Isaiah has been speaking the words of God the Father. Now he speaks the words of God the Son. He is enabled to to this through God the Holy Spirit, who is mentioned as well, so we see the Trinity at work here. "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor." (Isaiah 61:1a) I want to point out that we can be certain Isaiah is not speaking of himself when he says "me"; that is why I have rendered it as "Me". The reason we can be absolutely confident Isaiah isn't speaking of himself is because the Lord Jesus Christ stated this was bout Him in Luke 4.
Jesus will preach "good news to the poor". I believe He primarily means those who are poor in spirit (discouraged at heart, bereft of hope, spiritually/morally bankrupt) but I also believe He means those who are economically poor. Spiritual poverty exists in those who have not given their hearts to the Lord. Economic poverty exists because sin created a fallen world in which bad things happen. Another thing that could be going on here is that many teachers charged a fee to hear them preach. The Apostle Paul will speak of this in his epistles, pointing out that he never charged anyone for preaching the gospel message. The Lord Jesus Christ never charged anyone anything either. He came to preach to those who are poor in every way a person can be poor.
Let us continue. "He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion---to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." (Isaiah 61:1b-3a)
In Luke's gospel account, Jesus went to His hometown of Nazareth after spending the time of testing in the wilderness. On the Sabbath day He entered the synagogue and stood up to read to the assembly. Luke says that the scroll of Isaiah was handed to Him. We do not know whether Jesus requested the scroll of Isaiah or if that was the book the congregation was currently studying. I tend to believe that Jesus specifically requested the book of Isaiah. Luke tells us that Jesus unrolled the scroll to Isaiah 61 and read aloud verse 1 and verse 2a. He stopped after reading the portion where He was sent to "proclaim the year of the Lord's favor".
Why did He stop there? Because verse 2b speaks of "the day of vengeance of our God". That day had not yet come. That day still has not yet come. What had come was the year of the Lord's favor. In the original Hebrew, the word translated in the NIV as "year" can also mean "era". It depends on the context as to which it means. If we intended to say "the year of 2024", for example, then that word would literally mean "year". But if we were speaking of a period of time greater than a year, then it would be clear that the word means an "era". So we see that Jesus was telling the people that the "era" of the Lord's favor had come, for this era began at His advent (and even more particularly at the advent of His ministry) and we are still living in the era of the Lord's favor. We are still living in the era where the gospel message about the Lord Jesus Christ is being proclaimed. We are still living in an era in which we can accept Him as our Savior and Redeemer.
It is possible to wait too long to accept Him as Savior and Redeemer. Death can take a person while they are still rebelling against the Lord. A person can reject the gospel message time and time again until a disease or accident (or in some cases, their own hand) takes them out of this life. A person can reject the gospel message up until the "day of vengeance of our God", which we will study when we arrive at the book of Revelation, for in that book we will find people rejecting Him right up until the judgment, during which they are judged guilty for their sins because they have not accepted the Lord's repeated offers of redemption.
As long as we have breath in our bodies, we are living on the earth during the era of the Lord's favor. He longs to save everyone! He paid the greatest price that could be paid in order to set us free from the guilt of our sins. There is no other way to be free of that guilt except to accept the price He paid and to make Him the Lord of our lives. We don't know what tomorrow holds. We don't even know what the next minute holds. Anyone who doesn't already know the precious and holy and loving Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Redeemer needs to make a decision for Him now, while they still can.
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