Luke’s Gospel, written to gentiles, tells us why Jesus came to earth.
His words are a mixture of joy and sobriety. Joy, because Jesus is my only hope. Sobriety, because Jesus describes exactly who I am without his mercy.
If you do not think of yourself as a poor, blind slave apart from the grace of Christ, you think too much of yourself and too little of Christ.
In these verses from Luke 4:16-21, Christ tells us why he came. Praise be to the glorious grace of God!
He 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. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“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,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”Then 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, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”