Grateful for what Jesus didn’t say
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I speak before thinking. It’s gotten me into trouble over the years, and I’ve had to explain and apologize a lot. Somethings are just better left unsaid.
There was an instance in the Bible where something was intentionally left unsaid by Jesus, and I’m literally eternally grateful. We find it in Luke’s gospel.
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 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
It was a familiar passage to his audience, taken from Isaiah 61. He didn’t finish reading the passage. The next line in Isaiah is: “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God”
That’s significant. When Jesus was reading in the synagogue, He declared that He was the Messiah. It was fulfilled in their hearing. If He had said “the day of the vengeance of our God” was fulfilled, then there would be no time for anyone else to come to faith.
The day of vengeance (mentioned in several other places in Scripture) is when the Lord finally deals with His enemies. Anyone who is not a believer is an enemy of God.
Had Jesus read the rest of that passage, time would have been up. All hope for the lost would be gone.
That day is coming. Jesus is returning to fulfill it. In the interim, though, there is time for God’s enemies to be reconciled through faith in Christ.
Don’t waste a moment longer. Time truly is limited because none of us knows the day or hour of His return.
Praise God, He left those words unsaid … for the moment.
Kevin
SUMMARY
Jesus stopped reading Isaiah’s scroll one line too soon. He left out the day of vengeance, and grace is still open to you and me.
TAKEAWAY
You are still living in the year of the Lord’s favor, not the day of His vengeance.
Your chance to be reconciled to God through faith in Christ is still open right now.
You don’t know the day or hour of Christ’s return, so this isn’t the moment to delay
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