In Your Hearing

17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
18 “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,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 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.21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Lk. 4:17-21 ESV)

One of the advantages of being a mediocre Greek student is that everything is a discovery and everything is a surprise. As I scribe my way through Luke’s gospel, I can follow most of the action, familiar as it is from years of reading and hearing it in English. But not infrequently I lose track of what’s being said due to unfamiliar vocabulary and my general ineptitude.

Thus it was in Nazareth, when Jesus, after the temptation in the wilderness, came to his hometown and read the lesson from Isaiah in the synagogue. He concludes the reading by telling them, “today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your … hearing. I wasn’t quite ready for “hearing” and it struck me as a bit odd, at least. All eyes are fixed upon him, but he does not fulfill the prophecy in their sight. Everyone recognizes him as the son of Joseph, but the fulfillment has nothing to do with what they see. The prophecy is fulfilled in their hearing. Why that detail? Jesus could have said only, “today this Scripture is fulfilled.” Period. Or, “fulfilled among you,” or “fulfilled in your presence.” So it is worth pondering why the scripture is fulfilled in their hearing.

Part of the answer lies in God’s preference for Word communication. One of my favorite teachers likes to say that God prefers the Ear gate over the Eye gate. Words have content and meaning. Visuals much less. The visual evidence of creation communicates imperfectly, it makes no direct claim, whereas the words, “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” leaves no question. The Eye gate admits Eye-cons and Eye-dols, which are things to look at, but which communicate nothing that is not already in the viewer’s mind. But the Ear gate can communicate new truth, uncomfortable facts, different ideas, and challenging thoughts. When people saw Jesus, they were not impressed. But when he preached — “this man is not like our scribes, for he teaches with authority.”

It is always “thus says the Lord,” not “thus shows the Lord.”