Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.  And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.  And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:   “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”  Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luk 4:14-21 NKJ)

 In this passage, we have a direct quote from Isaiah 61 in which Jesus sees himself as the fulfillment. Having returned from the wilderness in the power of the Spirit, He went to the synagogue and was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.  This text speaks of the Holy Spirit’s anointing, investing with the necessary power to get the job done.  We are then given a list of situations where divine intervention is needed.  The Message Bible translations puts it this way, “God’s Spirit is on me; he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free, to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”

Jesus declared that this scripture had been fulfilled in their hearing—today!  Jesus set out to tell people of God’s unconditional love, healing the sick, demonstrating forgiveness and relieve people’s burdens.  Can you hear the Holy Spirit asking you the question, “will this scripture be fulfilled today” reminding you that you have that same anointing and that the Holy Spirit has ‘invested in you the necessary gifting and power to get the job done.’  The question is, as we meet people today that are at the end of their rope, burden with guilt, wounded and hurting or just needing to make right choices, what will we do—will this scripture be fulfilled today in and through you?