By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
December 17, 2023
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Isaiah 61:1–4, 8-11 (ESV)
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. 4 They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
8 For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed. 10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.
Holy anxiety. Advent. This time of year, we just cannot wait till Christmas. When I think of this time, I am often reminded of the statement in CS Lewis’s Narnian book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where they lament that it is always winter but never Christmas. This is often how we feel, but have we thought about what that means?
The ancients that constructed the liturgical calendar, in my opinion, were inspired. Not inspired as in the calendar is equal to scripture, but inspired as in they had great insight. Winter is the dark time of the year. In ancient times winter was the incarnation of anxiety. Questions were constantly running through the minds of people. Existential questions relating to their survival. Will we have enough food, will we freeze, will there be enough snow to water the ground? Will the seeds survive the cold? Will there be spring?
I grew up on a farm and often these questions would go through my mind as well. Not so much the heat and food questions, but the question about the future of our crops. Winter snows are important, a winter without snow is a sign that the crops will not thrive in their season. So, this dark time of winter has been a season of anxiety. It is a grim time of year. Our energy decreases because our bodies are not producing vitamin D because there is a lack of sunlight on our skin. This lack of sunlight can also cause our psychological well-being to diminish, giving rise to an actual clinical diagnosis of seasonal depression.
We understand this time deep in our bones. We feel it in our achy knees, in our moods, in our soul. We long for something. We long for warmth, abundance, and light. We are trapped in darkness and despair, longing for something to bring us hope.
Those that constructed the liturgical calendar understood our human nature. They understood that we needed something to hope for during the darkness of winter. We needed something to look forward to. We needed Christmas. But they also knew that we need the longing and the yearning. We need to be reminded that life is not just filled with celebration and joy. Life is also filled with hardship, injustice, and struggle. We need to understand hope and despair, joy and sorrow, necessity and abundance. We need to understand because that is life. There are times where it is winter and not Christmas. And that time is Advent.
This time of Holy anxiety encourages us to consider the struggles we face. To embrace our current lot in life. To embrace it but not dwell in that place because like everything in life this too will pass. Winter comes and winter goes. As the teacher in Ecclesiastes states there is a time and season for everything under heaven.
Isaiah like that teacher in Ecclesiastes recognizes this cycle and he prophecies about it. He spoke prior to the battles between Israel and Judah that eventually lead to the complete destruction of the Northern Kingdom. He pleads for repentance, he predicts invasion and destruction, and then he offers hope. He cycles these themes over and over.
Today’s passage comes in what some scholars call third Isaiah. They say this because there are three movements in this work. The first is the call for repentance and this first book or movement is primarily written in a narrative format. It speaks about all the terrible things that are occurring in the world which will eventually lead to destruction. The second book or movement contains mostly poetry, and it is in these epic poems where Isaiah speaks of the invasion, impending exile, and suffering. Then comes the third book, which is also largely poetry, where Isaiah speaks of hope, redemption, and God restoring all the nations to himself.
The 61st chapter of Isaiah is one of the most well-known portions of his book. It was this portion of scripture Jesus read in the synagogue in Nazareth in the fourth chapter of Luke. Jesus read this passage to those people in his hometown as he began his ministry and announced that the long-anticipated hope was at hand.
As I considered this week’s passage, I spent most of my time reflecting on the first couple of verses.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.”
Isaiah wrote these words to a people who would be living through a long dark winter. These words were written to bring encouragement to those that had faced and are continuing to face struggles. And he writes, “the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.” We all look at this verse and as soon as we read the words our mind is moved to Jesus. And this is right to do, but we need to remember that these words were written to a people that did not know Jesus, and yet they found these words encouraging. I want us to let these words speak to us. Let the words meet us in our current life. Let us not look at them as solely the ministry and mission of Jesus, but as words of the prophet giving us hope.
