As It Is Written . . .
Anointed to Fulfill
by Patrick Henry Reardon
Relatively early in St. Luke's two books—the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles—are two compact and programmatic scenes. The pronounced correspondences between them encourage the reader to examine these passages together.
The first scene presents Jesus engaged in the public reading of Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, / because he has anointed me / to preach the gospel to the poor; / He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives / and recovery of sight to the blind, / to liberate the oppressed, / to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18–19). This scene and its prophetic text, placed near the beginning of the Lord's public ministry, serve to introduce the rest of the Gospel; it is a program or schedule of everything Jesus is about to accomplish.
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Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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