The Deeply Formed Life: Five Transformative Values to Root Us in the Way of Jesus

by Rich Villodas

In Jesus’s first sermon in Luke 4, he says that the Spirit of God is upon him to announce good news. Notably, the good news (in this portion of Scripture) is not the promise of a disembodied salvation located in heaven upon death. Jesus’s gospel in Luke 4 is a very worldly one. He proclaimed, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (verses 18–19). This passage has often been so spiritualized that we miss the material urgency in Jesus’s words and consequently the urgency and passion that will characterize Christ followers. The “poor” Jesus spoke of are certainly those who are spiritually destitute, but they are also those who are materially impoverished. The “captives” he proclaims freedom to are not just those in personal bondage to demonic powers but also those who are captive to demonic ideologies. The recovery of sight for “the blind” is not just an act of private healing but also a miracle of justice, joining the infirmed to the larger community. The “oppressed” who are set free are those who are oppressed by not only their own sin but also the sinful powers that marginalize people.