The Kingdom of God, no.2

Isaiah 9:7, a Messianic prophecy about Jesus and his coming kingdom, asserts that the kingdom will be characterized by justice/righteousness and shalom.  The other Messianic passages in Isaiah also highlight justice; and some of these passages mention the role of the Holy Spirit.  See 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4. I believe that Luke 4:18-19 is intended to be a summary statement, a mission statement if you will, about the nature of the kingdom of God.  Luke 4:18-19 is quoted from Isaiah 61 and 58:6. 

To understand this passage from Luke, we need to return to Isaiah. In addition to idolatry and immorality, Isaiah was profoundly disturbed by social oppression, by the lack of justice for the poor.  The phrase from Isaiah 58:6, "to set the oppressed free," or "to release the oppressed," is one of several similar statements from chapter 58.  The full chapter describes a supposedly spiritual people---"they seek me daily, they delight to know my ways, they delight to know God, and they fast and pray."  At the same time the Israelites were oppressing their workers and neglecting the poor.  God refused to accept them, to hear their prayers, because of their social sins.  Isaiah teaches that spirituality cannot be divorced from social justice.  My paraphrase of Isaiah 61 highlights what God desires:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

because the Lord has anointed me

to preach good news to the oppressed poor

to proclaim freedom and release to those in bondage

by practicing Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor.

to bestow on the oppressed poor:

a crown of beauty instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

These transformed poor will be called trees of justice.

These transformed poor will rebuild the ruined cities.

For I, the Lord, love justice.

Jesus, by reading from Isaiah 61 and 58:6, describes the heart of his ministry here on earth.  And he himself modeled this type of ministry.  Here is my paraphrase of Luke 4:18-19:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, . . . .

by implementing  a Jubilee justice for the poor.

As Jesus sat down "the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. . . . All spoke well of him."  The Jews from Nazareth had heard very good news and they were positively impressed.  In that synagogue congregation there were most likely some of the oppressed poor Jesus had read about from Isaiah.  They knew what Jubilee justice would like, what it would do for them. Galilee had the best farming land in Palestine (meager by Iowa standards).  But this rich land was full of poor people.  Why?  Over the years cruel and corrupt people had gained control of most of the good land through high interest rates, excessive taxation, poor crops, fraud, or some combination of the above.  So rich Romans or rich Jews or rich Gentiles got control of  the land leaving the masses landless or on poor quality land.  Some of the Jewish owners were absentee landlords from Jerusalem, part of the temple crowd. Judaism at the time of Christ was corrupt through and through.  The leaders and the institutions they controlled were much like they were in the OT at the time of Amos or Isaiah. 

The sacred temple had become a "den of robbers," so Jesus moved in and cleansed it.  In Matthew 23, Jesus uttered very strong words of condemnation to the Jewish religious leaders. Galilee was like a Third World country today---a few rich elite controlling everything and exploiting the masses who were poor.  Under the Jubilee the landless poor would get their land back.  Then they could farm and be self-sufficient.  Charity for the poor was not enough; these landless poor needed justice.  The OT Jubilee was a set of principles and laws designed by God to protect and empower the poor.  The kingdom of God was supposed to be a NT version of the OT Jubilee.

But another type of oppression was occurring in Galilee, and all over Palestine.  Some of the economically oppressed Jews were themselves oppressing others.  How could the powerless poor be oppressors?