12/13/53

Scripture: Luke 4: 14-30

Text: Luke 4: 20; “And he closed the book ----- and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.”

There is an excellent new commentary on the Bible in process of being published. Five of the twelve-volume set have already left the presses and are in use by those fortunate enough to possess them. It is planned that the remaining volumes will be published at the rate of two each year, until the set is complete. The whole commentary is called: “The Interpreter’s Bible.”

In one home where the first volumes of the series are already in use, a little girl leaned over her father’s shoulder as he was reading it, and said, “Daddy, what does the ‘Interrupter’s Bible’ mean?” Before sending his little “interrupter” about her business so that he could continue his work, the father explained her error and watched her go from the room in peace. Then he thought, perhaps her childish ignorance pointed out a truth which had best not be ignored. Perhaps one should expect the Bible to be an “interrupter,” as indeed it is!

A couple of years ago, a tremendous earthquake in North India gave the earth a shaking that was felt for hundreds of miles. One effect of the shake-up is said to be that Mount Everest and its sister peaks were raised an additional 190 feet or so above sea level. Think of the power that could produce such a shake-up as that! Think of the power, also, that can shake up whole civilizations! The Bible is such a force, or rather there is that in the Bible which is such a force.

Martin Luther was, fortunately, interrupted in his desperate search for salvation by the words which he found in the Bible: “The just shall live by faith.” [Habakkuk 2: 4]. Not only was his whole life changed in direction, but a whole civilization was radically altered by the religious Reformation of which his discovery was a part. Over in England, small groups of people who came to be called Puritans and Separatists took to reading the Bible with such illuminating results that the even tenor of Tudor and Stuart England was upset. Some of them stamped their indelible imprint on the new world.

Only Almighty God knows how many countless thousands of people turn to the Bible regularly, not just for the pause that refreshes, but for the pause that changes. As much as we need encouragement, we need as well interruption from much of our living, and re-direction. The 23rd Psalm is a splendid encouragement and comfort in distress or sorrow. But great as it is, it is no substitute for the great interruption of life demanded of the followers of Jesus Christ. In fact, the Bible, rightly interpreted, always interrupts. Sometimes it may be an Old Testament passage that brings one up short. Again it may be an admonishment from on of Paul’s letters. Often it is some saying or demand of Jesus.

Jesus really upset the even tenor of his home town when he came back to Nazareth during his short ministry. Responsible people gathered regularly in the Synagogue on the Sabbath. There the sacred writings were read by some man chosen from the congregation. Then there was a discussion of the passage read. It was a mark of respect that the rabbi in charge called upon Jesus to come forward and read the Scripture. Only those who were highly regarded were entrusted with that sacred office. The Hebrew people held their Scriptures in deepest reverence.

Jesus was handed the scroll containing the book of Isaiah. Opening the roll, he read at the place where it is written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me to

preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

And recovering of sight to the blind;

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

“And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.” He was about to speak. And what he said shocked some of them. For he made a momentous observation. “Today,” he said, “this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears.” They didn’t like it. Presently they would be upset, angry and excited enough to try to kill him right there in his home town. They were part of an age-long tradition of expecting a Messiah, a Savior for their people. And they were in no mood to have the line of their expectation upset by any young liberal, coming forth with the notion that in him that prophecy was fulfilled!

Let us see, if we can, what it was that “interrupted” the established line of their thinking. What upset them so sharply? Well, theirs was a religion of the book. It still is! In recent months, there was a large advertisement in the New York Times, urging people to buy Israeli bonds. The “ad” was illustrated with a large picture of the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible, and the words: “Behind Israel is a Book.” Perhaps this illustrates as well as anything may, the difference between the great faith of Judaism out of which Christianity emerged, and what we think of as the greater faith of Christianity.

Christians also say, “Behind Christianity is a Book;” but go on to say, “Before Christianity is a Life.” “He closed the book --- and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.” Remember that when Jesus closed the book, he did not leave it behind. He had opened and closed the book so many times that he knew great portions of it by memory, and all of its import by heart. He opened the book constantly, else he could never have closed it! It was so thoroughly a part of him that he knew in what way his own life could be a fulfillment of some of its expectations. His claim, that startled his hearers that day, and so upset them, concerned the one passage that he had just read: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

We have made much of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible in recent months. Today’s lesson was read from it, because its translation has been brought up to date in the language of our ears more than that of older translations. And yet, richly significant as it this new edition of the Book, and much as it has stirred a renewed interest in the reading of the Word, it does not stir us as much as does the thought of Jesus’ birth into our world. The story in the Book of his coming excites our interest. The experience of his presence in our lives transforms us!

