Preach the gospel always; when necessary use words. (-St. Francis of Assisi)

September 20, 2010 by Jimmy.

Why did Jesus come to Earth?  What was his mission? 

I was taught, growing up, that Jesus came to die for our sins so that we can be reconciled with God.  Again, this is a very important and profound act of love from the God the Father; however, there was far more to dying on the Cross that Jesus came to do.

Luke 4:14-21

 ¹⁴Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. ¹⁵He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

 ¹⁶He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. ¹⁷The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 

 ¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 ²⁰Then 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, ²¹and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

This passage was a reference to Isaiah 61 –about the coming Messiah.  In this passage, Jesus was referring to himself.  It was a declaration both of who He was and why He had come.  It was his mission statement, and there are three components to his mission statement.

1.       We see the proclamation of the good news of salvation.

It is interesting to note that the recipients of this good news of salvation were first, and foremost, the poor.   This good news went far beyond “just” a verbal proclamation of the good news – what most of us would call an act of “evangelism.”

2.       We see a compassion for the sick and the sorrowful.

We see phrases like, “recovery of sight for the blind (v. 18)” and “bind up the brokenhearted  (Isaiah 61:1).”  In these verses we can see a concern not just for our spiritual condition but for our physical well-being also.  In Jesus’ ministry, we see this over and over again: his healing of the physical body, as well as the spirit.  Jesus showed and demonstrated God’s love in tangible ways.

3.       We see a commitment to justice.

Here, we see phrases like, “proclaim freedom for the prisoners,” “to release the oppressed,” and “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  The year of the Lord’s favor was a reference to the Year of Jubilee, when all debts are forgiven, slaves were set free, all land was returned to its original owners, and everyone could start a new life with a clean slate.  It was God’s way of protecting against the rich getting too rich, and the poor getting too poor.  Here, we see the heart of a Father who loves indiscriminately and lavishly.

If this was Jesus’s mission statement, then what should, as his followers and emulators, our mission statements look like?  What should then the mission of the Church look like?

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