Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 4:21
And he began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.
21. he began to say unto them ] i. e. these were the first words of the discourse. It began with the announcement that He was the Messiah in whom the words of the prophet found their fulfilment.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This scripture – This writing, or this part of the Scriptures.
Fulfilled – It is coming to pass; the thing originally intended by it is about to be accomplished.
In your ears – In your hearing; or you hear, in my preaching, the fulfillment of this prophecy. It is probable that he said much more than is here recorded, but Luke has preserved only the substance of his discourse. This was the amount or sum of his sermon, or his explanation of the passage, that it was now receiving its accomplishment.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
21. began to say, &c.Hiswhole address was just a detailed application to Himself of this andperhaps other like prophecies.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he began to say unto them,…. To preach from those words; the explanation of which he gave, though not here recorded, and applied them to himself, to whom they belonged, saying:
this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears; which is as if he should say, I am the person here spoken of; and at this present time the Spirit of God is upon me; I am anointed with the Holy Ghost, and now preach glad tidings to you, and all the good things here mentioned, and for the several ends proposed; and this Scripture has its full accomplishment which has been read unto you, and you have heard this day. So the Syriac version renders it, , “which is in your ears”; that is, which you have now heard. The Jews themselves acknowledge, that these words are spoken of the Messiah. One of their writers i says,
“these are the words of the prophet with respect to the Messiah; for the Messiah shall say so, “because the Lord hath anointed me”, c.”
And so said the true Messiah Jesus. Another of them expresses himself thus k:
“these are the words of the prophet with respect to the Messiah for the Messiah shall say thus, “because the Lord hath anointed me”, &c. or they are the words of the prophet concerning himself.”
And elsewhere it is said by them l,
“the holy, blessed God, will send his Messiah to us, and he shall be worthy of this, (i.e. the character of a meek person) as it is said, Isa 61:1 “he hath sent me to preach glad tidings to the meek.””
i Kimchi in Sepher Shorash. rad. k R. Sol. Hamelec in Miclol Yophi in loc. l Juchaain, fol. 69. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
And he began to say ( ). Aorist ingressive active indicative and present infinitive. He began speaking. The moment of hushed expectancy was passed. These may or may not be the first words uttered here by Jesus. Often the first sentence is the crucial one in winning an audience. Certainly this is an arresting opening sentence.
Hath been fulfilled (). Perfect passive indicative,
stands fulfilled . “Today this scripture (Isa 61:1; Isa 61:2, just read) stands fulfilled in your ears.” It was a most amazing statement and the people of Nazareth were quick to see the Messianic claim involved. Jesus could only mean that the real year of Jubilee had come, that the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah had come true today, and that in him they saw the Messiah of prophecy. There are critics today who deny that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah. To be able to do that, they must reject the Gospel of John and all such passages as this one. And it is no apocalyptic eschatological Messiah whom Jesus here sets forth, but the one who forgives sin and binds up the broken-hearted. The words were too good to be true and to be spoken here at Nazareth by one of their own townsmen!
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
He began. Not necessarily denoting his first words, but indicating a solemn and weighty opening.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And he began to say unto them,” (erksato, de legein pros autous) “Then he began to say to them in the synagogue, repeatedly,” with repetition, for purposes of clarity, Luk 4:16.
