Lk.4:18 – The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim liberty to the captives.
This phrase that describes prisoners could be translated as prisoners of war. It is literally describing those being held at the point of a spear. This would paint pictures in the minds of the people in Nazareth of the stories from years ago when the Jews were taken at the point of a spear as captives into Babylon. The sins of the past had cost the whole nation their freedom. They lost their homes, separated from loved ones, lost all of their possessions and were forced into a new and different world where they became slaves to their captors. This vivid picture describes what sin has done to all of us. Before Christ we were prisoners to the powers of this world. We have now been liberated by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is how Barnes describes this passage.
“This is a figure originally applicable to those who were in captivity in Babylon. They were miserable. To grant deliverance to them and restore them to their country—to grant deliverance to those who are in prison and restore them to their families—to give liberty to the slave and restore him to freedom, was to confer the highest benefit and impart the richest favor. In this manner the gospel imparts favor. It does not, indeed, literally open the doors of prisons, but it releases the mind captive under sin; it gives comfort to the prisoner, and it will finally open all prison doors and break off all the chains of slavery, and, by preventing crime, prevent also the sufferings that are the consequence of crime.”
The gospel is the liberating power of God. The world is held as captives by their own sin. It could be a prison of alcohol, or a prison of pornography, or a prison of prescription medication. The good news of the message of Christ breaks all of these chains and opens the prison doors of our souls. Maybe you are still in some sort of prison, hiding away in darkness wishing there was another way to live your life. Jesus is offering that way out to each of us today. Call out to Him from your prison cell, he will gladly open the door of your prison and bring you into His wonderful life of freedom.
