Luke 4:14-22.
THE gospel of Luke, as many are aware, presents the blessed Lord especially as the Son of man, while His divine glory as the Son of God is prominently presented to us in the gospel of John; for in the great “mystery of Godliness,” both are in wondrous union: “God was manifest in the flesh.”
To glance briefly at the introductory chapters of the gospel of Luke, we have, first, the Spirit’s sweetly-detailed account of the birth of Jesus, the Son of God, the promised Seed of the woman; then the blessed statement that “the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him” (chap. 2:40); afterward, when He was twelve years old, of His being about His Father’s business, yet subject to His parents; next, that He “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” (Chapter 2:52.) He is, as it were, from that time hidden, till He, “being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased. (Chapter 3:21, 22.) Then, when He “began to be about thirty years of age,” after His temptation in the wilderness―from which He came out, even as He went in, in purity and perfection―the devil departing from Him for a season, having nothing in Him, the narrative of our Evangelist proceeds from the point indicated at the heading of this paper.
The Lord, having “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee” ―to the distant part of the land, far away from Jerusalem and the temple― “there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. 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 stood up for to read.” How blessed to see Him thus engaged! Notwithstanding all the failure and departure of Israel, we here see the faithful Servant of Jehovah―the Son and Sent One of God―walking in the sphere of whatever was of God in Israel. He was therefore found in the synagogue on the sabbath day―the day of the Lord’s appointment for His people Israel. Just as in His earlier years, He naturally went about His Father’s business, so here we find that it was His custom (note the words!) to be where the Word of God was wont to be read. With what authority and example, then, does the exhortation in Heb. 10:24, 25, come to us in these days of the gift of the Spirit, and of the privileges of those composing the assembly of God: “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” So, being there, “He stood up for to read.” See how He, who is Himself the Word, the sum and substance of the written testimony of God, gives that testimony its honored place. “My tongue shall speak of Thy word.” (Psa. 119.) “And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias.” Was it from this that the portion for the day was appointed to be read in the synagogue? Whether it was or not, it is evident that a mightier Hand than that of the attendant brought it forth for the Lord’s perusal. He then opened the roll, or book, which was given to Him, and found the place, which in our division of the Bible is Isa. 61:1, and read as follows:― “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 bound, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
These are, indeed, precious words, and if we turn to that chapter in Isaiah, we shall see how exactly, and with what divine precision, the Lord divided the word of truth. He did not―as probably we should have done―even complete the sentence; because the next clause brought in “the day of vengeance:” and as grace―grace and truth―was at that moment the blessed and only theme of His holy lips, and the essential character of His mission, He would not dim its brightness by the introduction even of the thought of judgment, which is for another and a future time, but not for this “day of salvation” and “long-suffering of God.” When He had read this sweet testimony of Jehovah, “He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began to say undo them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” What a scene! No wonder that the eyes of all were fastened on Him, and that “all bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.”
When we―in this day of the resurrection and ascension glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the gift of the Holy Spirit―meditate on any portion of the Scriptures of old, or on the ways and words of the Lord, “in the days of His flesh,” we have both the privilege and the responsibility of letting the full light of the completed Word of God shine upon them, as revealed to us in the Epistles, especially those of the Apostle Paul. Thus, in looking at this portion before us, the beauty and force of the act and words of our Lord are more vividly brought home to our hearts, by the remembrance that He has now finished” the work which God gave Him to do, having “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26.); that He has “died for the ungodly;” “by Himself purged our sins,” and “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Heb. 1:50.) We have thus the knowledge of the divine and eternal basis upon which the God of all grace could show mercy and compassion to such poor, needy, broken-hearted, crushed captives of Satan, as those enumerated in the prophecy which the Lord so blessedly brought forth, and upon which He could so sweetly announce that He had been anointed with the Spirit, and sent of Jehovah, to preach the gospel to such poor and helpless ones.
In this further light of the full revelation of the truth of God we would, then, entreat the reader to meditate on the several parts of “the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth,” as He read them from the prophet, and “began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
O Holy One! th’ anointed of the LORD,
On whom the Spirit lighted like a dove;
Thy Father’s pleasure, witnessed from above;
Who worsted Satan with the Spirit’s sword:
How blest the scene when Thou didst ope the Word,
And read the utt’rance by Isaiah’s mouth,
Whose accents breathe like breezes from the south,
Thyself that Word’s fulfillment, heaven’s ador’d!
O what a fount of mercy, love, and grace,
Then flowed from Thee, the Sent of Love divine!
What love and pity did in Thee combine
When Thou for us didst take the sinner’s place!
And now from Thee what beams of mercy shine,
Without a cloud to darken or deface!