2) “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” (hoti semeron peplerotai he graphe aute en tois osin humon) “That today this scripture that has been read in your hearing, has been and is fulfilled,” in me, as He later asserted all such should be, Luk 24:44-45.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
21. Today is fulfilled Christ did not merely affirm in a few words, but proved by a reference to facts, that the time was now come, when it was the will of God to restore his ruined church. The object of his discourse was, to expound the prediction clearly to his hearers: just as expositors handle Scripture in a proper and orderly manner, when they apply it to the circumstances of those whom they address. He says that it was fulfilled in their ears, rather than in their eyes, because the bare sight of the fact was of little value, if doctrine had not held the chief place.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) This day is this scripture fulfilled.It is obvious that we have here only the opening, words of the sermon preached on the text from Isaiah. There must have been more than this, remembered too vaguely for record, to explain the admiration of which the next clause speaks. But this was what startled them: He had left them as the son of the carpentermother, brethren, sisters were still among themand now He came back claiming to be the Christ, and to make words that had seemed to speak of a far-off glorious dream, as a living and present reality.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. This day fulfilled The evangelist having given the text, now states in a single sentence the general proposition of the sermon. Our Saviour must now have proceeded to show that HE was this emancipator who would bring deliverance, and this physician who would bind up the broken-hearted. He must have proceeded to show these Nazarenes that they were the poor persons who needed the benefactor, and the bruised who needed the physician. Gracious as were his words, they were humbling to the audience and exalting to himself. Hence arose the rupture that ensued. See note on Luk 4:18.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he began to say to them, “Today has this scripture been fulfilled in your ears.” ’
There would have been a great stirring at His next words for He declared, “Today has this Scripture been fulfilled in your ears.” Here was a clear declaration that He was present among them as the Spirit anointed Prophet, (as what had happened after His baptism had made clear to Him). ‘Today’ stressed that in Him God’s promised period of salvation was now commencing. We can imagine the astonished looks that passed between them as what He had said came home to them. Here was the local carpenter, and what claims He was making for Himself.
That this description of the anointing of the Holy Spirit was Jesus’ own interpretation of what had happened after His baptism should be noted by all who wish to actually be true to Scripture. While He was there declared to be both King and Servant, we learn here that He saw His anointing with the Holy Spirit as essentially as a Prophet, ready for His ministry.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
DISCOURSE: 1485
OUR LORDS FIRST SERMON AT NAZARETH
Luk 4:21-22. And he began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
THE Sabbath was appointed as a day of rest; yet not altogether for the rest of the body, but that the soul might be the more at leisure to acquaint itself with God. In this view it is a most gracious and merciful appointment; because, the time being fixed, all are disengaged at once, and ready both to serve their God together, and to receive instruction respecting their duty towards him. Our blessed Lord, after he had entered upon his ministry, employed every day in the execution of his work: but he availed himself especially of the opportunity which the Sabbaths afforded him, to instruct the people. At Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went into their synagogue, as his custom was; and being called upon to read the portion of Scripture appointed for the day, he stood up and read a passage from the prophecies of Isaiah; and then sat down to expound it. His exposition or comment is not given us: but the substance of it is set before us, in few, but comprehensive, words.
It is our intention to consider,
I.
His comment on the Scripture
When he told the people, that on that very day the passage which he had read to them was fulfilled in their ears, we must suppose him to have spoken to this effect:
I am the person whom the Father has sent
[From my mean appearance you will be ready to think that I can have no pretensions to the office of the Messiah: but it is of me that the prophet speaks in the words which I have now read: I am the person on whom the Spirit has been poured out; the Lord hath anointed me, and sent me to instruct and save the world.]
And this is the commission which I am come to execute
[ The poor are the special objects of my attention; they being particularly chosen of my Father to be rich in faith, and heirs of my kingdom. Yet, if any be poor in spirit, and sensible of their low and lost estate, to them am I sent; and to declare to them the glad tidings of salvation, is the delightful work which I have undertaken.
More particularly, if any be broken-hearted with a sense of guilt and misery, I am come to heal them by an application of my blood and Spirit to their souls: their guilt will I remove by my all-atoning blood; and their misery, by sending them my Holy Spirit to be their comforter and guide It is not as a temporal prince or conqueror that I am come: my conquests are altogether of a spiritual nature; but they are irresistible, and shall be complete. Are any persons so blinded by Satan, and enslaved by sin, that they appear like captives, immured in a dungeon, and bereft of sight, and galled with massive chains [Note: This was a common mode of treating captives. Sampson was so treated by the Philistines (Jdg 16:21.), and Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar. (2Ki 25:7.)]? I am come to set them free, not only breaking off their fetters, and restoring them to the light, but renewing even their organs of vision, and bringing them into the glorious liberty of the sons of God And this I shall do, not by war and bloodshed, but by an exhibition of truth to their souls. The word is my sword, and the ministry of it is that chariot in which I will ride on, conquering and to conquer, till every enemy be put under my feet [Note: Thrice it is said, He hath sent me to preach.]
