Isaiah 61King James Version
'The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives.' The passage Jesus reads aloud in the synagogue at Nazareth. 'To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.'
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon the speaker because he has been anointed to preach good tidings to the meek, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to captives, and give beauty for ashes. He will rebuild old ruins. The people will be called Priests of the LORD. God loves justice and hates robbery. An everlasting covenant. The speaker's soul is joyful in God.
The anointed one's mission is not religious performance but specific service to specific people: the broken, the captive, the mourning. That service is also the definition of justice.
verse: "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives", Jesus reads this in the Nazareth synagogue in Luke 4:18 and says, today this is fulfilled.
A synagogue reading, or more accurately the original setting: a proclamation in the public space, an anointed figure announcing what he is about to do. The list of recipients grounds the announcement in faces: the mourners sitting in ashes, the prisoners who have not yet heard of a pardon, the ruins waiting to be rebuilt.
The anointed speaker, whose identity is left open in the Hebrew and identified as Jesus in Luke 4. The meek, brokenhearted, captives, mourners in Zion as the recipients. The people renamed Priests of the LORD. God as the one who loves justice and makes everlasting covenant.
Jesus' reading of this chapter in Luke 4 is the programmatic announcement of his ministry. The beauty-for-ashes exchange in verse 3 is one of the most-used images in Christian preaching. The everlasting covenant here provides the theological backbone for New Testament covenant language.
For when you feel broken and beyond ordinary help. The anointed one's purpose is surgical and specific: bind up, proclaim liberty, give beauty for ashes. The broken person is the target audience, not the collateral benefit.
1The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
4And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
5And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.
6But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.
7For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.
8For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.
10I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
11For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.