NOTES for Luk 4:16

In the Synagogue, already in the Second Temple era, a custom had formed: every believing Jew could read and comment on the Torah during worship. This custom passed from synagogue usage into church usage, so that both in the earliest Christian and in early Christian times 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 of 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 brotherhood included the overwhelming majority of the parishioners and, naturally, the council of elders and the synagogue rabbinate.

The Pharisees were active preachers and missionaries, and preaching in their synagogues sounded constantly; 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 we see, made use of this possibility. He, of course, immediately began to speak about the Messiah and the messianic Kingdom, since 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. Having read the text, He said nothing more and simply sat down. By this He let those present understand that He had nothing to say: He is here, He has come, and this is all He wanted to tell the gathered people. In fact, very often a meeting with Christ happens exactly this way: He simply stands before a person and is silent. He gives Himself to be seen, predetermining nothing, demanding nothing, insisting on nothing, and trying to persuade no one of anything. A person is free to choose, and he must choose for himself. Face to face with the Messiah who has appeared to the world. As then in Nazareth.