In a word, you all know what is done in the year of jubilee, how debts are cancelled, slaves are liberated, and inheritances are restored: such are the benefits which I impart: I proclaim the arrival of that happy period, at least as far as respects the souls of men. Whatever debt of sin any man may owe, it shall be forgiven him: his bondage, however severe, shall be brought to an end: and his inheritance, however justly forfeited, shall be restored to him, even all the inheritance of heaven
Thus circumstantially has the prophet described my office, which already I have begun to execute: This very day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears: and all of you who will believe in me, shall enjoy the benefits I am come to bestow.]
Such we may suppose to have been our Saviours comment on the Scripture which he had read. Let us next view,
II.
The effect produced by it
This was far different from what might have been expected: yet it will afford much instruction to us
1.
They listened
[No sooner had he read the passage, than the eyes of all were attentively fixed on him. The sublimity of the words, and the impressive energy with which they were read, engaged their attention, and made them very desirous of hearing what this celebrated teacher should deduce from them.
Happy would it be, if this eagerness to receive instruction were more visible amongst us. But, in general, when a minister has read the words which he proposes to explain, many, instead of putting forth all the powers of their minds to understand and apply the subject, compose themselves in the most easy posture, and sink habitually into listlessness and indifference; satisfied with having performed a duty, though they reaped not the smallest benefit But consider, the word which you hear, though spoken by a sinful man like yourselves, is, as far as it is agreeable to the mind and will of God, to be regarded not as the word of man, but as the word of God. We are ambassadors for Christ; we speak to you in Christs stead; and God himself beseeches you by us, Whenever, therefore, you hear the Scriptures explained, you should, like the Centurion and his friends [Note: Act 10:33.], receive the word with all humility of mind, and treasure it up in your memory for the regulating of your hearts and lives ]
2.
They wondered
[Their wonder arose, in part, from their recollection of his parentage and education, which appeared to them ill suited to his high pretensions. But, in part also, it arose from the suavity of his manner, and the exalted nature of his discourse, to which they could not but bear witness. And well indeed might they wonder that such a messenger should be sent from heaven, and that such blessings should be imparted unto men.
But alas! the very same truths delivered amongst us are heard with indifference: yea, though opened in the fullest manner, and exhibited in the clearest light, they are regarded as uninteresting speculations, if not as an idle tale. The work and offices of Christ may be explained, and all the wonders of redeeming love be opened to our view, and yet no admiration be excited; yea, the talents of the speaker may be admired, and the subject itself be overlooked. But would this be the case if men felt their need of this salvation? No, surely: they would be filled with rapture, and adore their God all the day long ]
3.
They disobeyed
[Much as they were struck with the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, they could not overcome their prejudices. They had but lately seen him following the humble occupation of a carpenter, and they could not conceive that such an one could possibly be the Messiah. Hence they did not receive his testimony: hence also, when warned of the danger of rejecting him, and of Gods determination to communicate to the Gentiles those blessings which they despised, they burned with rage against him, and sought to destroy him.
