NOTES for Luk 4:16

In the Synagogue, already in the Second Temple period, a custom had taken shape: every believing Jew may read and comment on the Torah during worship. This custom passed from synagogue usage into church usage, so that both in the first Christian and in the early Christian periods there were church preachers who were neither deacons, nor presbyters, nor bishops, but belonged to that active core of the church community without which the Church in those times was unthinkable.

There was such an active core in the Synagogue as well. In Judea and in Palestine generally, in Gospel times it usually consisted of members of the Pharisaic brotherhood, to which many synagogues belonged. In such synagogues the overwhelming majority of parishioners, and naturally the council of elders and the synagogue rabbinate, also belonged to the brotherhood.

The Pharisees were active preachers and missionaries, and preaching sounded constantly in their synagogues. If not everyone preached, then very many did. But in general any believing Jew could give a sermon if he had something to say. Jesus, as is clear, made use of this possibility. He, of course, immediately began to speak about the Messiah and the messianic Kingdom, for in the synagogues at that time the corresponding passage from the Book of Isaiah was being read.

His speech consisted not in words, but in eloquent silence. After reading the text, He said nothing more, simply sitting down in His place. By this He let those present understand that He had nothing to say: He is here, He has come, and that is all He wanted to communicate to the people gathered there. In fact, a meeting with Christ very often happens in just this way: He simply stands before a person and is silent. He lets Himself be seen, predetermining nothing, demanding nothing, insisting on nothing, and trying to convince no one of anything. A person is free to choose, and he must choose himself. Face to face with the Messiah who has appeared to the world. As then in Nazareth.