What did Jesus think his Gospel message was really all about? Fortunately, we don't have to guess, because St Luke gives us Jesus' own manifesto – the text of the sermon which he preached in Nazareth and in which he set out the heart of the Good News that he had come back to proclaim.[1] 'The Spirit of the Lord ... has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.' So that's what Christianity is all about – bringing good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and proclaiming the arrival of the year of Jubilee, the year when God's justice will roll down like a mighty torrent and sweep away all that obstructs God's mercy and love. What does the Church do with this message? Often we spiritualise it. 'Yes,' we say, 'It's a message of liberation, but it's about liberating people from sin, saving them from poverty of spirit, opening their eyes to their spiritual blindness, rescuing th...
A blog by a Methodist minister in the UK