to preach [the] acceptable year of [the] Lord.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And having rolled up the book, when he had delivered it up to the attendant, he sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him.
The reading is over, the scroll is back in the attendant's hands, and the whole room is silent and staring. Luke holds the scene still. Every eye is on the Man who has just read Isaiah's words about the Anointed One and then sat down as though they described Himself.
The "attendant" held a recognised office in the synagogue. He is named just once in that role:
The chazzan, or hyperetes, is translated "servant, minister, officer" in the Authorized Version. He is mentioned only once in connection with the synagogue: as the "attendant" to whom the Lord gave the book when He had finished reading. Luke 4:20.
Something in the way He read had already tied Him to the passage in their minds:
How very strongly Luke gives us the whole scene before our eyes! There was something in our Lord's manner that struck their minds as out of the ordinary. It tied Him, in their attention and questioning, to the passage He was reading. The power of the Spirit was on Him.
He had not even read the portion set for that day:
He had read, it seems, not the appointed portion according to the Jewish reading schedule, but a passage He selected Himself. That may have fixed attention on Him all the more. And now, having gained it, He opened His mouth and announced the fulfilment of the prophetic word in His own person... Never before, we may be sure, had anyone there stood up to read and then declared that the prophetic word was written of Himself. It was language the walls of that synagogue had never heard before.
What held them was the size of the claim made by an ordinary local man.
His hearers were astonished at the boldness of His assertion and at the claim He made to this dignity. And yet as they listened they could only bear witness to the gracious words that came out of His mouth... The acceptable year of the Lord had come, and with it the Anointed One — its blessed Inaugurator and Herald! His words were words of grace, and fell sweetly on ears wholly unprepared for such a sound.
Until that day, that building had heard something else:
Before this it was the law which had been ministered in the synagogues; now they were listening to words of grace.
Isaiah's sentence runs on. His reading did not.
He stopped reading in the middle of a sentence and put a full stop where in our Old Testament we have only a comma, and He closed the book. Why did He do that? The rest of the sentence is this: "and the day of vengeance of our God." There and then He was to open the acceptable year of the Lord — the year of grace, the year of blessing. And He was to postpone the day of vengeance until that year had run its course. That year has lasted until now.
Writers read the closed scroll as a deliberate gesture rather than a stopping point:
And when He read this scripture He closed the book, just before it goes on to speak of the day of vengeance of our God, pushing back, as it were, that day, lengthening out the acceptable year of the Lord to this present time... The day will come when His hand will open the book again, but meanwhile grace flows on its blessed worldwide course, and men are offered salvation.
Three things came together in front of that congregation, and one writer sees the same combination available now:
The blessed Lord standing before the audience was holding the written word in His hand, and He Himself was filled with the Spirit of God. Depend on it, there is no power in this world that can withstand such a combination as that.
The One they stared at has not changed:
What a privilege to know the Lord Jesus, who is still the same! What a privilege to gather around Him at times and receive fresh impressions of His blessed Person. At such times it is not difficult for us to have the eyes of our hearts fastened on Him.
- Handed back. The scroll went back to the chazzan, the synagogue attendant — a role named just once in connection with the synagogue.
- Held. Something in His manner tied Him to the passage before He said a word. The Spirit's power was on Him, and the reading was His own choice.
- Halted. He stopped mid-sentence and closed the book. He put a full stop where Isaiah has a comma, leaving the day of vengeance unread.
- Held open. The closed book stretches the acceptable year out to today. Grace still runs its course, and salvation is still offered.
- Held on. The same Lord, the same word, the same Spirit are ours. The response is still to fasten the eyes of the heart on Him.