A few months ago, there was a newspaper report that someone had burned a copy of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. It is not clear just what the man could hope to accomplish by this act of publicity. But it is highly probable that, had he lived in the Middle Ages, he would have burned not only the book but the translators as well! That is what happens when we get so enmeshed in squabbles over the interpretation of the Book that we fail to give attention to the Life that fulfills the Book!

Jesus “closed the book” as if to say: “The real test of your faith is not the letter of the law, not the analysis of the content, but in possessing my spirit! The correctness of your views, the orthodoxy of your position, is not nearly so vital as is the Living Word.”

The book is expressed in words as well chosen as the translators know how to give them to us. But words have their limitations. Did you ever hear the reply of a happy bridegroom to a toast to his bride? Usually it is a faltering, even hesitating, attempt to put into words the love for her he feels too deeply to set in words. And if he should get too fluent, one might suspect that he was thinking more of his speech than of his beloved!

One can get a limited amount of meaning from a book. One may go to a dictionary and find there that “mother” is defined as a “female parent.” And that is true. But you have to see and know a mother, like yours or mine, to really understand what the word “mother” can mean.

From a bit of reading, we can get a definition of “missionary.” But those who saw David Livingstone standing at the University of Glasgow to receive his degree, one arm limp since his encounter with a lion, his face wan and his body wasted from fighting its way back to life 20 times from malaria, the hardships of his life and the undefeated passion of his heart to heal Africa evident in his whole manner --- had you or I seen him there, we should have known what a missionary is!

Jesus closed the book; and henceforth the truth has been known, not only introduced through the book, but fulfilled in a life.

A little boy was born after his father had gone to war. Many children have been born so. The father of this little fellow did not return. As the lad grew, he repeatedly asked his mother, “What was my father like?” The mother tried to satisfy his asking by saying that his father was a brave man, a kind man, a very good man, and good for a great deal. But the boy never seemed quite satisfied. Then his uncle, an older brother of the boy’s father, visited them, and he asked his mother excitedly, “Was my father anything like my uncle?” “Yes,” said his mother; all who knew them said they had been very much like each other. And the little fellow exclaimed, with evident gladness and contentment: “Now I know what my father was like.”

The words of a precious Book reveal how people have tried, through generations, and through centuries, to know what God is like. For the Bible is a record of man’s growing understanding of the Father and of God’s dealings with mankind. But the time came when One appeared who said, “My Father,” and “Our Father” and whose life revealed God in human life, as nothing else can.

“The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.” He closed the book, for he was fulfilling the law and the prophets.

A psalmist cried, “The Lord is my shepherd.” [Psalm 23: 1]. Jesus alone could say, “I am the good shepherd.” [John 10:11]. David declared, “My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.” [Psalm 84: 2]. Only Jesus could say, “He who has seen me (who has really known me) has seen the Father.” [John 14: 9]. Job could cry out the question, “If a man die, shall he live again?” [Job 14: 14]. Jesus alone could say, “I am the resurrection.” [John 11: 25].

The book was a promise. It is filled with promise. “These are they,” said Jesus of the Scriptures, “that testify of me.” [John 5: 39]. In him the truth of the word walked in flesh and fresh loveliness.

If you have read the December issue of Wisconsin Congregational Church Life, and have gone over our Conference Moderator’s column, you will recall his suggestion that a family might like to read from this new translation of the Bible as the first event of Christmas Day! Thus might we be prepared, through the Book, to meet the Life heralded by the New Testament and by our worship at Advent and Christmas each year! Read it not for a formality; not for comfort alone; not for literary interest; nor for curiosity’s sake, though it can satisfy all these. But read it with the expectation that it may interrupt you in pointing to a Life that sheds the only true significance upon your life.

The Book is more important to you and to me than any other book. William Lyon Philip, beloved teacher at Yale University, once said: “I believe a knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without the Bible.”

The Life of Him who fulfilled it, and who can live in you and me when we welcome Him, is more important to you and to me than anything else.

Led by the Book to His manger, kneel there with all your soul, then return praising God.

Led by the light of the Book to His sermons, and his salvation, go forth into life practicing his ethics.

Led through the Book to His Cross, be prepared to go into life spending all of yourself for His righteousness among people.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, December 13, 1953.