Christ Didn’t Finish The Sentence

   The first sermon Christ preaches in the Gospel of Luke (4.16–30) is in the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth. For His text, He chose Isaiah 61. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” And He closed the book, and He gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

It’s curious to note that Christ didn’t finish the sentence. Isaiah 61.2 continues, “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God,” but Christ stopped way short of the period. Now this must have been intentional rather than inadvertent, but if so, what was His intent? The acceptable year of the Lord translates variously as the year of the Lord’s favor, the year when the Lord God will show kindness to us, or to announce a season when the Lord welcomes people. In the Isaiah context, the prophet has a wonderful message for Jews enduring the discouragement and hardships of captivity. The meek (the poor and afflicted) and brokenhearted are told deliverance is coming! That Christ should quote Isaiah 61.1–2 and its message of freedom tells us that the Jewish captivity and deliverance (from Babylonian captivity) foreshadowed a greater captivity and deliverance (from sin). Which explains, I think, why Christ stopped where He did.

Christ didn’t go to Nazareth to condemn Nazareth but to save it (Jn. 3.16–17). Isaiah 61.1–2 is a worthy theme to Luke’s Gospel, for Christ’s message was gospel (good news), full of healing, delivery, recovery, liberty, and favor. No one should be surprised, then, when they read in Luke about Christ’s graciousness to a sinful woman at the house of Simon, or His parable involving a prodigal son, or His walking into paradise with a condemned thief for all these exemplify what He was about—a salvation from sin made possible by what He did at Calvary. It’s appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. But in the incarnation, Christ’s emphasis was on grace not vengeance. He wanted men to know that He came “to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9.26–27). We live in a time of grace. Is there any greater tragedy than that a man won’t avail himself of the favor Christ offers.

Kenny Chumbley