“Half a Sermon”
Luke 4:14-30
And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it is written… – Luke 4:17
“Half a sermon” is how Pastor Chuck Smith, the founder of our Calvary Chapel movement, coined this Luke 4:17-19 passage. It was when Jesus began His ministry in the synagogue of Nazareth [His hometown] and stood up amid the religious leaders, His friends, and His family and proclaimed the Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 61:1-2. However, He did not quote the full prophecy, only part.
Jesus stood up in the synagogue to read the Scriptures. He opened the book to Isaiah 61 and began reading. He read verse 1 and half of verse 2. He read the part of verse 2 that says, “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,” and then He shut the book and sat down. The second half of the verse says to proclaim, “the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.”
Why did Jesus stop mid-sentence? Because verse 1 and the first part of verse 2 were to be fulfilled by Jesus at His First Coming, while the rest is a reference to His Second Coming.
After Jesus read the passage, closing the book in mid-sentence, everyone was staring at Him, expecting Him to say something more. He just stated, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” In other words, “I am the Messiah.” [Chuck Smith]
And at that point they forced Him out of His hometown of Nazareth. The many He had worshipped with at the synagogue for so many years prior even rose up to throw Him off a cliff [ref. Lk 4:29].
Have you ever been persecuted for your faith? Well, Jesus was too, and more so than any of us would ever come close to be. From this point on in His life, He would fellowship with His spiritual family.
How wonderful it is when our physical family is part of our spiritual family. But as we even see from Jesus’ own words [ref. Matt 12:46-50], our spiritual family is our family in this life of faith.
