Today, this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing. From the moment Jesus’ began his public ministry to the day he ascended back to the Father, there were those who had questions and doubts concerning his identity and mission. These questions and doubts were engendered partly due to sheer biasness (some did not want to accept Jesus and his mission because he challenged them), and partly due to the unique and non-traditional way of doing ministry that characterized Jesus’ three-year spell. But whereas there were people who were confused about his identity and mission, Jesus did not have an iota of doubt as to who he was as well as what he was about. Jesus was aware from the very beginning that both himself and his ministry was the fulfillment of God’s promises to creation (cf. Mark 1:14-15). 
In today’s Gospel passage, we are presented with the account of the beginning of Jesus’ preaching ministry. After overcoming his period of temptation in the desert, it was time for Jesus to embark on his mission. Jesus couldn’t have chosen a better day and place to introduce himself. It was fitting that Jesus pegs the beginning of his ministry on a Sabbath and within a place of worship. The Sabbath was instituted by the Lord as a day of celebrating the creative act of God, a process which came to attain its culmination in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. On this particular Sabbath, as Jesus took his place in the sanctuary, he read from the Prophet Isaiah a passage that spoke about the Servant of Yahweh and then made an unusual move of declaring that the passage was referring to him. It was a declaration that did not go unnoticed by those who were listening for the simple fact that Jesus was claiming that he was indeed THE Servant of Yahweh (the Messiah). To those gathered in the synagogue that day, it was such a bold claim that Jesus was making. To them, Jesus’ claim bordered blasphemy since there was no way he could be the anointed one of God. From the much they had gathered from the Scriptures concerning the Messiah, Jesus was obviously not a candidate. In addition to the other “deficiencies” which they would later observe as Jesus went about ministering to the people, Jesus failed to make the cut because they knew him. They expected the Messiah to be an enigmatic figure (cf. John 7:27) and not someone known to them.  Moreover, the Spirit of God couldn't possibly be upon Jesus: he was such an ordinary individual. There was nothing special or unique about him for him to place such claims. 
But why would Jesus place such contentious claims? Why would he risk being at the receiving end of the wrath of the religious leaders who were already suspect of individuals such as him who proceeded to agitate the people by making such claims? By implying that the quote from the Prophet Isaiah referenced him, Jesus had already given reasons for his claims. He was claiming the title of the anointed one of God because he had been anointed by the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. Even if Jesus was not the Messiah as they believed, the claim that the Spirit of God was upon him should not have sounded so surprising to the those who were in the synagogue. Created in the image and likeness of God, each and every human person has been gifted with the Spirit of God as as such is anointed by God. However, this is not he only anointing to which Jesus was referring. He had been anointed by God and sent forth as a bringer of the good news of God’s impending salvation.
Jesus’ anointing inducted him into the ministry of the prophets of old: being intercessors for the community before God. But as the Messiah, Jesus’ anointing had inaugurated the fulfilment of the hopes and expectations of the prophecies of old. There was not section of the society that needed to hear the good news of God’s salvific visit than the downtrodden, the oppressed and afflicted, the poor and hungry, the forgotten and the neglected. And this is the group that rightly became the major recipient of Jesus’ proclamation of the Good News. God’s salvation cannot be said to have been fully realized until the hungry have been fed, the poor taken care of, the captives and oppressed set free, and wholeness restored to those who are sick and suffering. When Jesus declared that he was inaugurating the time of fulfillment, in simple terms, he was saying that he was going to be the incarnation of the Good News of the Lord’s visitation.