Home	Our Hope
Bible Study		December 23, 2025
He Has Anointed Me

Introduction

I've commented many times on liberals in the church. They are an existential (yes, I'll call it that) threat to people in the church.

I know, though, that many people don't want to see them that way. They think that all the churches have different views on what the Bible says, and the liberals are just another view.

In this study, we'll look at how seriously different, mistaken really, their view is. We'll look at a passage that I heard preached by a liberal. He used it to show how Jesus was concerned about poverty, physical health, mental health, and freedom. In short, he was trying to portray Jesus as a socialist.

Jesus Visits Nazareth

Though Jesus was born in Bethlehem, he never knew it as a "hometown." He was very young when his parents ran away to Egypt, on God's instructions. When they returned, when he was about 6 years old, they lived in Nazareth instead. That was his hometown.

Because he grew up in Nazareth, he had a Nazarene accent. The people in Jerusalem knew where he was from the moment they heard him speak. Some of the mocking of Jesus that is done at the cross is mocking his accent.

And he came to Nazareth where he had been raised, and as he was accustomed, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of Isaiah the Prophet was given to him and Yeshua opened the scroll … (Luke 4:16-17)

We see a number of things here that are off our topic, but I think they are worth mentioning. The people are literate. It is expected that someone from the crowd will be able to stand to read the scripture for the day. It was an honor to do so. Jesus was a returning son, so he would have been offered that honor.

There was one temple, and it was in Jerusalem. Every town had a synagogue. Synagogues were only for teaching. They did not have the places or equipment for sacrifices, and they were never done there.

The Bible they had was the Old Testament, obviously, but it was not a single collection. Generally there was one or more scrolls for each "book" as we know it.

Also, their books (scrolls) did not have chapter numbers or verse numbers. Those were assigned 1,000 years later. So when it says that Jesus "found" a place in the Bible, it means that Jesus had to know the scroll well enough to find Isaiah 61:1-2 … without chapter or verse numbers.

and he found the place where it is written:
¹⁸ "the Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is upon me, and because of this he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor; he has sent me to heal broken hearts and to proclaim liberty to captives, vision to the blind, and to restore the crushed with forgiveness, ¹⁹ And to proclaim the acceptable era of the Lord Yahweh." (Luke 4:17-19)

This is the core text for this study. Liberals understand it in a completely different way from conservatives. The reason is that liberals are hyper-focused on harm and suffering, to the exclusion of all else. Liberals have little or no spiritual sense. I've done a larger study on that topic previously. Therefore they understand these verses this way:

- Both sides agree that "proclaim the acceptable era of the Lord Yahweh" means that this is the time that God has found to be acceptable to him for doing the things he will do.

In the liberal view, Jesus fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy by the way he helped people's social condition. That was his mission.

The conservative view is completely different.

In the conservative view, Jesus fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy by the way he helped people's spiritual condition. That was his mission. The purpose of the physical things that Jesus did was to show that he was sent by God. As Jesus said, "If you don't believe me, believe the miracles." Those were not his mission, only a sign to the people.

And he rolled up the scroll and he gave it to the minister and he went and sat down, but all who were in the synagogue fixed their eyes upon him. (Luke 4:20)

The listeners in the synagogue know this is a passage about the Messiah. They also have heard about the things that Jesus has been doing. And they know the Messianic prophecies of Daniel are due to be fulfilled. They have to be thinking, "How odd that you would read this passage, which is written in the first person, 'He has anointed me.’" They are wondering if he is going to say or do anything more.

And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears." (Luke 4:21)

This is Jesus' cagey way of saying he is the fulfillment of that prophecy without saying it. His audience knew he could always claim that he was only saying that about someone else. That is, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears by a guy down the street." In that way, Jesus would only have been claiming that the prophecy was fulfilled on that day. Other people were making similar claims.

Summary

We've looked at both the liberal and conservative views of this passage that describes Jesus mission. We've seen that those views are completely different.

The liberal view is focused on the physical and social needs of the people of that time. The conservative view is focused on the spiritual needs of all people for all time.

This passage can be used in two ways. It can show us the dramatic difference between liberals and conservatives in the church, which is how we've used it. It can also be used to identify whether a person is a conservative or a liberal.

Liberals are not only confused about this passage, but also about many others. They also struggle with the things that God is recorded as having done. They twist the words of God and are not the children of God.