The Synagogue, and its Perpetual Sermon

"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath-day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias: and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth." Luke 4:16-22.
"He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." John 3:34.

Will the Lord enshrine his presence here? Will he live over again — will he continually live — this part of his biography amongst us? Eminently and manifestly he will. The whole case is singularly fitted to bring out very clearly the evidence of what we have already attempted so variously to illustrate. We behold our Lord in the synagogue of Nazareth exercising his prophetic office. And while all the sensible and temporary circumstantials of the case have vanished, all the essentials survive to this hour.

Take the scene in Nazareth on that Sabbath-day as a manifestation of the Presence of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Separate the temporary from the permanent; and you will find that you have separated the accessory from the essential, — leaving all that was essential permanently present in the Church below still.

For, what are the essentials? 1. First: there is the Word. "He stood up for to read." And it is the Word of the Lord he is to read. "There was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias." And he accepts the opportunity thus afforded him of honouring the Word. "He opened the book and found the place where it was written." That which is "written" is his theme as a Prophet; even as that which is "written" has already been his sword as a King. And what he readeth from the Word has reference to his own preaching of the Word; — his preaching the gospel to the poor, — his preaching deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, — his preaching the acceptable year of the Lord. It is all of the Word, — the Scripture. And how does he comment upon the Word now read? "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears."

As to instrumentality, as to theme or topic or materiιl in his teaching; the Word is the essential.

2. As to efficiency; or spiritual agency reaching the heart, enlightening the mind, making wise the simple; — what is the essential, in this view? Mark the first utterance of the oracle; — "The Spirit." "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." He places this in the foreground. He points to this as his great qualification. On this he perils all his expectation of success in his office. The Spirit of the Lord is upon him.

Here is his own "epistle of commendation"; recommendatory of him as able to fulfill the duty of his office; — "For, he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him" (John 3:34). Here, also, is his hope of having many living epistles of commendation, written in the hearts of his people, "known and read of all men: manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ," because “written with the Spirit of the living God" (II Cor. 3:1-3). The whole efficiency is of the Spirit. As to spiritual efficiency or agency; the Spirit is the essential.

When, therefore, "all that heard him bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth" (ver. 22); — when "they were astonished at his doctrine; for his word was with power" (ver. 32); — the entire essential of the gracious words and powerful doctrine was of the Scripture; and the entire essential of the grace and power was of the Spirit.

That is to say, Christ executed the office of a Prophet, that day, in Nazareth, in revealing to men by his Word and Spirit the will of God for their salvation. The features of his visible countenance and the pulsations of the air from his audible voice, did not enter into the matter at all. So that his bodily presence, — or, as it ought rather to be called, the bodily manifestation of his presence, — may have vanished; but his Presence is with us in our sanctuaries now, essentially and exactly as in the synagogue of Nazareth then.

A thousand times shall faith assert this claim; and at every time she will deny that there is any trace of illusion or fancy or fanaticism in her assertion of it. She will evermore produce the tangible, unchanging, rigid rule of the Word, whereby all fanaticism is excluded. And she will trust to the guiding light of the promised Spirit, who can neither err nor mislead. And knowing that her prophet is the Christ because the Spirit of the Lord rests on him for ever; and knowing that the Word also liveth and abideth for ever, she will maintain that she enjoys her Lord's presence in all essentials as fully as the spectators in the synagogue of Nazareth — and far more fully than those who were spectators merely.

Are we to be in such bondage — so deliriously intoxicated and enslaved, — to the senses of this vile body, as to maintain that whatever has vanished from the eyes of our flesh is lost to us? Are we to subordinate and to subject thus shamefully the things that are unseen and eternal to the conditions of space and time and the body of our humiliation? And are we never to be satisfied that "the King Eternal, immortal and invisible" is near, unless he submit a proof that shall be cognizable to those eyes and hands which have soon to be hidden in the grave? "Thomas; because thou hast seen me thou hast believed: blessed are they which have not seen me, and yet have believed."

With adoring reverence let a supposition be made. With adoring reverence — For we "beseech thee," O Emmanuel, "shew us thy glory"; till, like Elijah, we wrap our face in our mantle (I Kings 19:13), — till, like Moses, we make haste, and bow our head toward the earth, and worship (Exod. 34:8). One thing have you desired of the Lord; that will you seek after; that you may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of your life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

Let it be supposed, then, that, on the first day of the week, when you are assembled to worship God in the Spirit in the name of Christ, — the blessed Christ who is with you from the first, if even two or three have truly met in his name, suddenly reveals his presence to the eyes of your flesh; and he who alway walketh, unseen, among the seven golden candlesticks, appears unto you, standing in the midst — as he appeared unto the disciples on the evening of his own resurrection-day (John 20:19), — saying "Peace be unto you." He interrupts not your worship. He takes the conduct of it. He will make known his Father's name unto his brethren; in the midst of the congregation will he sing praise unto him (Ps. 22:22; Heb. 2:12). He stands up to read. And there is delivered to him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he has opened the book he finds the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me." And he reads it with the "still small voice." And as he reads, you wrap your face in your mantle. For the Word is with power, and with the demonstration of the Spirit. And while he penetrates your heart with his Spirit, he turns all your thought to the Word, — saying, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears:" — Would this be the presence of your Lord?