Alas! how common a character is this! How many are there who hear, and to a certain degree approve, the Gospel, while yet they are not effectually changed by it! They are still under the dominion of prejudice and passion; and sit in judgment on the Gospel, instead of yielding obedience to it. The sublimity of its doctrines is a stumbling-block to them; and the purity of its precepts an offence. What is gratifying to their feelings they will receive; but whatever tends to the mortifying of their pride or the subduing of their besetting sins, they will not endure
O that the example before us may put us on our guard! This day is this Scripture fulfilled in our ears, as truly as in the day that Jesus read it in the synagogue. Jesus is still the anointed Saviour: still does he retain and execute the commission given him by the Father: still does he say to the oppressed, Go free: the captive that is bruised with chains, and deprived of sight, and broken-hearted with a sense of his sorrows, may even now be restored to sight, and liberty, and joy. Our adorable Saviour is ever ready to give him the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness
Beloved brethren, receive not this grace in vain; neither be contented with a partial approbation of the Gospel: but surrender up yourselves unfeignedly and unreservedly unto the Lord; ever dreading, lest your misimprovement of the light afforded you should provoke him to remove your candlestick, and to transfer your advantages to others.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Ver. 21. This day is this scripture, &c. ] This the sum of his sermon, as were also the prophecies we read, the heads only and short notes of the prophets’ larger discourses. Brevity breeds obscurity.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
21. ] . implying that the following words are merely the substance of a more expanded discourse, which our Lord uttered to that effect: see another occasion in Mat 11:4-5 , where the same truth was declared by a series of gracious acts of mercy.
. . . .] Not ‘ this Scripture which is in your ears ’ as the Syriac (Etheridge’s translation, p. 407); which would be . . ., and even then an unusual form of construction: but, is fulfilled in your hearing, by My proclaiming it, and My course of ministry.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 4:21 . : we may take what follows either as the gist of the discourse, the theme (De Wette, Godet, Hahn), or as the very words of the opening sentence (Grotius, Bengel, Meyer, Farrar). Such a direct arresting announcement would be true to the manner of Jesus.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luke
PREACHING AT NAZARETH
Luk 4:21
This first appearance of our Lord, in His public work at Nazareth, the home of His childhood, was preceded, as we learn from John’s Gospel, by a somewhat extended ministry in Jerusalem. In the course of it, He cast the money-changers out of the Temple, did many miracles, had His conversation with Nicodemus, and on His return towards Galilee met the woman of Samaria at the well. The report of these things, no doubt, had preceded Him, and kindled the Nazarenes’ curiosity to see their old companion who had suddenly shot up into a person of importance, and had even made a sensation in the metropolis. A great man’s neighbours are keen critics of, and slow believers in, his greatness. So it was natural and very prudent that Jesus should not begin His ministry in Nazareth.
We can easily imagine the scene that morning in the little village, nestling among the hills. How many memories would occupy Christ as He entered the synagogue, where He had so often sat a silent worshipper! How Mary’s eyes would fill with tears if she was there, and how the companions of His boyhood, who used to play with Him, would watch Him; all curious, some sympathetic, some jealous, some contemptuous!
The synagogue service began with prayer and praise. Then followed two readings, one from the Law, one from the Prophets. When the latter point was reached, in accordance with usage, Jesus rose, thereby signifying His desire to be reader of the Prophetic portion. We can understand how there would be a movement of quickened attention as the roll was handed to Him and He turned its sheets. He ‘found the place’; that looks as if He sought for it; that is to say, that it was not the appointed lesson for the day-if there was such-but that it was a passage selected by Himself.
I need not enter upon the divergences between Luke’s quotation as given in our English version and the Hebrew. They are partly due to the fact that he is quoting from memory the Greek version of the LXX. He inserts, for instance, one clause which is not found in that place in Isaiah, but in another part of the same prophet. Having read standing, as was the usage, in token of reverence for the Scripture, Jesus resumed His seat, not as having finished, but, as was the usage, taking the attitude of the teacher, which signified authority. And then, His very first sentence was the most unlimited assertion that the great words which He had been reading had reached their full accomplishment in Himself. They are very familiar to our ears. If we would understand their startling audacity we must listen to them with the ears of the Nazarenes, who had known Him ever since He was a child. ‘This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.’ Now, it seems to me that this first sermon of our Lord’s to His old fellow-townsmen brings into striking prominence some characteristics of His whole teaching, to which I desire briefly to direct attention.
