“The Spirit of the Lord is on me…to preach good news…to proclaim freedom…to release the oppressed.” Luke 4:18

Christmas is over: wrapping paper recycled, ribbons rolled up for another use, gifts put to use. Did you get what you asked for? 

Did the Jewish people get the Christmas they wanted? With His nativity, Jesus became the long-promised gift of a Messiah, but was He the gift the Jews expected? The One they thought they wanted? Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s ancient prophecy: He did come to “preach good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for prisoners, recover sight for the blind, and release the oppressed” (vs.18-19). However, Jesus didn’t do any of this in the way Israelites anticipated. 

The people loved it when Jesus acted “supernaturally”: they witnessed miracles of healing and abundance (often involving fish) and delighted in Him. But when Jesus acted “naturally” - preaching against the religious order, mingling with “sinners,” and encouraging a way of living that upended customs and expectations -  many were offended and rejected Him.

Are people any different twenty centuries later? We’re also suffocating under the oppression of sin’s power but, because it’s foreign to our expectations and our desires, we don’t recognize - or don’t even want to accept - that what Jesus offers is far better. We prefer to forge our own way toward the world’s idea of success through work, status, pursuit of material things. 

For Christians all these centuries later, are we similarly resistant? Not to Christ Himself; we know His life has opened the blinded eyes of our hearts. But do we resist the tugging of His Spirit saying, “this is the way; walk ye in it,” when we’re happy to have Jesus’ salvation but content to manage our day-to-day living as the world does? Do we need a reminder that living this way leaves us “poor in spirit”? A reminder that Good News means an entire life reoriented away from the world’s view of success? A reminder that the Spirit wants us also to “preach and proclaim” this same Good News to others?

The Holy Spirit is still the unrequested but desperately needed gift.

Jesus wasn’t the Messiah Israel was expecting, and a humble, poor, itinerant, revolutionary preacher wasn’t the gift they would have asked for either. But this Jesus is exactly what they and we needed…and more than we could ever want. How can you share this unexpected but most precious Gift? How can others see Jesus in you as you enter 2023?