PODCAST
The Year Of The Lord’s Favor
June 2nd, 2010
While in Nazareth, Jesus finished with Isaiah’s scroll after reading, “the year of the Lord’s favor”. But why stop there?
Jesus wasn’t a preacher who pulled punches. He had no trouble telling it like it is. At least once He referred to His hearers as an “unbelieving and perverse generation”, and He drove dishonest merchants out of the Temple. So why end on favor and not vengeance?
Many in Jesus’ day believed the messiah’s arrival would be a violent period, in which Israel’s oppressors would be crushed and the nation cleansed of the unrighteous. They believed this would lead to an epic battle between the “sons of light and the sons of darkness.”
Jesus’ mission was not to bring more death and destruction into the world, but to die on the Cross for the sins of the world. The “day of the vengeance of our God” will come. “Since we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade people”. All the while we proclaim “the year of the Lord’s favor.”