I. I note Christ’s self-assertion.
I need only point you to the Sermon on the Mount, which is popularly supposed to contain very little of Christ’s reference to Himself, and to remind you how there, in that authoritative proclamation of the laws of the new kingdom, He calmly puts His own utterances as co-ordinate with-nay! as superior to-the utterances of the ancient law, and sweeps aside Moses-though recognising Moses’ divine mission-with an ‘I say unto you.’ I need only remind you, further, how, at the end of that ‘compendium of reasonable morality,’ He lays down this principle-that these sayings of ‘Mine’ are a rock-foundation, on which whoever builds shall never be put to confusion. This is but a specimen of the golden thread, if I may call it so, of self-assertion which runs through the whole of our Lord’s teaching.
Now, I venture to say that this undeniable characteristic is only warranted on the supposition that He is the Son of God, and His work the salvation of the world. If He is so, if ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,’ if the revelation of Himself which He makes is the Revelation of God, if His death is for the life of the world; and if, when we honour Him, we honour God; when we trust Him, we trust God; when we obey Him we obey God; then I can understand His persistent self-assertion. But otherwise does He not deliberately intercept emotions which are only rightly directed to God? Does He not claim prerogatives, such as forgiveness of sins, bestowal of life, answering of prayer, which are only possessed by the Divine Being?
I know that many who will not go with me in my intellectual formularising of the truth about Christ’s nature do bow to Him with unfeigned reverence. But it seems to me, I humbly confess, that there is no logical basis for such reverence except the full-toned recognition that the mystery of His self-assertion is explained by the mystery of His nature, God manifest in the flesh. I, for my part, do not see how the moral perfectness of Jesus Christ is to be saved, in view of that unmistakable strand in His teaching, unless by such admission. Rather, I feel that the recognition of it brings us face to face with the tremendous alternative, and that the people who were moved to indignation by His self-assertion because they recognised not His divine origin, and said ‘This man blasphemeth’; ‘This deceiver said,’ have more to say in defence of their conclusion than those who bow before Him with reverence, and declare Him to be the pattern of all human perfectness, and yet falter when they are asked to join in the great confession, ‘Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’
II. Secondly, note here our Lord’s sad conception of humanity.
No man will ever do much for the world whose ears have not been opened to hear its sad music. An inadequate conception of its miseries is sure to lead to inadequate prescriptions for their remedy. We must bear upon our own hearts the burdens that we seek to lift off our brothers’ shoulders. There is nothing about the Master’s words concerning mankind more pathetic and more plain than the sad, stern, and yet pitying view which He always took concerning them and their condition.
In the passage on which Jesus based His claims, as given by Luke, one of the clauses is probably not in this place genuine, for ‘the healing of the brokenhearted’ should be struck out of the true text. There are then four symbols employed: the poor, the captives, the blind, the bruised. And these four are representations of the result of one fell cause, and that is-sin.
Sin impoverishes. Our true wealth is God. No man that possesses Him, by love, and trust, and conformity of will and effort to His discerned will, is poor, whatever else he has, whatever else he lacks. And no man who has lost this one durable treasure, the loving communion with, and possession of, God, in mind and heart and will and effort, but is a pauper whatever else he possesses. Wherever a man has sold himself to his own will, and has made himself and his own inclinations and misread good his centre and his aim, which is the definition of sin, there bankruptcy and poverty have come. Thieves sometimes beset travellers from the gold mines, as they are bringing down their dust or their nuggets to market, and empty the pockets of the gold, and fill them up with sand. That is what sin does for us; it takes away our true treasure, and befools us by giving us what seems to be solid till we come to open the bag; and then there is no power in it to buy anything for us. ‘Why will ye spend your labour for that which satisfieth not?’ The one poverty is the impoverishment that lays hold of every soul that wrenches itself, in self-will, apart from God. Sin makes poor.
