; Paul writes in Ephesians chapter six, use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm. Standing tough during hard times is important. Not only will a strong faith see you through those days with less stress and discomfort, it will also be a powerful witness to others. Seeing you remain calm and confident during life’s worst storms will intrigue an unbeliever much more than your closeness to the Lord when things are going smoothly. So our Lord makes us oaks, both large and strong—however, we not are planted to show ourselves off, but for the display of His splendor.

It is important that we show off God’s splendor, because His Day of Vengeance is coming. Jesus came into our world centuries ago to announce the year of the Lord’s favor, but every year comes to an end. The year of the Lord’s favor will come to an end on the Day of Judgment when Jesus will come back, not in humbleness and gentleness, but with power and glory. At that time He will take vengeance on those who have kept His people in the darkness of captivity—He will condemn Satan and his followers to unending suffering in the prison of hell. On that day there will be no more mercy, no further offer of release for the prisoners; the door will be locked and the key thrown away. Thanks to Jesus, our lives will not end in tragedy; however, there are many who will still be chained in the darkness of their sin and cut off from heaven’s rewards. And so we need to be big oaks of righteousness—so visible as followers of Christ that the lost cannot help but sit up and take notice of what God is showing them through our lives. We need to be strong oaks of righteousness—so strong that we can have the courage to speak of our faith even when we are afraid to, so strong that we will not be hurt or silenced when our Christian words are thrown back at us with bitter rejection.

Isaiah preached Good News to the poor—to us. He spoke of a Savior from heaven who would come among us in human flesh and die so that we might live. That Savior was Jesus, who came to provide freedom for we who were held captive to sin, death and the devil. Now we are given new life; we are freed from the ashes and guilt of our past and are given new life by God, life that we are to use to glorify Him and hold out His offer of freedom to those still held captive by the evil that darkens their souls. We have heard the greatest Good News—this is the season to share it.