Deeper Reflection
Jesus was clear about His mission. At the start of His public ministry,²⁵ Jesus went to the synagogue in His hometown Nazareth on the Sabbath day and declared that He was anointed by the Holy Spirit to proclaim Good News to the poor, liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour (vv.18-19). Jesus had been sent by God to proclaim the Good News of salvation to those who until then had no hope of deliverance from their dire situations and were in desperate need of the Lord in His mercy and grace to save them. The Good News, or Gospel, was of Jesus Himself, the Messiah who has come as the way of the Lord in the wilderness for the salvation of sinners.²⁶When the Church was likewise sent by Jesus to carry out God’s mission in the world (Jn 20:21-22; Matt 28:18-20), the Lord’s servants were likewise to be anointed and empowered by God’s Spirit to proclaim the Gospel to a dying world in need of the Saviour.²⁷ Who will believe the Gospel and be saved? Those who humble themselves before God, confess that the godless way in which they have lived their lives in the past was sinful and wrong, believe in God’s Son Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and follow Him as their Lord all the days of their lives, looking forward to His return at the end of the age to take them to be with Him forever to see and share in His glory.²⁸

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²⁵ After Jesus returned from 40 days in the wilderness where He was tempted by the devil to jeopardise or abandon His mission: see Luke 4:1-13. ²⁶ Isaiah 40:3; 52:13-53:12 ²⁷ Luke 24:45-49; Acts 1:8. ²⁸ John 14:1-6; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 2 Timothy 4:8; John 17:24; 2 Thessalonians 1:10