And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:16-21 esv
I heard a few brief comments on this recently. In my opinion, the speaker said some good stuff, omitted something important, and therefore spoke an untruth.
Good stuff
1. Jesus sat down – the usual posture for a sermon – and said so little because he is the sermon. No extra words needed
2. The things Jesus quoted from Isaiah (in bold) show him as the true human, and therefore a model for all humanity
Omission
There’s a step missing between 1. and 2.
Jesus alone is the true human, is able to serve the Father, can find and save the lost, is the sacrifice for sin.
It’s never possible to say everything! But in this case, leaving out the uniqueness of Jesus (and the lostness of humanity) produced a different message. Instead of ‘we’re helpless outside of Jesus’ it became ‘we can save ourselves and the world too’.
So let’s keep listening to what people say, as well as what people do not say.