Healing the Broken (Luke 4:14-21)
As a young college student, I went to the jail twice a week and taught inmates. After a while, one of the men who was studying with me expressed a desire to be baptized. So, I went to the jailer and made arrangements for this man to be brought to the church building and baptized.
On the appointed day, a deputy brought this man to the Florence Boulevard church building, and I baptized this inmate into Christ. While the young man changed out of his baptismal garments, the deputy jailer and I were talking. The deputy looked at me and said, “That guy scares me. You may not know this, but he’s in for attempted murder and he’s extremely dangerous.”
That gentleman—whose name I have long forgotten—entered that church building broken and captive to sin. Yet, even he, a man who had tried to commit a heinous crime, found freedom and forgiveness in Jesus.
You’ve certainly seen people come to Jesus with great baggage. I know some of you have been involved in prison ministry, and you’ve likely seen convicts come to Jesus. Others of you have been involved in World Bible School, and I’m sure that, at least, some of you received letters that made your hair stand on end. Maybe you knew someone in this church who came to Jesus after committing serious, public sin, or, perhaps, you came with a great deal of baggage yourself.
Luke made clear with this morning’s text that Jesus can—and will—forgive anyone. This passage makes clear: “Jesus brings freedom.”
Scripture (Luke 4:14-21)
Throughout Luke’s Gospel, the author showed how Jesus cared for the downtrodden and those society had cast out. This morning’s passage seems to serve as the thesis statement for the entirety of Luke’s Gospel; in other words, Luke made clear here that his entire Gospel is about how “Jesus brings freedom.”
verses 16-17:
Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath, as would have been expected of devout Jews. Jesus stood to read Scripture—in that era, one stood to read the Scriptures, but one sat to explain them. In a couple verses, Jesus will expound on the Scriptures, and he will be seated to do so.
The attendant handed Jesus the scroll from the prophet Isaiah. Books of Scripture were on different scrolls, and the synagogue attendant in Jesus’s day had a lot of freedom to decide which prophet would be read each Sabbath.
Jesus “unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written.” The verb “find” likely indicates that the Lord purposefully sought out this text; he wanted to make a point, and Jesus found the right text to make his point.
verses 18-19:
In the passage Jesus read, Isaiah described the Messianic kingdom in terms of the Year of Jubilee, a time every 50 years when slaves were released and debts were erased. Some scholars think that the people may have just celebrated a Year of Jubilee when Jesus spoke, but regardless, the people would clearly have understood the message—the Messianic kingdom would bring peace, freedom, and redemption.
verse 20:
Jesus handed back the scroll to the attendant and sat down, and everyone in the synagogue was staring at him. There was great informality in the synagogue during Jesus’s earthly ministry; therefore, the fact that the people’s attention remains on Jesus is astonishing.
verse 21:
Jesus began to say, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus began to say—in other words, Jesus spent some time explaining to the people what it meant that this Scripture had been fulfilled in their hearing.
Application
This truth was being fulfilled in the synagogue at Nazareth: “Jesus brings freedom.” Isaiah poetically depicted that freeing ministry in terms of preaching, healing, and liberation.
Jesus brings freedom from temptation, from despair, from sin, and from death. Jesus himself said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:32). “Having been set free from sin, [you] have become slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:18). “There is . . . now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:1-2). Jesus died and rose again to “deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb 2:15).
How can you, in your own life, find freedom in Jesus?
First: See where you are Broken.
Where is your life Broken, and where do you need Jesus? Maybe you, like the apostles through much of Jesus’s ministry, lack faith. Perhaps you’re like many of those who came to Jesus and you need physical healing. Are you, like Mary and Martha, weighed down with grief? Could it be that you, like the woman caught in adultery, are full of sin?
To the scribes and Pharisees who thought they had everything together, Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mk 2:17). In other words, Jesus can’t give you freedom if you claim you aren’t broken. See where you are Broken so that you can move toward Jesus for freedom.
Second: Behold what Jesus did for others.
Look at how Jesus gave freedom to those he encountered. Go to the Scriptures and make you a list of how Jesus gave freedom to those who encountered brokenness like your own. If you’re full of sin, Behold how he forgave those caught in sin’s trap. If you’re burdened with grief, Behold how Jesus raised the dead. If you struggle with a physical ailment, Behold how he healed disease after disease. If you’re lacking faith, Behold how he increased faith by his miracles, by his teaching, and by his resurrection from the dead.
About the Old Testament, Paul wrote, “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom 15:4). Yes, Paul wrote to Christians about the source of hope in the Old Testament, but is it not true that as you look at how Jesus gave freedom you find great hope in the New Testament? Behold that hope!
Three: Determine where you need to Begin.
Jesus will indeed give you freedom, but you need to act, too; you must see where you need to Begin acting. Think back to those whom Jesus freed in his earthly ministry and notice how they acted to gain freedom. For example, Jairus fell at Jesus’s feet and begged the Lord to come and heal his dying daughter (Mk 5:22-23). Or think about the woman with the discharge of blood; she reached out and touched Jesus’s garment to find healing (Mk 5:27-28). Then there’s Bartimaeus, a blind beggar; he heard that Jesus was near, and “he began to cry out and to say ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’” (Mk 10:47). The thief on the cross expressed his faith in Jesus’s kingdom before he received his pardon (Lk 23:42-43).
Where do you need to Begin and find freedom in Jesus this morning? Granted, the answer to that question depends on your specific need for freedom. However, with a knowledge of the Scriptures, formulate a plan to Begin moving from brokenness to freedom. Do you need my help? Do you need the help of our elders? Do you need to come this morning and ask for the church’s help while we stand and sing?
This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.