Isaiah 61 is a dangerous text! Jesus used this text to launch his ministry in his home town of Nazareth and it caused him to be thrown out of the synagogue and taken to the edge of a cliff. Jesus' life was threatened as a result of his reading, interpretation and application of this text. "Today, this Scripture is being fulfilled in your hearing," Jesus said. But we are getting ahead of our story. Let's go back to the original context of Isaiah 61 before we return to Jesus' use of the text.

Isaiah's Anointed Ministry

This portion of Scripture was apparently written in the context of the Babylonian captivity of the Jewish people from 587 to about 517 B.C. The liberation of the afflicted captives and the freedom of the prisoners mentioned in verse one apparently refers to the return of the Jew…