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.
The second and corresponding scene, in the Acts of the Apostles, describes the Church at prayer during the arrest of Peter and John. The prayer is rooted in a prophetic text, this one from David: "So . . . they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: 'Lord, you are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of your servant David have said: 'Why did the nations rage, / And the people vainly conspire together? / The kings of the earth took their stand, / and the rulers array themselves / against the Lord and against his Anointed One'" (Acts 4:24–26).
Like Jesus reading from Isaiah, the praying congregation interprets this Davidic text as a prophecy in the process of fulfillment; the prayer continues: "For truly against your holy Servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose predetermined to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word, by stretching out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be performed." And they make this prayer, "through the name of your holy Servant Jesus" (Acts 4:27–30). Sundry miracles and wonders will accompany the Church's
proclamation.
Of first importance in both our Lucan passages is the Holy Spirit's "anointing" of Jesus (Luke 3:22; 4:18). This experience of the Lord is foundational to the very idea of the gospel: "He has anointed me to preach the gospel," Jesus declares through the words of Isaiah. This anointing is the first step in the evangelization of the world. Luke quotes St. Peter's assertion that the gospel itself "began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him" (Acts 10:37–38).
Accompanying Signs
A second correspondence between the two scenes is the role of signs, healings, and prodigies that accompany the proclamation of the gospel. Indeed, the Isaian passage quoted in the synagogue provides a list of these elements: healing, liberation, restoration, and recovery. The entire proclamation in Luke's account is accompanied by repeated miracles and prodigies of healing and restoration. For this reason, Jesus finishes the reading of Isaiah by declaring, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21).
Moreover, the Church's prayer in Acts 4, like the Isaian passage that Jesus read, serves as a program or outline of what transpires in the rest of the Acts of the Apostles. The healings and the "signs and wonders," which began with the recent healing of the paralytic, continue to accompany the gospel's proclamation at Jerusalem (5:12–16), Samaria (8:7), Lydda (9:33–35), Joppa (9:36–41), Cyprus (13:4–12), Lystra (14:8–10), Philippi (16:16–18), Ephesus (19:1–6), Troas (20:9–12), and Malta (28:3–9).
A third common element in these two scenes is their extended quotation of prophetic texts, the one from Isaiah (61:1–2), the other from David (Ps. 2:1–2). This is important in Luke's theology of evangelism. In his version of the Great Mandate, Jesus sends forth the apostles only after instructing them about the meaning of the Scriptures: "Then he said to them, 'These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me.' And he opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures."
Only then, says Luke, does Jesus say to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Anointed One to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:44–47).
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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