Sin not only impoverishes, but imprisons ‘the captives.’ Ah! you have only to think of your own experience to find out what that means. Is there nothing in the set of your affections, in the mastery that your passion has over you, in the habits of your lives, which you know as well as God knows it, to be wrong and ruinous, and of which you have tried to get rid? I know the answer, and every one of us, if we will look into our own hearts, knows it: we are ‘tied and bound by the chains of our sin.’ You do not need to go to inebriate homes, where there are people that would cut their right hands off if they could get rid of the craving, and cannot, to find instances of this bondage. We have only to be honest with ourselves, and to try to pull the boat against the stream instead of letting it drift with it, to know the force with which the current runs. A tiny thread like a spider’s draws after it a bit of cotton a little thicker, and knotted to that there is a piece of pack-thread, and after that a two-stranded cord, and then a cable that might hold an ironclad at anchor. That is a parable of how we draw to ourselves, by imperceptible degrees, an ever-thickening set of manacles that bind our wills and make us the servants of sin. ‘His slaves ye are whom ye obey.’ Sin imprisons. That is, your sin-do not let us befool ourselves with abstractions- your sin imprisons you.
Sin blinds. Wherever there comes over a soul the mist of self-will and self-regard, sight fails; and all the greatest things are blurred and blotted. The man that is immersed in his own evil is like one plunged in the ocean. The cold, salt waters are about him, and above him; and to him the glories of the sky, and the brightness of the sun, the tenderness of the colouring, are all blotted out. He who goes through life as some of us do, never seeing God, never seeing the loftiest beauty of goodness, never beholding with any clearness of vision the radiant possibilities of the future and its awful threatenings, may indeed see the things an inch from the point of his nose; but he is blind and cannot see afar off, and can only behold, and that darkly, the insignificances that are around him. Sin blinds.
And sin bruises. It takes all the health out of us, and makes us, from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, masses of ‘wounds and bruises and putrifying sores.’
The enchantress having worked all this havoc, then gives us a cup of illusion which, when we drink, we know not that there is anything the matter with us. We are like a lunatic in a cell, who thinks himself a prince in a palace, and though living on porridge and milk, fancies that he is partaking of all the dainties of a luxurious table. The deceitfulness of sin is not the least of its tragical consequences.
III. Lastly, we have here our Lord’s conception of Himself and of His own work.
He claims to possess the whole fullness of the divine Spirit: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.’ That is a reminiscence, no doubt, of the experience by the fords of the Jordan, at the Baptism. But it also opens up a wondrous consciousness, on His part, of a complete and uninterrupted possession of the divine life in all its fullness, which involves an entire separation from the miseries and needs of men. He claims to be the Messiah of the Old Covenant, with all the fullness of meaning, and loftiness of dignity which clustered round that word and that thought. He claims not only to proclaim, but to bestow, the blessings of which He speaks. For He not only comes to ‘preach good tidings to the poor,’ but ‘to heal the broken-hearted,’ and ‘to set at liberty all them that are bound.’ He is the Gospel which He utters. He not merely proclaims the favour of heaven, but He brings ‘the acceptable year of the Lord.’
This, in barest outline-which is all that your time will admit-is the summary of what Jesus Christ, in that first sermon in the synagogue at Nazareth, asserted Himself to be.
He does not detail the means by which He is about to bring the golden year, the year of Jubilee, ‘the acceptable year of the Lord.’ But I venture to say that it is hard to find, in the life of Jesus Christ, that which fulfils Christ’s own programme, as thus announced, unless you bring in His death on the Cross for the abolition of sin, His Resurrection for the abolition of death; His reign in glory for the bestowment on all sinful and bruised souls of the Spirit of healing and of righteousness.
These Nazarenes listened. Their hearts and consciences attested the magnetic power of His personality, and the truth of His word. So do the hearts and consciences of most of us. They wondered at the ‘words of grace’-whose matter was grace, whose manner was gracious-that proceeded from His mouth. So do most of us. But they let the incipient movement of their hearts be arrested by the cold, carping question, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ and all the enthusiasm chilled into indifference; ‘indignation’ followed, and some of those who had almost been drawn to Him, in an hour’s time had their hands on His robe, to cast Him from the brow of the hill on which their village was built. Every man who comes to the point of feeling some emotions towards Christ as his Redeemer, as his King, is at a fork of the road. He may either take to the right, which will lead him to full communion and acceptance; or he may go to the left, which will carry him away out into the desert. The critical hour in the alchemist’s laboratory was when the lead in his crucible began to melt. If a cold current got at it, it resumed its dead solidity, and no gold could be made.
