The first public sermon of the long-desired Messiah--his first
declaration of his mission and message to the world--what was it?
It was delivered in his own city of Nazareth, where he had been
brought up; it was on the Sabbath day; it was in the synagogue where
he had always worshiped; and it was in manner and form exactly in
accordance with the customs of his national religion.
It had always been customary among the Jews to call upon any member
of the synagogue to read a passage from the book of the prophets;
and the young man Jesus, concerning whom certain rumors had vaguely
gone forth, was on the day in question called to take his part in
the service. It was a holy and solemn moment, when the long silence
of years was to be broken. Jesus was surrounded by faces familiar
from infancy. His mother, his brothers, his sisters, were all there;
every eye was fixed upon him. The historian says:--
"And there was delivered unto him the book (or roll) of the
prophet Isaiah, and when he had unrolled the book he found the
place where it is written (Isaiah lxi.):--
The spirit of the Lord is upon me.
He hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor;
He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted;
To preach deliverance to the captives;
The recovering of sight to the blind;
To set at liberty them that are bruised;
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
We may imagine the sweetness, the tenderness, the enthusiasm with
which this beautiful announcement of his mission was uttered; and
when, closing the book, he looked round on the faces of his townsmen
and acquaintances, and said, "This day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears,"--it was an appeal of Heavenly love yearning to heal
and to save those nearest and longest known.
It would seem that the sweet voice, the graceful manner, at first
charmed the rough audience; there was a thrilling, vibrating
power, that struck upon every heart. But those hearts were cold
and hard. A Saviour from sin, a Comforter of sorrow, was not what
they were looking for in their Messiah. They felt themselves good
enough spiritually, in their observance of the forms of their law
and ritual; they were stupidly content with themselves and wanted
no comforter. What they did want was a brilliant military leader.
They wanted a miracle-working, supernatural Lord and Commander that
should revenge their national wrongs, conquer the Romans, and set
the Jewish people at the head of the world. Having heard of the
miracles of Christ in Cana and Capernaum, they had thought that
perhaps he might prove this Leader, and if so, what a glory for
Nazareth! But they were in a critical, exacting mood; they were in
their hearts calling for some brilliant and striking performance
that should illuminate and draw attention to their town. Although
the congregation were at first impressed and charmed with the
gracious words and manner of the speaker, the hard, vulgar spirit of
envy and carping criticism soon overshadowed their faces.
"Who is this Jesus--is he not the carpenter? What sign does he show?
Let him work some miracles forthwith, and we will see if we will
believe."
It was this disposition which our Lord felt in the atmosphere
around him; the language of souls uttered itself to him unspoken.
He answered as he so often did to the feeling he saw in the hearts
rather than the words of those around him. He said, "Ye will say to
me, Physician, heal thyself. Do here in thy native place the marvels
we have heard of in Capernaum. I tell you a truth; no prophet is
accepted in his own country. There were many widows in Israel in
the time of the prophet Elijah, but he was sent only to a widow of
Sarepta, a city of Sidon. There were many lepers in Israel in the
time of Elisha, yet none of them was healed but Naaman the Syrian."
It would seem as if our Lord was preparing to show them that he
had a mission of love and mercy that could not be bounded by one
village, or even by the chosen race of Israel, but was for the world.
But the moment he spoke of favors and blessings given to the
Gentiles the fierce national spirit flamed up; the speech was cut
short by a tumultuous uprising of the whole synagogue. They laid
violent hands on Jesus and hurried him to the brow of the precipice
on which their city was built, to cast him down headlong. But before
the murder was consummated the calm majesty of Jesus had awed his
persecutors. Their slackened hands dropped; they looked one on
another irresolute: and he, passing silently through the midst of
them, went his way. He had offered himself to them as their Saviour
from sin and from sorrow in the very fullness of his heart. Heavenly
tenderness and sweetness had stretched out its arms to embrace them,
and been repulsed by sneering coldness and hard, worldly unbelief.
Nazareth did not want Him; and he left it. It was the first of those
many rejections which He at last summed up when he said, "How often
would I have gathered thy children, and ye would not."
But, though he thus came to his own and his own received him not,
yet the lovely and gracious proclamation which he made then and
there still stands unfading and beautiful as a rainbow of hope over
this dark earth. The one Being sent into the world to represent
the Invisible Father, and to show us the hidden heart and purposes
of God in this mysterious life of ours, there declared that his
mission was one of pity, of help, of consolation; that the poor, the
bruised, the desolate, the prisoner, might forever find a Friend in
him.
There are times when the miseries and sorrows of the suffering race
of man, the groaning and travailing of this mysterious life of ours,
oppress us, and our faith in God's love grows faint.
Then let us turn our thoughts to this divine Personality, Jesus,
the anointed Son of God, and hear him saying now, as he said at
Nazareth:--
"The spirit of the Lord is upon ME.
He hath sent me to preach good tidings to the poor;
He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted,
To preach deliverance to the captives,
The recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised!"
It is said of him in the prophets: "He shall not fail nor be
discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth. The isles shall
wait for his law. Our Redeemer is mighty; the Lord of Hosts is his
name--our Saviour, the Holy One of Israel!"