Reflective Bible Study

Early on in Jesus’ ministry, He traveled to Nazareth and was given the opportunity to read the scripture to those present. The passage that Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah doesn’t sound prophetic on its surface, but when looking at how Jesus interpreted and applied this passage into His own life and ministry, many people are able to see that this set of verses is very relevant when describing Jesus’ life.

Let’s read what Isaiah wrote, then dive into the event where Jesus references this scripture.

Our Old Testament passage for this episode is found in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 61, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, Isaiah writes:

¹ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
² To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord
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 mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

In this opening to chapter 61, Isaiah looks forward to the Messiah as one that proclaims freedom, victory, and comfort to God’s people. In these verses, we get the impression that what Isaiah is writing about is deliverance for God’s people.

Fast forward to the New Testament, Jesus steps onto the scene, and Luke’s gospel describes Jesus traveling back to Nazareth to spend Sabbath with those He grew up with. Let’s read about what happened, which is found in Luke, chapter 4, and we will begin in verse 14:

¹⁴ And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. 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 book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

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

²⁰ And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. ²¹ And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

We’ll stop reading here, and save the last portion of this event for next week, where we discover another subtle prophetic link present, as well as a sudden shift in the attitudes of the people who were listening.

Instead, near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, He draws a direct connection to His upcoming ministry, and the exciting and uplifting words of Isaiah. In Jesus’ own words, drawing from a passage the Holy Spirit directed Isaiah to write, He describes the reason why He came.

Jesus came to “preach the gospel to the poor”. When looking at this phrase that was written about Jesus’ ministry, I find it amazing that, as prophesied, Jesus focused on sharing God’s message with the lowest rung of society’s ladder. While I don’t doubt that a good percentage of those listening to Jesus were monetarily poor, I wonder if poor in this context could also mean poor in ways that are more than money. In a spiritual angle to this phrase, I wonder if Jesus came to share, encourage, and uplift those who could be described as being poor in spirit, which is another way of saying that they knew they had fallen away from God and were looking for a way back.

Jesus came to “proclaim release to the captives”. In this phrase, I believe Jesus fulfilled this idea in a spiritual sense more than in a literal or political sense. I also find it interesting that Jesus is described as “proclaiming release”, but not on directly releasing – at least in this phrase. In my mind, this phrase makes the most sense if we understand Jesus to be releasing people who are trapped in sin. Another, similar angle we could use is that Jesus came to proclaim God’s love and forgiveness towards those who felt as though their lives were held captive by sin.

Jesus came to give “sight to the blind”. While this phrase is easily understood in Jesus’ miracle healings, and on giving literal sight to many who were blind, the spiritual angle of Jesus’ words is that He wants to give spiritual sight to those who were spiritually blind. In John 9:39-41, after healing a literally blind man, Jesus briefly talks with some Pharisees present who Jesus suggests were spiritually blind, while they insist that they can see. Jesus came to help those who were willing to spiritually see past their preconceived ideas surrounding what God was doing and open their eyes to the ultimate Messiah that He sent into our world.

Jesus came to “set free those who are oppressed”. In an oddly chiastic, or poetic way, this phrase connects nicely with the phrase about proclaiming release for captives. While earlier, Jesus draws attention to proclaiming freedom, in this phrase, Jesus actually sets free those who are oppressed. In one spiritual understanding of this phrase, Jesus came to set free those who were oppressed by the extensive lists of spiritual rules and regulations that were present during that era. Jesus also spiritually freed those who were carrying the weight of sin and the emotional load of its consequences. Jesus accomplished this by giving His life on the cross.

Jesus came to “proclaim the favorable year of the Lord”. Through Jesus’ life and His ministry, He paid the penalty for sin, and opened the way for humanity to receive God’s favor. While I suspect that on one hand, the year Jesus died could be understood as being the favorable year of the Lord, a case could be made that the year Jesus was born as a baby was that favorable year. Other options include the year the angel spoke to Zechariah breaking centuries of silence which we focused on earlier this year, or even a year that is still to come, which would be most closely connected with Jesus’ return and the end of sin. This phrase spiritually makes sense when understanding that whenever the favorable year of the Lord is, the only reason it is favorable is because of what Jesus did for us.

In this scripture written by Isaiah, and drawn upon by Jesus, we get a beautiful overview of Jesus’ life and ministry, and Jesus’ mission to this world.

Also, in an interesting way, we see in these five phrases, five big phases of Jesus’ ministry throughout history: In the early points in history, God sets the least likely people apart for Him. God proclaims freedom for the Israelites who were living in captivity after having set them apart. When Jesus walked the earth, He gave sight to the blind, and through His death, He set free those who were oppressed. In the last portion of History, Jesus is ready and eager to proclaim the year of God’s favor, and the point in time when sin will be forever sent to the past.

While I have no idea whether this broad understanding of these five phrases is an understanding that fits all the details, even if this angle on this passage misses the mark, I can see Jesus’ ministry to this world and to humanity as being a fulfillment of all these ideas and themes.

Jesus came to preach the great news; Jesus came to proclaim release; Jesus came to give sight to the blind; Jesus came to set free the oppressed; and Jesus came to announce that through Jesus’ sacrifice and His gift, God wants to pour His favor onto you, and He wants to redeem you for eternity.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to accept the gift that He offers to you through what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God through what the Bible teaches us about Jesus.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving through Luke’s gospel, we come to the point when Luke decides to insert one of Jesus’ most important parables. Jesus even frames this parable as being so significant that understanding it will affect how we understand all His other parables. Also, in our discussion of this parable is the challenge that not everyone will be able to understand what Jesus has shared; but with that said, Jesus does not want you or me to be excluded from those given understanding.