Brother! do not let the world’s cold currents get at your heart and freeze it again, if you feel that in any measure it is beginning to melt into penitence, and to flow with faith. The same voice that in the synagogue of Nazareth said, ‘He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor’ speaks to us to-day from heaven, saying, ‘I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich . . . and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
to say unto them, &c. = to say to them that (Greek. hoti) This day, &c. Note the force of “that”, and see note on Luk 19:9. Mar 14:30 (where hoti is used), and contrast Luk 22:34, and Mat 21:28 (where hoti is absent).
unto. Greek. pros. App-104.
this scripture. Not the next clause of Isa 61:2, which He did not read. That was then doubtful, and is now postponed.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
21.] . -implying that the following words are merely the substance of a more expanded discourse, which our Lord uttered to that effect: see another occasion in Mat 11:4-5, where the same truth was declared by a series of gracious acts of mercy.
. …] Not this Scripture which is in your ears-as the Syriac (Etheridges translation, p. 407); which would be . . ., and even then an unusual form of construction: but, is fulfilled in your hearing, by My proclaiming it, and My course of ministry.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 4:21. , He began) A solemn beginning. [Galilee was that region upon which Christ, the Great Light, arose in an extraordinary manner; Isa 9:2-3; Mat 4:15; Luk 4:31. As Isaiah has in an altogether graphic manner described that place, so also the time in which the Light shone on this region with such brightness, has been indicated by the same Isaiah. Jesus sojourned in Galilee throughout the whole year (referring to the acceptable year of the Lord) without interruption; and it was during that time that the Jews applied the new name of Galileans to His disciples; Joh 7:52; Mar 14:70. This was a year most full of grace to that most wretched nation: accordingly, Matthew, Mark, and Luke have given a description of this year more at large, whilst John supplies the journey to Jerusalem, which gave a fresh opportunity to the Galileans, who likewise frequented the feasts, of deriving no small profit from the teaching of Jesus. In fine, John by using the formula, Jesus went up to Jerusalem (Joh 2:13), takes for granted the more frequent sojourning of the Saviour in Galilee. In this way the Gospel history being in exact accordance both with itself and with the Old Testament, shrinks from no testing that may be applied, however rigorous.-Harm., p. 188.-, this day) The Saviour passed a full year in Galilee, reckoning from that day; comp. Luk 4:43 with Luk 4:44.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
This day: Luk 10:23, Luk 10:24, Mat 13:14, Joh 4:25, Joh 4:26, Joh 5:39, Act 2:16-18, Act 2:29-33, Act 3:18
Reciprocal: Act 16:13 – and we Jam 2:23 – the scripture
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
PROPHECY FULFILLED
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Luk 4:21
Jesus had returned to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. It was now some months since He had left His home to go away to Jordans side, where John was baptizing. Now He returned alone. In the meantime many things had happened. The fame of Him had gone through all the region round about. He had taught in their synagogues, being glorified above all; so that now, when He returned once more to His own home and stood up, as His custom was, to read the lessons, He was received with eager, if somewhat critical, interest. Unrolling the scroll as the minister handed it to Him, and finding the beautiful passage in Isaiah 61, He read it aloud. In the middle of reading the second verse our Blessed Lord stopped and, rolling up the scroll, gave it back to the minister and sat down. Sitting among the Jews was the attitude of the preacher; when, therefore, Jesus sat down after His reading, the people knew that He would preach, and the eyes of all men in the synagogue were fastened upon Him. And the sermon? The Evangelist gives us but the opening sentence, yet that one sentence is a clue to all: This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
I. What was fulfilled?He tells us that the good things which Isaiah spoke of are coming true now in a way far more wonderful than the prophet could have dreamed. This day is this scripture fulfilled. Now is the new era; now the acceptable year indeed has come. We ourselves know how literally the Lord fulfilled His Word. And we know, too, how, in another sense, more deep, more wonderful, more spiritual, He made His words good. He did indeed bring in the year of jubilee, the Gospel era. The whole New Testament is but one long story of light and hope and freedom, and all the comfort which Jesus brought to men. Thus, in a burst of inspired enthusiasm, Jesus gave to His own people, in His own old home, the joyful tidings He came to bring to men.
