On the Road to Jerusalem: Come Near

“Heal the sick in it and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.'”

 —Luke 10:9-11

The kingdom of God began at Jesus’ first coming, although it won’t be consummated until His Second Coming. In our passage for today, we see Jesus sending seventy-two disciples, two by two, into every town and place where He was about to go (Luke 10:1). Whenever they would enter a town, they were to “heal the sick” and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” It was not by their words alone that the kingdom of God was seen and believed in, but in the power of God displayed by their faith in Christ. Or as Paul said so succinctly, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power”—1 Corinthians 4:20. The power of God was being shown through them—the kingdom of God had come near. Jesus wanted all who heard and saw the signs to know that God’s kingdom was being inaugurated, because it was in Him and through His disciples that the power of the kingdom of God would be displayed.

When Jesus began His public ministry in Luke 4, He was in a synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath. He stood up to read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and said,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
because He has anointed Me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

Once He finished reading, He sat down and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”—Luke 4:21. According to Isaiah 61, God sent Him to do five things: (1) Proclaim good news to the poor, (2) Proclaim liberty to the captives, (3) Give sight to the blind (i.e., healing), (4) Set at liberty those who are oppressed, and (5) Proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. In other words, Jesus was sent to declare the good news of God’s salvation—made available to both Jews and Gentiles (Galatians 3:14, 28). He Himself would be the inauguration of the coming kingdom of God—bringing good news to those who were poor by the standards of this world—both figuratively and literally—and freeing those who were trapped and oppressed by sin. He was the agent and means of God’s favor. No longer would men and women be trapped and condemned by God’s Law, but now would be beneficiaries of God’s grace, made available in and through Christ.

When Jesus spoke in the synagogue that day, He was quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2. But what most of us fail to realize is that He broke off mid-verse and didn’t finish the rest of the sentence. The full verse goes like this: “to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn”—Isaiah 61:2. Why did He break off mid-verse while reading? It is because that part of the verse was not fulfilled yet. Jesus was fulfilling the year of the Lord’s favor, but the “day of vengeance of our God” and comforting “all who mourn” wouldn’t happen until His Second Coming.

When Jesus sent His disciples out two by two, they were showing Him as the fulfillment of Luke 4:18-19. Jesus’ kingdom was just beginning, and all are invited to enter into it.

Lent involves understanding what it means to be a citizen of a heavenly kingdom—and how we are to best order our lives as we  

“await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself”—Philippians 3:20-21.

 While many of us have placed our faith in Christ, we know all too well that we have not lived as citizens of that kingdom. We have let sin, unbelief, and the things of this world creep in and choke our zeal for Christ. We must repent of any sin, remove any obstacle, and realign our priorities so that Christ’s life might be seen in us. Ask God to give you a hunger for Him, and bring to your attention anything that is keeping you from seeing who He is. Lay yourself at His feet as a “living sacrifice,” ready and willing to do whatever He asks so that you may truly conduct yourself as a citizen of that heavenly kingdom (Romans 12:1). Amen.