When we see the phrase the Spirit of the Lord God, in this passage it is speaking of the power of God, the strength and the life of God. Isaiah is telling the people that the strength of God is with them, on them, and in them. When Jesus tells the disciples to go and wait in the upper room on the day of his accension, he is encouraging them to wait for this very thing. He is telling them to wait for the power of God, the helper or Holy Spirit to come to them and empower them. We so often look at this as being Jesus’s mission and ministry, but this is not just for Jesus. We are the body, and Christ is our head. This is our mission; it is the mission of the Church because the Spirit of the Lord God is upon us.
“Because the Lord has anointed me.” The word anointed was what attracted my attention the most. Often, we think of this as being a thing of honor because we often see this word being used when a king is chosen. We see that the apostles were anointed with the spirit at Pentecost. We often say that our pastors are anointed. We see this word as indicating something special.
I began to look at this word, to study this word. It might surprise you that this word although used in honorable ways, anointing simply means to smear oil on something.
This year my siblings and I splurged a little and bought my parents a Christmas gift that is beyond our normal holiday budget, giving them a Blackstone griddle. I made the purchase on black Friday, which was not my intention, because I as a former retail worker usually pledge to not shop on black Friday because of the amount of abuse customers and employers enact on those that work that day. But this year due to the death of my grandfather I lost track of the days. But we bought this grill, and it was heavy, so I lugged it from Kansas City to the farm for Grandpa’s funeral and we had to try to figure out what we wanted to do with it till Christmas. We eventually decided it was stupid to lug that massive thing around Kansas multiple times, so we just gave it to them early, and while we were all there, we put it together and prepared it for use.
Preparing this type of grill for use is like preparing a cast iron skillet for use. You smear oil on the surface and heat it up. You do this multiple times until the oil has filled all the microscopic pores within the surface and leaves a permanent film upon the cooking area. This is what I want us to think about when we consider the word anointed or anointing. It is preparing a cast iron skillet. It is working oil into a baseball mitt to prepare it for the season. Anointing is putting mink oil on your leather shoes to protect them from the harsh environment of winter. It is not necessarily signifying honor, but a preparation for use.
God is smearing us with his Spirit. He is rubbing it into the surface so that we become saturated with his power. He is preparing us for use because there is work to do.
As a farm kid, I am aware of how this works. Every day before I began working in the field, I would grab the grease gun out of the tractor. I would go to the various bearings on the implement I was using and would prepare it for use. We added the grease because the environment we worked in was harsh. Without the grease, without anointing the bearings and smearing them with oil, we would have friction that could cause great damage. Especially during harvest season. We greased the bearings and oiled the chains; we prepared our tools for use. And that is what Isaiah is speaking of here. Yes, Jesus is anointed. He is honored, but the anointing is because there is work to do.
There is much work to do. “The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives.”
I want us to think about what is being said here in relation to the anointing. Isaiah begins with bringing good news to the poor, some translations render this afflicted. When we see this word, our mind usually goes to wealth. The haves and the have nots. What is the work to be done regarding the poor? We might think this is about social welfare. Our culture is being read into this passage when we see this in economic terms. In ancient times the wealthy were those with ruling power, and the poor were the oppressed. When Jesus says in the gospels that the poor will always be with you, he is not speaking merely about the people that lack means, instead he is speaking about the people that have power lorded over them.
The poor will always be with us because that is the nature of the kingdoms of men. Those that have power will often use the power they have to maintain power. They often exercise this with little or no concern for those they govern. They take care of themselves first, and only after they have all they want and need, then they consider others. And usually when they consider others they only consider those that might assist them in maintaining their privileged position. The poor will always be among us, because when the power structure changes the oppressed tend to become oppressors. It becomes a vicious cycle of oppression. But Isaiah says the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. What is this good news that is being brought?
I sat studying the phrase “to bring,” as well. These first couple of verses use three words here that mean similar things, but each is a little bit different. The first is to bring good news, then send me to bind, and finally to proclaim. The first to bring is a term of embodiment. The second compulsion and the third is an invitation. This is interesting to me because it is life. But there is even more to these words.
