READING IN LUKE 4
READING IN LUKE 4
After the temptation in the wilderness the Lord returns to Galilee, where He begins His ministry. He had been led of the Spirit in the wilderness and now He returns to Galilee in the same power. Whether as meeting the enemy or entering the sphere of His public service, all is in the power of the Holy Spirit.
He begins His ministry in Nazareth where He was brought up. There is no doubt a principle in this; for a servant is tested nowhere more than among his own acquaintances and relatives: they are the least likely to appreciate his gift. The Lord began there, and divine power and grace so marked Him that interest was immediately enlisted.
Galilee was in close proximity to the Gentiles. It is more prominent in Matthew, where it is a sort of door into the Gentile world. It is there called “Galilee of the Gentiles”, and from thence the fame of Christ spread throughout Syria. It was morally fitting that the Lord should begin His service of grace in such a despised place as Nazareth. It was a moral judgment on Jerusalem, the proud centre of the nation, that the Lord did not begin there. It indicates God’s way of acting, that the introduction of the greatest thing ever brought in should appear in the most obscure place in man’s world.
There was fitness in the Lord referring to Isaiah at the outset of His service. The key-note of Isaiah is the salvation of Jehovah, and this accords with Luke’s gospel. The Lord turned to it as the basis of His position; “he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor”, Luke 4: 18. He to whom the prophet referred was there: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me ... . This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears”. The passage had been read hundreds of times before, but now with the great emphasis of the One to whom it applied.
What the Spirit enlarges upon here is the character of the vessel, as attractive in His movements and in His address. It was a Man anointed by the Spirit of Jehovah. We have not only the announcement of grace, but the vessel was wholly characterised by it. His manner here was most remarkable: the way He closed the book, and gave it to the minister and sat down. Before He began to speak all eyes were upon Him; He had gained them, and thus they were ready to listen to Him. When He began to speak all wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth. We have thus the model vessel set before us.
The opposition begins when He speaks of God going out, even in Old Testament times, to the Gentiles; otherwise the Lord might have been accepted by His townsmen, for the moment at least. In the Lord’s ministry there was not only grace, but truth as well. His remarks here involve that God was sovereign, that the Gentiles were men as well as the Jews; this was the truth, and hence the opposition. The people of Nazareth would say to Him, “whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country”. His own country made a claim on Him, that He should signalise it. They would claim the Lord for their own greatness, but His mission had humanity in view, and there were intimations of this in God’s dealings of old. The special place Israel had in God’s ways is [p. 23] not in view in Luke as in Matthew; in the latter the place the Syrophenician had to take is characteristic. In order to get her blessing she had to take her place as a dog of the Gentiles. The Lord maintained there Israel’s relative, place in God’s ways on earth. But in Luke men as such, whether Jew or Gentile, are in view; “good pleasure in men”. The poor, the broken-hearted, the captives, the blind, the bruised, were to be relieved.
In preaching to Cornelius and his company, Peter alluded to this, saying that Christ was “Lord of all”, Acts 10: 36.
That the Lord should refer to blessing going out to the Gentiles so early in His ministry is suggestive as to what we may expect in Luke’s narrative. We can understand how such touches as this by the “beloved physician” who accompanied Paul would support the apostle’s preaching. Matthew’s gospel would be a support to Peter’s testimony, for he shows the faithfulness of God in regard to the promises made to the fathers; but Luke delights to bring forward the true Physician, who was present in divine grace to relieve a diseased humanity.
But although grace was in such abundance as to affect all in the synagogue, truth was also there forming an admirable blend. As we have been saying, the allusions to the widow of Sarepta and Naaman involve the truth. This was what tested the people in the synagogue; the result was that they led Him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built that they might cast Him down headlong. Had the Lord confined Himself to the performance of miracles, no doubt He would have been acceptable to His countrymen, for a man who could do such mighty works would be a great acquisition to any locality; but the Lord was not here to enhance man’s world; hence He brings in the truth, and this stirs up a murderous opposition.
[p. 24] Israel would have limited God to themselves, but God disallows any such effort: wherever it is asserted He makes known His sovereign right to bless whom He pleases. He had given Israel special privileges, and this was in perfect accord with His sovereignty, but the error lay in their thinking that divine things were confined to them. In the days of Elias God was not only free to bless Gentiles, but He passed by many widows in Israel and sent His servant to a Sidonian. The truth makes nothing of man, however he may have been honoured in the past, and this is what incites opposition.
The passage the Lord reads from Isaiah may be said to be the great text for this dispensation. The preaching of judgment does not mark a “well-accepted time” and a “day of salvation”, 2 Corinthians 6. It is true that judgment is in view as a sort of background, but it is not, as in Jonah’s day, the subject of preaching. The Lord closed the book when He came to the thought of vengeance, and we had better leave it closed. The judgment that should be especially emphasised is self-judgment. What we see here is the intervention of grace in the power of God’s Spirit, and the vessel in whom it was active was in every way commensurate with it, He was characterised by it and so attractive to men.