the final word on social justice

Well, this isn't probably the final word but Kevin DeYoung has finally written installment 7 of his excellent 7 part series on social justice. In this he analyzes the oft misunderstood Luke 4.16-21. It's worth reading his full post. My excepts are here:

First, it overlooks the actual verbs Jesus’ read from the Isaiah scroll. The Spirit of the Lord, resting upon Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, would anoint him to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. With the exception of “to set at liberty the oppressed” (which we’ll come back to in a moment), these are all speaking words. While it’s certainly true that Jesus healed the sick and gave sight to the blind (as pointers to his deity and as signs of the kingdom’s in-breaking), the messianic mission statement in Luke 4 highlights the announcement of good news. If Luke 4 sets the tone for the mission of the church, then our mission ought to focus mainly on the preaching of the gospel.

That's exactly right. I cannot tell you the number of times I've heard that we demonstrate the Gospel. No, we proclaim the Gospel and then adorn it with our works. We must have demonstration but not in the place of proclamation. I even had one person reveal recently that after years of being a Christian she finally realized that all we need to do is love people. In that they will see Christ; that we really need not tell them about God, Christ, sin, holiness, etc... They will just see it in us and God will reveal it to them. Wow - and wrong.

Second, the “missions as social transformation” reading of Luke 4 assumes too much of a strictly economic understanding of “the poor” (ptochos). While ptochos in verse 18 is probably not without some reference to material poverty, there are several reasons to think the word signifies much more than this. ...
So for all these reasons I agree with Andreas Kostenberger and P.T. O’Brien that “The ‘poor’ to whom the good news is announced are not to be understood narrowly of the economically destitute, as most recent scholars have suggested; rather the term refers more generally to ‘the dispossessed, the excluded’ who were forced to depend upon God.” I agree with David Bosch when he concludes, “Therefore, in Luke’s gospel, the rich are tested on the ground of their wealth, whereas others are tested on loyalty toward their family, their people, their culture, and their work (Lk. 9:59-61). This means the poor are sinners like everybody else, because ultimately sinfulness is rooted in the human heart. Just as the materially rich can be spiritually poor, the materially poor can be spiritually poor.” Many other scholars past and present, including Eckhard Schnabel, David Hesselgrave, Robert Stein, Christopher Little, I. Howard Marshall, and Darrell Bock have come to similar conclusions.

So - yes, we are to care materially for those in need, but Jesus is telling us more - that we are all in need of the Good News - it is freedom, life, sight, etc... and it comes only through Him.

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