Luke 4:18-21 (NIV)

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your
hearing.”

Reflection:
What Jesus quotes here from the prophet Isaiah isn’t just part of a lofty speech that we find in a typical inspirational kind of movie - Jesus was proclaiming that He Himself is the fulfillment and perfect embodiment of these words!  Encounter after encounter Jesus would subsequently have with ordinary people like us would be a powerful, life-transforming demonstration of this declaration.  Every act of healing, every miracle performed, and each proclamation of forgiveness was with a passionate purpose and desire for the people to taste true freedom from the captivity and oppression of sin and life lived apart from God.

Response:
Jesus has come with a very passionate heart to set us free! And the freedom we receive from Christ is truly epic - no part of our lives is left untouched. Are there areas in our lives that still feel seemingly
enslaved or crippled though?  Let’s bring those areas before the Lord in prayer today, asking for a full realization of the freedom we have in Christ.  May we hear the Lord proclaim freedom over our lives once again. The truth is that in Jesus Christ, every chain has been broken!