A Jubilee Year!

Abstract

Famous in the Gospel of Luke is the so-called “Jesus manifesto,” in Lk 4:18-19. In this scene, we see Jesus in the temple of his home town Nazareth, on the Sabbath day, reading and applying to himself the following passage of the Prophet Isaiah (Is 61:1-2): “The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.” Announcing liberation and consolation for the poor, liberty for the captives and the oppressed, recovery of sight to the blind, Jesus proclaims also, at the end of this passage, “a year of favor from the Lord,” a Jubilee year!