no title...

I'm going to do this here because I need to prepare for tomorrow.

"And the Spirit of the LORD is upon me,
Because He has anointed me
to preach gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captivities
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Luke 4: 18-19

Christ's mission here on Earth. That's it.

Two points:
"To bind up the broken hearted"
John 19: 25-27
"Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home."
Christ came to Earth to heal the brokenness caused by sin, but we would be amiss to believe that his only thought was of wholeness for our souls. Brokenness and separation cause pain, and Christ knew that those who love him were watching him die on the cross. He knew that he was leaving, and that their were obligations still that needed taking care of. When Christ looked down, he saw the women that nursed him has a child, held him when he cried, raised him, and loved him even to the end. He loved Mary, his mother, and knew that she needed to be taken care of. Even in a time of greatest pain Christ thought were on the welfare of others. Even on the cross, He sought to heal the hurt he knew his death would cause.


"To release the oppressed."
Matt. 27: 50-53
"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people."

Freedom from oppression. We've looked at some of the many things that oppress us, we've seen how Christ frees us from oppression, but here we see a final act of release. When sin was introduced into the world, God made a way for us to become close to him, to release the sin from our lives. God set in motion a system of sacrifice, a religion, but no matter how much blood we spilt we would never be able to become close to God. So God became close to us. He came down and presented himself as one last blood sacrifice. With the sacrifice complete there was no longer a need for the rules and legality of religion. We were free to accept Christ as our sacrifice and come and meet God face to face. In the temple the curtain separated the inner temple from the Holy of Holies. It was the Law that only one priest could enter the Holy of Holies, the place where God was said to dwell, but at the death of Christ God ripped the curtain in two from top to bottom so that there would be no doubt. Now there would nothing that kept man from God, but man.

A.T.H.