by Maneesha Antony
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Luke 4:18-19
It is evident that this portion of scripture is referring to Evangelism. However these verses reveal a new aspect of evangelism that we as Christians and the Church ignore. We have a social duty to not only proclaim the gospel but to actively help the lost. This view of only trying to preach the gospel to get that person saved is derived from a utilitarian view: ‘The end justifies the means.’ Sometimes our purpose for bringing people to Christ is to show off and say how many people we brought to Christ, making those people a number rather than an actual human being. This action to reach the goal of salvation is not out of love which is pointed out here in Luke.
We have been anointed by the Holy Spirit to minister to people by meeting every need of the poor, the prisoners, the blind and the oppressed. We as spiritual Pentecostals look at this portion from the Bible and interpret this as meeting their spiritual needs but it does include their physical needs as well.
We forget to realize that we were once the poor – not knowing the riches/blessings of heaven, the prisoners – held under bondage by Satan because of our sins, the blind – not seeing the love of Jesus Christ and the oppressed – punished and separated from God because we were sinners. But it was by God’s grace that Jesus came down to this earth as man to meet our every need – both spiritual and physical; and proclaim the good news by His death and resurrection.
We as the Church need to reflect the story of Jesus and model his compassionate heart to the poor. The good news relates to the whole person not just the soul, meaning that we as Christians must not be interested only in their salvation but their wellbeing and health. A true evangelist considers both! So let us have a heart of compassion and see the person as God’s precious gift not a number.
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