II. The message the same to-day.And still the message of Jesus is the same to-day, and still His Word goes out to England as it went out to Nazareth long ago, and still He is present among us with His power to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and to make His words good. To the spiritual sufferer Jesus is present with us in power to-day, as He has ever been. We are bound to assert that He in His Divine Spirit, through His Word, His ministers, His sacraments, and in whatever other way it may seem good to Him, is preaching good tidings, is binding up the broken-hearted, is breaking the power of the wicked, is making men see deep things which they only can describe. We are bound to think and assert that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is a living power here in England to-day.
III. A simple faith needed.These are Christs words. At first, indeed, men wonder and admire; soon comes the critical and controversial spirit. Better is it far for us if we could accept our Lord and His Gospel in simple faith. The world may laugh at simple, childlike faith, but simple, childlike faith is about the best thing that man can have. Happy is the man who can still take Jesus at His word, who can believe that He is the Son of God Who came to save the world, who can trust to Him every burden, who will look to Him for the hope of everlasting life, and who can live in the power of that faith.
Rev. P. M. Smythe.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
DIVINE ENDUEMENT
Standing on the summit of Old Testament prophecy, and gathering about Himself the fullness of its glory, He declares Himself as the realisation of Isaiahs grandest language: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.
I. Christ uses this prophecy as entirely personal to Himself.Witness this fact, said He, the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; Isaiahs prophecy is fulfilled; the Holy Ghost testifies through Me, and this is all-sufficient for your belief in My Messiahship. Here is the keynote to His ministry, the assertion of His own Divine consciousness, and, on this basis, He rests His claims to be accepted and trusted. What else save this consciousness of Himself could impart spiritual life to their consciousness?
II. The Lord Jesus asserts distinctly that the Holy Spirit was the anointing or unction for His Divine ministry.The words are explicit: Because Henot an influence, but a character; not an attribute or quality, but a Divine personbecause He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel; therefore stand I here as the fulfilment of Isaiahs prophecy. He claims attention and homage on the ground that the Spirit rests upon Him. The stress which the Lord Jesus laid on the Spirits co-operative agency with Him is one of those truths on which He insisted as cardinal. Recall the message He sent to John the Baptist in prison, and you find it little else than a quotation from Isaiahs prophecy. Throughout the ministry of three years it was His supreme vindication against vexatious doubts, the hasty judgments, the querulous impatience of His most trusted friends.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1
He did, and this verse is the introduction to his remarks. By applying the passage to himself, Jesus raised a stir within the audience, at least in their minds, to begin with.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 4:21. And he began to say. This was both the actual beginning of His discourse, and its theme and substance. That He explained the passage at some length seems probable from the next verse.
Today hath this Scripture been fulfilled in your ears. By the presence of Jesus the Messiah speaking to them. Equally apt as an opening sentence, and as the sum of His discourse. There was probably, however, no very definite declaration of His Messiahship.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 21
That is, he addressed them in a discourse in which he showed the fulfillment of the prophecy.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
When He announced the fulfillment of this passage, Jesus revealed that He was the predicted Messiah and that the time for God’s gracious deliverance had arrived. [Note: See Daniel Doriani, "The Deity of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 37:3 (September 1994):333-50.] This is one of only two instances in which Luke recorded the fulfillment of Scripture by Messiah, the other being in Luk 24:44. These occurred at the beginning and at the end of Jesus’ ministry. They constitute an inclusio, implying that the whole of Jesus’ ministry was a fulfillment of messianic prophecy. Jesus began preaching the gospel that enriches the poor, releases bound people, enlightens the spiritually blind, and gives the downtrodden freedom. He also announced that the kingdom was at hand (cf. Mat 4:17; Mar 1:15).