Why Did Jesus Come?

Submitted by Randy Rowland

Why did Jesus come?  Let's take a swing at some ideas...

To save me from my sins?

To make us deeply spiritual and wise and Holy Spirit gifted?

To give a good moral example of how we should live and love?

To make my life happy and fulfilled and meaningful?

To bring an end to the wicked and judge sin?

To make me and you prosperous?

To bridge a gap between God and humanity and restore our broken relationships?

To restore order of the world and bring wholeness to all of creation?

There are a lot of reasons and assumptions out there about Jesus, so why don't we take a look at the source and let Jesus speak for himself.  When he does declare his mission, he declares it as a fulfillment of an ancient promise by the prophet Isaiah made 6 or 7 centuries before Christ to the nation of Israel as it rebuilt from the ruin of being driven twice into exile in foreign lands.  Jesus identifies himself as the hope offered by Isaiah all those years ago.  Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.  He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.  He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.  He stoop up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.  Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."  Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.  He began saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."  All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.  "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.  (Luke 4:14-22 TNIV)

So, why did Jesus come?

He offers us a comprehensive picture in this Scripture in Luke that is also referenced by Jesus in the other three Gospels.  Most of our misperceptions about Jesus are not that they are wrong, no, the errors we make in understanding Jesus is that we are not comprehensive enough.  We tend to cherry pick what we want Jesus to be based on faulty world views, our cultural context, and our own personal biases toward comfort, safety, and long-held opinions that we refuse to challenge.  Jesus lists a handful of images or spheres in which he has come to establish a new order.  It is an order ruled and fueled by the Holy Spirit.  It is an order of Good News for the poor, freedom for the prisoners, healing for the sick, and freedom from oppression.  In summary, Isaiah says and Jesus quotes, It is the favorable year of the Lord which he comes to bring to all of creation.

Some key words from Jesus' Mission Statement:

1. Alignment with the Spirit of God: The Spirit of God, the living Spirit who created the world is upon Jesus, filling him and giving him both words and deeds to accomplish his integrated mission as Savior and Lord, now and forever.  God is in the world and is moving in the Spirit.  Jesus came to model the power of the Spirit and also to fill us, His followers, with His Spirit.
2. Proclaim the Good News: There is a proclamation part of the mission of Jesus.  His story is our story and his mission is our mission.  Jesus is the good news and he is central to all we say and do.  At the same time, while this good news is for all, Jesus, quoting from Isaiah, proclaims it first to the poor.  There is an inherent promise of something better, something with more dignity than abject poverty.  Jesus is ushering in a new order that includes and elevates the poor.
3. Proclaim Freedom to Those in Bondage: Clearly Jesus, who died side by side with prisoners, has a deep heart for all those who are held in bondage, by their sin which is being punished institutionally and in solidarity with those wrongly imprisoned and/or punished.
4. Healing of All Manner of Maladies: It is important for Jesus to see lives healed, healed from sickness, disease, disaster, and things that trouble and damage the psyche.
5. Eradication of Oppression: Jesus' action of setting the oppressed free is a recognition that this world is full of flat-out, evil, demonic oppression.  And such oppression must be broken and eradicated, all forms of oppression: socio-political, economic, psychological.
6. The Year of the Lord's Favor: The year of the Lord's favor is rooted in the Jewish principle of Jubilee.  Every 50 years in the Old Testament is a year of the Lord's favor - loans are forgiven, land is redistributed, prisoners are released, slaves are freed...do you see this picture?  The favorable year of the Lord: God is not mad.  His action is an outpouring and overflow of His massive love toward us.  Justice flows like a river.  Result = God and humans are reconciled.  The playing field gets leveled for everyone to have freedom, access, opportunity, security, and dignity.

Our tendency to narrow the scope of Jesus' mission results in a distorted view in which we participate in and create a world that is not right, is not ordered, is not fair: a world that is not whole!  We don't mean to do these things; they just happen.  But our faulty views allow for the damage.

It is sort of like when you are walking somewhere holding a book, a sandwich, and a 16 oz Starbucks Latte.  You pay attention to the sandwich to take a bite and when you tip the the sandwich to you and aren't paying attention to the level of your coffee, you pour about three ounces of piping hot coffee over your hand, your wristwatch, and up your arm.  It's hard to pay attention to everything at one time, but if you don't you will not do justice to your watch, your coffee, your arm, your sandwich, or the person on the sidewalk you mowed down while screaming expletives about your predicament and pain.

Jesus came to bring the favorable year of the Lord and restore all of creation to a justice order.  Jesus embraces justice in his inaugural announcement about his mission.  Justice is the beginning and end of what he does.  Justice is the process by which Jesus' mission is fulfilled in lives, communities, nations, and our world.

Some important vocabulary:

     1. Old Testament Hebrew Words:   

          a.  Tzedakah: justice, righteousness

          b.  Shalom: peace (rightly ordered/whole)

     2.  New Testament Greek Word:

          a.  Dikaisune: just, proper duty (service)

     3.  English Modern Equivalences:

          a.  Fairness: equality, access, distribution

          b.  Freedom: human choice, participation, opportunities

So, let's go ahead and put our arms around some good news and bad news about the Good News.  

Good News - Jesus announces the ultimate reality and it will happen.  All will be well.  The whole gospel or full-orbed gospel will manifest itself fully.  A new Gospel Eco-System will prevail in which shalom is the normative state.  Shalom is the Hebrew word that best describes in any language why Jesus came.  Shalom means everything whole and rightly ordered.  Peace is not static; it's meaningful tension.  Think of the sails on a sailboat.  Are they at peace in a sail locker?  No!  Fully deployed and trimmed to the wind is the way they are supposed to be.

Bad News - The Gospel is not fully evident yet.  Shalom lies far in the distance, too far.  We are enmeshed in brokenness.  Broken spiritual relationships with God.  Broken relationships with ourselves.  Broken relationships with others.  Broken systems.  A broken creation.  

But the Good News is greater news than the Bad News and in Jesus we are learning to embrace justice.  

So...why did Jesus come?

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

This is the Gospel; thanks be to God!