Luke 4:14-21 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
At the time of Jesus, there were synagogues in almost every place there were Jews. In order to hold worship in a synagogue, there only had to be ten married Jewish men in a community. A synagogue was a sort of community center, school and worship facility all rolled into one, with its primary function being a house of worship. And the worship followed a structured pattern. It would begin with the confession of belief in one God: “HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE…” Then there would be a prayer, followed by the reading of a portion of Scripture and a brief instruction concerning God’s Will. In a synagogue, any male could be called upon to read and expound upon God’s Word. On this particular day, Jesus was the one chosen. He stood up to read, as was customary in reading God’s Word. Then He sat down to teach and discuss its meaning, which was also the normal procedure. The Lesson He read was from Isaiah, a passage that described who He is and what he would do.
After Jesus read this, THE EYES OF EVERYONE IN THE SYNAGOGUE WERE FASTENED ON HIM; they were hanging on His every word, wondering what He would say. I doubt they were expecting what He did say: “TODAY THIS SCRIPTURE IS FULFILLED IN YOUR HEARING.” It spoke of the ministry Jesus had come to perform. The first part speaks of His earthly or physical ministry. He did preach the good news to the poor, give sight to the blind, providing healings and showed compassion. But the most important aspect of His work was spiritual in nature. He would PROCLAIM THE YEAR OF THE LORD’S FAVOR. He proclaimed salvation to all men through Himself.
To His listeners, this was good news indeed, but not for the reason you might think. They heard it in light of their expectations about the promised Messiah. They thought now would be the time to be rid of the Romans, that they would be free from their earthly bondage to another country. In fact a big part of worship in the synagogue was praying that they might be delivered from Rome and have Jerusalem restored to her former prominence. Naturally they would be excited. They were probably ready to cheer, “GO JESUS!” They expected Him to give them a worldy deliverance from their enemies.
But that is not the salvation he had come to proclaim in the year of the Lord’s favor. The Liberty Jesus proclaimed was different than the one from bondage that Isaiah foretold. It was liberty from a different kind of bondage–the bondage to sin and its consequences. The eternal consequences of sin are removed through faith in the Lord Jesus.
Don’t we often have the same expectations of the Jews in Jesus’ day? We look to God for relief and freedom from all our trials and problems. Then we get upset when He doesn’t come through for us. We’ve all had times when we were angry with God because He didn’t do things our way. How do you deal with that? Just remember: God did not cause your problems. Rather, they are the result of sin, which came into the world through man. And before you try to shift all the blame to Eve and Adam, look at your own life. Once you examine your own sinfulness, you can truly appreciate the way in which Jesus has fulfilled the Scripture. The temporal consequences of sin may remain, but they are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed in Jesus Christ, our Savior.
This account of Jesus in the synagogue was all a part of God’s plan. He mentions the Spirit of God being a part of this. He was anointed for this task, set aside for this special purpose. Jesus came into a world of sinners to change our situation. It was not for His own benefit that He became man, but for yours and mine. Even though we are by nature spiritually blind, dead and enemies of God, He came to give sight to the blind, to raise us from death to life, to make us God’s friends. This is what He did through His death and resurrection. The Scripture is Fulfilled.
