On This Day: What Good Has the Good News Done?

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

   There came a time in my “institutional church” experience when I understood something as a pattern. It was the realization that so many people I was supposed to be caring for in a pastoral way had never had a personal experience of God doing anything for them in their “inner being”. 

   Instead, everything was described in terms of externals. People could give details of when, where, and how they were “saved”, often followed by a testimony of how they were quickly ushered into helping with some kind of program in the church. 

   In the last institutional church I was pastoring, I was leading an evening of discipleship training and asked everyone to describe the best experience they ever had of someone ministering to them. As we completed our testimonies around the circle, something stood out in glaring revelation: Not one person talked about something that happened while attending a program! Every story of ministry happened in personal relationship in whatever circumstances people were going through at the time. And yet here they were convinced they had to run more programs than were possible with our number of people! 

   It doesn’t matter if we are kept busy with constantly changing expectations, or the routine of doing the same old job in the same old church program, taking care of others has a way of numbing us to how we are doing. And, since how well we are doing in fellowship or ministry to others comes from how well we are abiding in Jesus as branches attached to the vine, we must regularly take a look inside to see if the “good news of great joy” that was announced at Jesus’ birth (Luke 2) is stirring us with good news in a world of bad and filling us with a sense of great joy to be a recipient of God’s gift of salvation.

   Paul prayed for believers, “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Ephesians 3:16). If that is not what we have, we must consider it a “blessed are the poor in spirit” experience. Why? Because God always begins blessing us by showing us what we are missing. Hungry? He has bread of life for that. Thirsty? He has living water for that. Lost? He has a shepherd for that. Dead in sin? He presents “the Resurrection and the Life” in his Son. Blind? Jesus came to give sight. Oppressed? Jesus came to declare the “Year of Jubilee” over you. 

   My point is simply that we need to always admit the true condition of our souls in our inner being so we can then let ourselves “hunger and thirst for righteousness” knowing God is blessing us with that hunger and thirst so he can satisfy us where it counts.

   Jesus did come to proclaim good news to the poor. Anyone who is poor in spirit qualifies (even if they are rich in worldly goods). With all the bad news around us, I really want to feel the good news of God inside me, and I will settle for nothing less than the “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17) that was in my Savior during his ministry and is my birthright today. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)