Isaiah 61: Good News to the Poor

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor..." - Isaiah 61:1

Throughout chapter 61, Isaiah sets out seven purposes of the anointing of the coming Messiah. They are listed as reference below.

1. To bring good news to the poor.
2. To bind up the brokenhearted.
3. To proclaim liberty to the captives.
4. To open the prison to those who are bound (or to open the eyes of those who are blind).
5. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of the Lord's wrath.
6. To comfort all who mourn.
7. To grant various gifts to those who mourn in Zion.

Purpose #1: To bring good news to the poor. To flesh out this statement, we need to answer three questions.

1. What can we learn from the verb, "bring", in this context?
2. What is the "good news"?
3. Who are the "poor"?

To best serve you, I think it would be best to answer these three questions backwards.

Who Are the Poor?

We must be careful when we answer this question because the implications are huge. Were Isaiah in Isaiah 61 and Jesus in Luke 4 referring to the literal poor only? Was the Messiah only to bring good news to people who made X amount of dollars or less? Can no good news come to those who have been blessed financially in this life? These are weighty questions that require a biblical answer. Though God does providentially provide for the poor and even command his people to care for the poor among us (Matthew 25:31-46), it would be theologically inaccurate to say that the Messiah only brings the good news to the literal poor. For if this were true, all that we would have to do to receive the good news is relinquish our wealth and live among the literal poor. Though uncomfortable, it would be a small cost for this good news.

Instead, Jesus offers us his translation of what it means to be poor. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3). Jesus takes the word, "poor", and goes ten feet deeper. Just as the literal poor have no wealth of their own on which they can stand before a wealthy world, the spiritual poor have no merit of their own on which they can stand before a holy God. The man of poor spirit is acutely aware of his own sin separates him from his Creator. The poor in spirit recognizes he can offer nothing to God and is justly condemned in His sight. This is to whom the good news comes the poor in spirit.

What Is the Good News?

Knowing who the poor are, the good news must follow. Being poor is bad news. A poor man knows there is nothing he can do to can wealth before God. He knows all his efforts are futile, for he could gather a thousand pearls and lay them before the throne of the King, and upon hitting the ground before His feet they would turn to dust. Our initial disposition towards God is one of just condemnation for our damnable sin. Obviously, this is bad news. So what would good news look like?

Good news would be if God were to give us a head start to spiritual wealthiness. But, in the end, we could never attain it. Good news would be if God were to say that there were a way that we could earn our standing before God. But there would not be enough good deeds in the world to cover over sinning against our sovereign Lord. Good news would be if God were to just forgive all our sins and let us start over again. But leave it to our sinful selves to need forgiveness all over again. All of these scenarios are good news to the poor. But it is not what the Messiah is to bring.

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Cor 8:9).

Our Messiah humbled himself by coming down from his heavenly dwelling to dwell with men as the God-man. He lived the sinless life we were supposed to live. And then, when the time was right, he took our sin - all our sin - upon his shoulders and surrendered himself to death on a cross. Our Messiah and our sin were nailed to a tree. All this for one reason. So that when we come to our Messiah in faith, he can say to us, "Here. This is my righteousness, bought for you with my blood. Give me your sin. It has already been paid for. You are not only forgiven, but also righteous." He became poor so that we might become rich.

What Can We Learn From "Bring"?

Words can carry such meaning. Bring, in this context, is one such word. There are poor out there, and we are them. There is good news out there, and Christ and his gospel is it. But how does the good news get to the poor? Listen. The poor cannot set out on a three month journey to obtain the good news. The poor cannot manipulate the system and steal the good news for himself. The poor cannot buy the good news with all the money he can gather. No. The good news must be brought to us. The moment you neglect the word, "bring", you stumble back into spiritual poverty. Why? Because the good news is that Jesus Christ brings salvation to the poor in spirit. There is nothing we can do to earn salvation. It must be brought to us!

Praise God for sending His Son to us, his poor and blessed children.