Let’s read this parable and then discover what Jesus wants to teach us about God within it. Our passage and parable are found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 8, and we will read from the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 4, Luke tells us that:

⁴ One day Jesus told a story in the form of a parable to a large crowd that had gathered from many towns to hear him: ⁵ “A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it. ⁶ Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted!” When he had said this, he called out, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

Let’s pause here for a moment, because how Jesus has just concluded this parable challenges us to listen and understand. Jesus finishes by calling out, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand”.

While a skeptic might call Jesus out for excluding those without hearing in this statement, when reading the gospels, it appears as though Jesus healed people before He taught the crowds. When someone who needed healing showed up, Jesus would stop teaching to focus on healing, or at the very least, He would shift the focus of what He was teaching to include healing. Jesus loved healing people.

With this in mind, I doubt there was a deaf person in the crowd when Jesus spoke these words, even though there may have been people present who had been deaf when they woke up that morning.

This parable emphasizes a number of big ideas. First, Jesus emphasizes a farmer sowing seed. While the farmer is planting seeds in his field, it appears he isn’t overly careful about where the seeds land, since some of the seed lands on less than ideal soil. Some seed lands on a footpath and it couldn’t take root; some seed fell among rocks, but it also couldn’t grow well; and some seed fell among thorns, which allowed it to grow, but not very long.

However, from the seed that fell on good soil, the farmer gained a crop that was a hundred times what had been planted.

This is a great parable, but it can be interpreted in many different ways beyond simply being a story about a farmer with no underlying meaning attached.

Because of this, I believe the disciples wanted clarification, so they ask Jesus what this parable meant.

Continuing in verse 9, Luke tells us:

⁹ His disciples asked him [Jesus] what this parable meant. ¹⁰ He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables to teach the others so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled:

‘When they look, they won’t really see.
    When they hear, they won’t understand.’

¹¹ “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is God’s word. ¹² The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved. ¹³ The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation. ¹⁴ The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity. ¹⁵ And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.

Reading this explanation Jesus gives is powerful. Jesus first emphasizes that He teaches in parables so that there is a distinct level of obscurity in the truth He shares. This is to keep people who are uninterested in God’s truth from learning it, and to allow the Holy Spirit room to work in the lives and hearts of those who truly want to hear, understand, and apply Jesus’ teaching.

However, Jesus then shares the explanation of this parable. In this parable, the seed represents God’s word and the various places the seed lands represent different types of people that hear Gods word and what they ultimately do with what they hear.

But there is a character in this parable that is not explained. Nowhere in Jesus’ explanation do we see Him describe who the farmer represents. This lack of a detail is crucial for us to pay attention to, because if Jesus drew extra significance to this parable, as He does in Matthew and Mark, why would He have intentionally left out who the farmer represents?

This is important, because the only description we have for the farmer is that he sowed seed. Since Jesus tells us the seed represents God’s Word, the farmer is one who shares God’s Word with others. Following this understanding to its logical conclusion, Jesus fulfilled the role of the farmer when He was teaching and preaching the crowds, and the disciples fulfilled the role of the farmer when they were teaching the people following Jesus’ return to heaven.

Ultimately, the farmer is a role that we step in to when we share God’s Word with others.

What about the Holy Spirit?

In one way, the Holy Spirit could be considered the farmer, but I think the Holy Spirit plays a different, more subtle role. In this parable, I believe the Holy Spirit shows up in directing where the seed lands, and in the preparation of the soil where the seeds are able to grow the best. In this parable, similar to how Jesus shared that not everyone would be able to understand His teaching, I believe the Holy Spirit is directly involved in the growth of the seed into being ready for harvest!

In this parable, we have another subtle truth. With the Holy Spirit actively working preparing soil, we have the choice of which type of soil we will be. While we might be among the first three types of soil to begin with, when we ask for God’s help, specifically the Holy Spirit’s help, we might discover that a footpath that was too hard to take root becomes broken up enough for the seed to grow. We might also find that with the Holy Spirit’s help, what was once rocky soil has the rocks removed and nutrients added allowing us to grow. And we might also discover that what was once a thorn patch along the side of the road has had the thorns removed allowing us to grow. With the Holy Spirit’s help, we can grow into maturity regardless of what type of soil we believe ourselves to have been before meeting Jesus.

As we grow, we are able to step into the farmer’s role and begin spreading God’s word to others. In many ways, this parable describes the mission and methods of Jesus’ disciples and God’s followers. Wherever you are in your growth journey with God, be sure to ask the Holy Spirit for help moving forward!

God wants the best life for us, and I believe the best life for us in God’s mind is an eternal life in a recreated world. While God is more than willing to walk with us in this sinful world, He wants to help us grow and prepare us for the future sinless world that He desires us to be a part of!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to ask the Holy Spirit for help growing with God and intentionally step into the farmer role and share Jesus with others. When we share God with others, we partner with the Holy Spirit and we shouldn’t be surprised when the Holy Spirit shows up to help us spread the great news about Jesus!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. While a pastor, speaker, author, or even a podcaster can share interesting ideas, filter everything you hear and read through the lens of the Bible to discover what God really wants for you. While the Bible might not speak to the technology of our world today, the Bible is amazingly relevant for our culture and for what we face spiritually as humans.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!