Each of these have additional meaning, these additional means do not necessarily apply to understanding the message, but I find them interesting to the overall picture. To bring, or to bear can also mean to rub or to smooth. This is like the use of sandpaper to smooth the rough face of wood, or the use of abrasives to polish stone.
The poor or the oppressed are often rough. They have been broken and splintered over years of abuse. We have been anointed to smooth the rough edges. To make what was once inhumane ugliness beautiful by breaking that cycle of oppression. We are to embody the opposition to the cycles, to live a different lifestyle.
The next action is, “Sent to bind up the brokenhearted.” This is straightforward, to bind is to wrap up as in putting a bandage on a wound. And the brokenhearted means destroyed in spirit. The broken hearted are the people that are hopeless. The anointed one is compelled to bring healing, to revive hope. We are urged to actively participate in reversing oppression and those things that cause harm.
Then we come to proclaim. This is to speak up, speak out, and invite. It is to make those around us aware of what is going on right before our eyes. We are to proclaim liberty to the captives.
When I think of captives or the opening of the prison, I often think of the incarcerated. Yes, those that are in jail are captives, but this is not exactly what is being spoken of here. The captive in this sense is a prisoner of war, or an exile. Those that were deported or refugees that were forced from their homeland. Isaiah was fully aware of how this would be taken by his countryman; he had just told them that they would be the captives. The northern kingdom of Israel was scattered to the nations, and Judah was exiled in Babylon. They knew or would know the reality of captivity.
But the anointed of the Lord is to proclaim liberty to the captive. I like the word liberty. It is something that we all should like because we live in a nation that claims to be a haven of liberty, we even have a statue and bell to prove it. But what exactly is liberty? The word describes free flowing or running. It is a river that freely flows across the land unhindered by a dam. This word is also used to describe the swift flight of a bird, particularly the swallow.
I want us to imagine this in our minds. Picture the free flight of a bird. The birds joyfully sing their songs as they jump and fly from one branch to another. Jesus once said, “consider the birds they do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of much greater value than they are?” The birds are the freest creatures of all creation. They migrate north and south unhindered and unrestricted. We know this because Canadian geese are all over the place, and never once have I seen them present a passport.
Isaiah is telling the people that we will be empowered and prepared to smooth the rough edges caused by oppression, to bind the wounds once caused by injustice, and proclaim unhindered freedom like that currently experienced by the birds of the air.
Advent is a time of holy anxiety. It is a time of longing and yearning. We recognize the cold darkness around us and desire the warmth and security of the light. Isaiah is with us in this advent. “To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.” The term year here speaks of the cycles of the seasons, particularly spring. Isaiah is saying that the darkness will subside, and spring will come. The land will once again bear fruit and the birds will sing. This too will pass.
We are often distracted by the darkness around us. We think that the world is falling apart and there is no hope. We find ourselves longing for Jesus to return, just as many ancients longed for the Messiah to come. But we are distracted. We are distracted because that is what the kingdoms of the world want us to be. They want us to stop paying attention to Ukraine and focus on Gaza. They want us to blame the immigrants instead of the people that are exploiting the immigrant for personal gain. They want us to continue the cycles of darkness. But we are not obligated to play that game. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon us, because the Lord has anointed us to bring good news to the poor, he has sent us to bind up the injured and to proclaim liberty to the exiled.
It might be winter now, but Christmas is coming. The light will overtake the darkness and redemption is in the air. God is with us, and this is the Lord’s Day. Let us roll up our sleeves and prepare ourselves for the work he has appointed us to. The work of Loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others. Let us join with Christ in reversing the damage caused by our own rebellions, and restore hope.
Previous Messages:
Broken Dreams Restored
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 05, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili John 20:1–18 (ESV) 1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the…
The Mind of Christ
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 29, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Query 3: Do you attend regularly the services of your church and participate in them actively? Do you prayerfully endeavor to minister, under the guidance of the Holy…
Walk as Children of Light
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 15, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Ephesians 5:8–14 (ESV) 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit…
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