Dear friends in Christ.
I believe it was Bill Gates who said, “In the future there will be two types of businesses, those online and those out of business.” Though I don’t know exactly when this particular phrase was spoken, these very words are being fulfilled in our hearing today! Whether you like it or not, it is pretty clear that everything in our world today is clamoring to get online. Business, who less than ten years ago, had no idea what they would do with a website, are now seeking to drive as much web traffic to their online stores as possible. Just a few months ago I heard an ad for a new Wal-Mart that had recently opened in the cities. The ad told of the special area where people who had ordered items online could come in and pick up the purchases they had made. Each and every day more and more people are going online to find their news and information. Though Amazon and Barns and Noble are still selling books, there is a greater push by these two companies to sell electronic books to people like you and me. Even our own bulletin has 9 different websites to which you can go to learn more about what was printed for you this morning. There can be no doubt! Whether you like it or not, whether you are ready for it or not, whether you understand it or not, the future is here! The prediction / prophesy that Mr. Gates made a number of years ago is clearly coming to fulfillment right here right now in our very hearing.
Well, in the same way that I can stand in front of you today and tell you that something Mr. Gates said is being fulfilled in your hearing, Jesus, our Savior is standing before us and telling us that today the Scriptures are being fulfilled in our hearing. In fact, this was the very message that Jesus spoke as he sat before the crowds in that synagogue in Nazareth so many years ago. Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing! That was the message that Jesus brought with him as he entered his home town for the first time in over a year. That was the message that Jesus brought with him as he returned to the town where he had lived since he was a very young child. That was the message he brought with him as he entered the town of Nazareth, the place where he was well known as the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James Joseph, Judas and Simon. It was in Nazareth where Jesus had lived and worked for so many years; where he had supported his family, as was his responsibility as the first born. It was there where Jesus had been until about a year earlier.
Though it hadn’t been much more than a year since Jesus had seen Nazareth, so much had happened in that short time. He had been baptized by John the Baptist, God the Father had spoken and the Holy Spirit had descended upon him in the form of a dove, and the news about him had spread. He had turned water into wine at the wedding of Cana, and the news about him had spread. He had traveled from Cana to Capernaum to spend a few days with his family and the news about him had spread. He had traveled with them down to the Passover in Jerusalem, where he drove the money changers out of the Temple, taught the people, healed the sick and drove out demons, and the news about him had spread. He spent the rest of that year working his way from Jerusalem, up through Samaria, and finally in to Galilee, preaching, teaching, gathering disciples, and performing many signs and wonders, and the news about him spread. Though a year earlier the people of Nazareth had seen him leave as nothing more than an ordinary man, now he sat before them as a respected rabbi with the fame of his deeds echoing throughout the land, and he simply says to them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
As Luke tells us, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.’ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4:14-21)
As Jesus spoke these words, he clearly revealed to his fellow town’s people that he was the Messiah who had come into the world. He was the one who had come to fulfill the prophecy that Isaiah had written so many years ago. He was the one who had spent the last year of his life preaching the good news of salvation to the spiritually poor of Israel. He was the one who was proclaiming the freedom of forgiveness to those who had long languished in satan’s dark prisons of self righteousness and unbelief. He was the one who was opening the eyes of those who were physically blind as well as the eyes of those whose spiritual blindness had kept them from the peace and the salvation that Jesus was so freely offering. He was the one who had been chosen by the Lord to be his own, who had been anointed by the Holy Spirit who descended upon him in the form of a dove. He was the one proclaiming the Jubilee of the Lord’s favor—the forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus the Messiah. He was the one telling them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing!”
What greater comfort could there be for us today than those beautiful words that Jesus spoke some 2,000 years ago, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Though we may not have Jesus sitting before us and telling us how he fulfilled Isaiah’s beautiful prophesy, as we hear about it, we are reminded that he is the one who healed the sick and raised the dead. He is the one who spoke the comforting words of the gospel to those burdened by a weight of sin. He is the one who comforted his people in all their troubles, and he is the one who is doing the same thing for us today!
Even though we are living in a world where everything is changing and technology is allowing business to work faster and cheaper with fewer and fewer people, the Lord Jesus is still caring for us. Even though we find ourselves mere miles from a nation that has all but been destroyed by an incredible earthquake, the Lord Jesus is still working in fulfillment of those words from Isaiah. Through the efforts of organizations like the WELS Committee on Relief, the Gospel is being proclaimed and Jesus is once again proclaim the freedom of the forgiveness of sins to those who had long languished in satan’s dark prison of unbelief. Through the preaching of the gospel in Haiti, Jesus is opening the eyes of those who had been spiritually blind for much if not all of their lives. Through the preaching of the gospel more and more people are learning about their Savior and the salvation that they have and those words of Isaiah are continuing to be fulfilled in our hearing.
Even today, through this message of the Gospel, Jesus is continuing to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor to you and me. He is continuing to bind up those whose hearts have been broken by the ravages of their own sins and the sinful state of this world. He is the one who is using even this recession to open our own eyes to our own personal apathy, blindness, even resistance to his word, and he is calling us out of the prisons of our own making. He is the one calling to us with his word, preaching and teaching us that he is the Messiah who through his death and resurrection has freed us from all our sins, so that no matter what we might have done in the past, it is forgiven. We have been released from our bondage to sin and death and are now free to live our live in service to the Lord Jesus, our Savior.
Because Jesus has fulfilled this Scripture in our hearing, we know that we can turn to him in any and every situation in our lives. He is the one who forgives our sins so completely that they are forgotten by the Lord our God. He is the one who loves us so intently that he gave up his life in our place. He is the one cherishes us so entirely that he provides us with his Word, with opportunities for worship, with encouragement from the body of believers here, with opportunities to speak to him in prayer, and with the absolute assurance that through faith in him we have eternal life waiting for us.
That is our comfort as we hear today how our Savior has fulfilled this Scripture in our hearing. It isn’t like the fulfillment that is taking place in our world today as companies and the economy itself moves toward the Internet. Rather it is the sure and certain gift of the Lord our Savior who has freed us from our sins, opened the eyes of our hearts, made us his own, and given us the gift of eternal life.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
