It is related in Luke's Gospel that Jesus, after his return from Jordan, where he had been baptized, and after his conquest over the temptations in the wilderness, "returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee." "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day," and opening the book of the prophet Isaiah, read from it the words of the Messianic forecast: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." On this, his public application of these prophetic words, Christ Jesus must have felt how momentous was the occasion. Closing the book, he looked into the faces of friends and neighbors, who regarded him as the son of the carpenter, Joseph, and calmly but emphatically announced, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."
In his self-identification as the "anointed" of the Lord, the long-promised Redeemer, Jesus accepted the burden of proof which the world would require, though it might separate him from home, family, and friends. Called of God to manifest the Christ-idea which was to rebuke and destroy error and bring to light immortality, Jesus allowed no false sense of responsibility for others to interfere with the fulfillment of his redemptive ministry.
Mrs. Eddy writes of Jesus in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 54): "Through the magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he defined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished error." With such compassion as the world had never seen, Jesus healed the sick and the sinning, comforted the sorrowing, and raised the dead—all as the natural result of a scientific understanding of man's unity with God. He also imparted to his disciples and followers the practical knowledge which would enable them to do the works which he did, and sent them forth to preach the gospel to receptive hearts everywhere. Earth knows no higher calling.
