Immediately after his baptism, Jesus goes into the wilderness for prayer. There, the devil tempts him with power, but Jesus resists. He then returns to his home town of Nazareth, and preaches a sermon based on Isaiah 61, saying the words of liberation for the poor and oppressed are being fulfilled. Yet he draws the anger of the crowd for declaring that the "home crowd" will not be first in line for the blessing, but foreigners. While Jesus refuses the devil's temptation to test God by jumping off the top of the temple, by the end of the chapter God actually does intervene so he isn't thrown off a cliff by an angry mob. The difference is the second time, Jesus is speaking up for the poor and outsiders.
Christians often try to find one single "mission" verse to define what Jesus wants of us. Matthew 28's "Great Commission," to go into the whole world and make disciples, is well known. But in Luke's Gospel, when Jesus has the whole of the Hebrew Bible to pick from, he announces that his own mission is to bring good news to the poor, release to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed. Not just a spiritual crusade against sin and damnation, but a down to earth announcement of God's love for the people our world ignores. Maybe our mission should be similar.
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