The Interrupted Sermon
H. R. Haweis, M. A. Luke 4:18-22 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted… In the course of His first preaching tour Jesus came to Nazareth. It was the Sabbath. He entered the synagogue "according to His custom." Observe — for the greatest revolutionist the world had ever seen the current forms and church services of the day sufficed. He was even willing to pour the new wine into the old bottles till the old bottles burst. He enters the village synagogue — His parish church. He offers to read the lesson; He ascends the pulpit; the clerk hands up a roll of the prophet Isaiah; before Him are a curious medley of faces — the eastern women veiled behind lattice-work on one side, the men of the village with a sprinkling of the tradesfolk and gentry on the other. He unrolls the scroll and finds the place, Isaiah 61:1. I wish our clergy would always take care to find the right place — the suitable text — the passage in season. In this case it was actually the lesson for the day. So out of routine the Lord brings life. He reads, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me." Ah, without that spiritual concentration in the pulpit as well as in the pew, priest may preach and people may hear in vain: "He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor." Yes, you neglected, suffering people, the Saviour of the world places you on a level with the favoured of the earth. The permanent and the spiritual belongs to you as much as to them; the same Father; the same love revealed; the same heaven beyond — are for you. "To heal the broken-hearted." What a lift there is for the sorrowful in the sympathy of God, that steals like summer light into the darkened room; no despair can ever quite keep it out. "Recovery of sight to the blind." The mists of passion, the clouds of prejudice, the veil of selfishness, the pall of spiritual ignorance, lo, at a touch the scales fall off, you see yourselves as others see you, you know as you are known, your heart grows pure, you see God. "To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." There He stopped. The next words of Isaiah are, "The day of vengeance of our God." He would not break into that new train of thought which might clash with the spirit of His sermon. The last words of the text should be words of peace, though the end was to be tumult. "He closed the book, and sat down" to deliver His sermon. We shall never know what the sermon was. It began with a searching application; no beating about the bush. "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." It ended with that fierce storm of invective which was the Lord's dauntless reply to the rage of an envenomed minority. He has fascinated the majority. They "wondered at the gracious words," &c.; but the conceited gentry could not bear to be lectured by "a Carpenter," and they soon let Him know it. "Enough of that," they cried. "A sign! a sign! you can do wonders at Capernaum; give us a taste of your quality here. A miracle is worth all this talk — unwholesome, democratic talk about the poor, and a message for all men, and pray what is to become of us if we are to be mixed up with the rabble?" It was all over with the sermon. The knot of malcontents expressed their dissent loudly, and were resolved to break up the meeting. So Christ cast His bread upon the waters. The last words maddened His adversaries, but they struck the second key-note of His ministry. The first was "peace on earth; goodwill towards men." A gospel of healing, liberty, illumination, and comfort for all, beginning with the lowest of the people. The second key-note was an implacable opposition to bigotry, heartlessness, and formalism. "You want a sign? You shall have one. My signs are the seals of my teaching. Those who accept my teaching get my signs. You will have none of my message, you shall have none of my miracles. You are no better than your fathers, who persecuted the prophets. Were they not outcasts and rejected wanderers? There were many widows in Israel, but Elias only healed the Gentile's son at Sarepta. There were many lepers in those days, but Eliseus only healed Naaman the Syrian. Syrian lepers and Gentiles go into the kingdom before you." They would hear no more; they rose in their fury, hustled Him out of the building, hurried Him up the steep, rocky path to the summit of the hill, and would have cast Him down, but His friends, doubtless some of those sturdy Galilean fishermen, rallied around Him and got Him clear of the village. In one way or another He passed through the crowd, on His way back to Capernaum and the Galilean shore. He left Nazareth, never apparently to return. The secluded mountain village had indeed cast Him out — the world received Him. (H. R. Haweis, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, WEB: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed,