JESUS READS FROM ISAIAH 61 IN THE SYNAGOGUE: Luke 4:¹⁴ And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding region. ¹⁵ And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

¹⁶ And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

TODAY THIS SCRIPTURE HAS BEEN FULFILLED IN YOUR HEARING: ²⁰ And He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all the people in the synagogue were intently directed at Him. ²¹ Now He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Can you imagine shock and anger when Jesus said that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:10-3? Luke 4:²⁸ And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; ²⁹ and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and brought Him to the crest of the hill on which their city had been built, so that they could throw Him down from the cliff. ³⁰ But He passed through their midst and went on His way.” “In the post-exilic and intertestamental periods, these verses in Isaiah 61:1-3 were viewed as promises for a future time when a Davidic ruler would bring restoration. The community at Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls) specifically held an eschatological, messianic view of this passage, connecting it with the end-times redemption of Israel.” The Jews in the synagogue in Luke 4 considered Jesus’ claim to be the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1-3 to be blasphemous. They had aready rejected Jesus as the Messiah b/c he did not bring a restoration of the physical Jewish kingdom. Instead, he preached a spiritual kingdom, the church, to be established soon.

THE ANOINTING OF JESUS WITH THE SPIRIT AND HIS MISSION: Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord anointed me
To bring good news to the humble;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim release to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
² To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit. Acts 10:³⁸ You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” That allowed Jesus to give “recovery of sight to the blind” and to preach the gospel that freed people from the spiritual prison of sin. “The “favorable year of the LORD” (or “acceptable year”) in Isaiah 61:2 refers to a spiritual era of divine grace, restoration, and freedom from captivity, modeled after the Old Testament Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25).” (AI) “Every 50 years (the year of Jubilee), Israelites returned ancestral land to original owners, cancelled debts, released slaves/indentured servants, and allowed the land to rest without sowing or reaping.” (AI)

GLADNESS AND. EVERLASTING JOY: Isaiah 61 goes on to describe the joy of those who would be freed by Jesus from the captivity ot sin. Isaiah 61:2 “And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
³ To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The cloak of praise instead of a disheartened spirit. 7 Everlasting joy will. be theirs.”

Jesus would bring a “day of vengeance” on the Jews who had killed the saints, prophets and apostles, but the remnant who accepted Jesus as the Messiah would have gladness and everlasting joy. We Christians should be the happiest people on earth, even in the midst of sad earthly troubles. We might not can laugh on the outside due to pain and sadness, bur we can still have joy on the inside.

TRY TO PICTURE THIS OCCASION IN THE SYNAGOGUE: THE CHOSEN EPISODE Can you picture Jesus standing up in that synagogue to read from the scroll of Isaiah, and then after. reading Isaiah 61:1-3 he hands the scroll back to the attendant and sits down? All eyes are staring at him as he says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Can you picture going with the mob as they carry Jesus to the crest of a ciff to throw him off for blasphemy? But the mystery of how he “passes through their midst” and goes on his way. How did he do that? Did God supernaturally stun the crowd, freezing them long enough for Jesus to pass through them and escape?

Here is the Luke 4 synagogue incident from “The Chosen”.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyHp0TovnUQ&t=6s I strongly suggest that you watch this. It is interesting how it picture Jesus “passing through their midst”. He simply tells the rabbi, “This isn’t going to happen: not today”, and then he just walks through them and no one tries to stop him.