0 Christ's Announcement of His Anointing

From the M'Cheyne calendar this morning:

1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has t anointed me
to bring good news to the poor; [1]
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and u the opening of the prison to those who are bound; [2]
2 v to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,

(Isa 61:1-2a, ESV)

What a surprise Christ's brief exposition of this passage must have been to the synagogue hearers that day mentioned in Luke 4:16ff. What a wonderful announcement, that "today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21), must have been for those whose hearts were the soil well-prepared by the Spirit for the seed of the Word. What a strange statement for the rocky soil, the thorny soil and that along the pathway... How these words, coming from this person whom those in the Nazareth synagogue knew as the grown child of Joseph and Mary, must have resounded with the eschatological pronouncements Isaiah makes next in chapter 61 concerning the overturning of mourning into gladness, the identity of the people as a nation of priests, prosperity in the land, and the great day of vengeance. With Christ proclaiming the fulfillment of his anointing for the announcement of the gospel and healing of the nations, the days of His brief ministry began. The appointed time had come. The world was turning upside down.