“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.” — Luke 4:18

I found it a little remarkable that the Messiah had to be empowered in a special way by the Holy Spirit to “preach the Gospel to the poor.”

Well, Christ was actually announcing the Jubilee, which according to Leviticus 25, was God’s great reset – debts cancelled, slaves freed, land restored.

In the original Greek, that word for ‘poor’ is ptochos — someone crouching in a corner, utterly destitute, wholly needy and dependent.

In Jesus’ day, decades of Roman taxation and grinding debt had pushed whole families to the edge.

To them, the ‘good news’ meant food to feed their kids, liberty, and life — not mere sentiment.

Yet, Jesus always presses deeper than the surface.

In Matthew 5:3 He speaks of the “poor in spirit” – those who have come to the end of their tether before God, who know they have absolutely nothing to offer and everything to receive.

Here is the piercing truth: you can stand in a cozy mansion, wear Gucci, drive a Lexus and be ptochos.

Conversely, you can be sleeping in a tent and be filthy rich in faith.

Being poor or rich is not merely the state of one’s bank balance; it is the posture of one’s heart before God.

And that is precisely why our world’s obsession with wealth is so spiritually dangerous.

We live in an age drunk on accumulation. From every corner, we are told that our value is measured in what we own and what we earn.

Sadly, even in Church, a corrupted ‘gospel’ whispers that faith is an ‘investment strategy.’

The apostle Paul labels this plainly: those who think godliness is a means of financial gain are “corrupted in mind and deprived of the truth” (1 Timothy 6:5).

Wealth can be a sedative that numbs us to our need for God.

Remember the rich young ruler in Matthew 19?

He came sincerely, had kept the commandments, was — by every outward measure — a good man.

Jesus loved him, and out of that love put His finger on the wound: “Go sell what you have, give to the poor, and come, follow Me.”

What? The man’s face fell. He went away grieving, possessed by his possessions.

Then Jesus said what must have stunned the disciples: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom.”

May we be rich toward God, generous toward others, and free from the deadly grip of a world that is systematically drifting to eternal gloom.

Shocking words, but also loving words. Words we must not gloss over because the evidence is there for all to see.

James echoes the same warning, rebuking the church for bowing for the wealthy while shaming the poor — the very people God has chosen to be rich in faith (James 2:5).

The church that flatters wealth and “dishonours the poor” has lost its compass entirely!

So, what is the antidote? Paul gives it plainly: “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6). Not prosperity.

Not influence. Contentment.

This is not resignation;  it is a deep, settled confidence in the sufficiency of God.

If you have Christ, you are rich beyond measure, even if the world sees nothing.

This is the true spirit of Jubilee: not a scramble for more, but the freedom that comes from needing less.

Not the closed fist of greed, but the open hand of generosity.

The church is called to be a Jubilee community – cancelling debts, serving the poor, welcoming the outcast – living as though the kingdom has already come.

Because it has.

It’s an arduous task and more so in a world obsessed with material prosperity.

That’s exactly why you need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit!

If you feel spiritually poor today — if you know you have nothing to bring, no righteousness to stand on — then hear this: you are exactly the person Jesus came for.

The debt is cancelled. The prison door is open.

The Jubilee has come, not as a distant promise but as a present reality in the person of Christ.

True poverty is not an empty wallet. True wealth is not a full one.

True poverty is a heart closed to God; true wealth is a heart surrendered to Him.

May we be rich toward God, generous toward others, and free from the deadly grip of a world that is systematically drifting to eternal gloom.

Amen.