“The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to … “(Luke 4:14 ff.).

Welcome to a new week, a new month, a new year, and a new series: Living Supernaturally!  Since that word supernaturally can get us going in all kinds of directions, let’s stay close to this week’s passage.

This inaugural passage of our new series (Luke 4:14-22) narrates the inauguration of Jesus’s ministry, as given to us in Luke’s Gospel.  First, a bit of background to our passage. 

Spirit-prophesied and Spirit-conceived, Jesus, at around the age of thirty, is baptized by John.  As he arises from the water, the heavens are torn open and the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus in the form of a dove, anointing him for his mission and ministry.  Immediately thereafter, the same Spirit compels Jesus into the desert, where he is tempted by the Enemy.  Emerging victorious by the power of the Spirit, he begins his public ministry in his local synagogue by reading from the Spirit-inspired book of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to …”

Jesus led a Spirit-saturated life!  In him and by that same Spirit, Christ-followers are invited into that same life!  Let’s notice what that life looks like, what some of its distinctive characteristics are.  When it comes to “living supernaturally,” we’re in for some surprises!

Jesus says the Spirt has anointed him to do five things: proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  That’s a pretty good “mission statement” for any church and for every disciple!

As we see in this passage, “living supernaturally” has some very down-to-earth elements. Jesus was not walking around “blissed out,” without a care in the world.  Instead, filled and led by the Spirit, he steers directly into the pain and suffering of the world.  He gets his hands dirty and ultimately bloodied; he freely associates with the littlest, the least, the last and the lost, and is regularly criticized and maligned for so doing.  He indeed heals the sick, gives sight to the blind and even raises the dead.  He does, in and by the Spirit, everything that Isaiah prophesied the Messiah would do.

And in Christ, as “people of the Messiah,” the same kind of Spirit-filled, Spirit-led “supernatural” life is offered to us today as we walk the Jesus Way.  It’s a life that doesn’t deny, ignore, avoid or escape pain and difficulty, but steers into them, accompanied and empowered by the same Spirit –

--the Spirit who continues to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed and the favor of God coming for all who will receive it.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you, too, Christ-follower! Who in your everyday run of life is “poor,” “imprisoned,” “blind” or “oppressed” in some way?  What might be a Spirit-led step you could take to show them something of God’s Good News?