But suppose that having thus seen the Lord, you cannot but wrap your face in your mantle; that you smite upon your breast and cannot so much as lift up your eyes unto him; or that some veil or curtain descendeth and hideth the Divine Reader from your view; while still the gracious words proceed from his mouth: — Have you not your Lord's presence still?

But suppose again that, ceasing to use his own voice, he gives the book unto the minister and sits down; leaving your pastor to minister the Word, himself continuing to minister to you the Spirit; continuing, that is, to give you the Word and Spirit still; while he himself, hidden from your view and now silent, still sits in your assembly: — Have you not your Lord's presence still?

And now an ambassador for Christ, as though God did beseech you by him, prays you in Christ's stead — "Be ye reconciled to God." And the Word is the matter of his commission; even the word of reconciliation which Christ has thus committed to him. And the Spirit is the agent in commending it, in his own light, to you. And the Prophet of the Church — his countenance unseen by you, his literal voice unheard by you — is present in the body. In what are you advantaged thereby? It is by his Word and Spirit that he is advantageously, really, profoundly present with you. Let him ascend to his Father and your Father, to his God and your God: — Have you not your Lord's presence still? Yea; — "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." "They have seen thy goings, O God; even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary."

Even though Jesus were with you in the sanctuary bodily, he would bring no new revelation: he would read from "the book." He would speak of "this Scripture, this day fulfilled in your ears." And he would cast no spell of amazement upon your soul from his visible person or audible voice: He would seek no such poor triumph over his audience — no such factitious influence upon their mind. He would peril all the effect of his Word on the demonstration of the Spirit. His own Word and your soul he would leave in the hand of the Spirit. By the Word he would send forth his truth. And by the Spirit he would send forth his light. "O send forth thy light and thy truth." But does the bodily manifestation of his Presence at all enter into the essence of this great transaction? No, verily. And, therefore, verily and essentially you have Christ's Presence in your sanctuary, even as in the synagogue of Nazareth.

O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me, let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy. O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory — even the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, — so that I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

If we have the Word and the Spirit of Christ, we have the Presence of Christ in the sanctuary. But it is manifest that this train of thought lands us on the verge of a very great enlargement or — to use the language of geometry — extension of our theorem. The coalescence of the Presence and the History is merely a limited case, though no doubt the most interesting case, of a wider and grander principle — the coalescence of the Spirit and the Word in general.

This is a coalescence or conjunction set before us in Scripture in many interesting lights. In one view, and most practically, it constitutes in fact God's covenant, established with the Mediator, and, in him, with the Church his seed, and all her seed or children: — "As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My Spirit that is upon thee, and my Words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth even for ever" (Isa. 59:21). Practically this is God's whole covenant; for all the purchase and provisions of the covenant are stored up, and conveyed to us, in the Word; and it is the Spirit who takes of that purchase and those provisions — which are just the things of Christ — and shows them to us (John 16:14). And, it is because of the covenant taking this form and taking effect in this manner in the Church, that the Church is called upon in the very next utterance: — "Arise, shine; for thy light hath come, and the glory of the Lord hath arisen upon thee" (Isa. 61:1). The Word and Spirit of the Lord are the light and the glory of the Church.

Because of this coalescence of the Word and Spirit, long before he came in the flesh, was Wisdom's presence in the world; yea, "in the streets; in the chief places of concourse: in the openings of the gates; — saying, Turn ye at my reproof: behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my Words unto you" (Prov. 1:20-24). And when, in the fullness of time, he is made of a woman, and speaketh with human lips, — "he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, because God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him" (John 3:33).

So intimate is this conjunction; — testified as it is, by John, concerning Christ in the days of his flesh, as true anent him then; by Solomon, as true, even in his days; and by Isaiah, as true — "from henceforth even for ever." In the language of one whose eloquence and subtlety of thought are oftentimes as marvelous as his massiveness and grandeur — "the Lord hath so knit together the certainty of his Word and his Spirit, that our minds are duly imbued with reverence for the Word, when the Spirit, shining upon it, enables us there to behold the face of God; and, on the other hand, we embrace the Spirit with no danger of delusion when we recognise him in his image, that is, in his Word." (Calvin, Institutes I.ix.3.)

It would be out of place to enter on any of the manifold trains of fine and fertile thought opened up by a theme so rich as that of — the Word and Spirit. But we may repeat and extend a question which occurred at an earlier stage of our inquiries. In reference to the coalescence of the Presence and the History we were led to ask; — Does any other history or biography possess an advantage so marvelous as that he whom it commemorates should adjoin himself to the record and take possession of the mind of him who reads the record? And the analogous question, of course, arises; — Does any other work of authorship possess an advantage similar to God's Word generally, when God's Spirit dwells in him who humbly reads the Word and shines upon it with the light of God? Is it enough to say that this really is equivalent to the Presence of the Lord? Nay; ought it not rather to be confidently affirmed that this is the Lord's Presence most intimately, most profoundly, most intensely; — even so as the presence of any fellow-creature can be with us?

I give you, let us say, my written word. I send a most carefully written letter to you. I have watched and laboured every sentence of it, to secure the utmost possible simplicity and accuracy; and to make my meaning not only most intelligible, but, as far as possible, unavoidably and unmistakably plain. You give my carefully written word an equally careful perusal. You watch and labour to understand every sentence of it; to take up my very meaning with perfect accuracy; to avoid fathering on me any thought which I did not mean — or failing to apprehend any thought which I did mean — to convey. And yet, with all this, is it infallibly certain that we shall understand each other? Or, more precisely; is there any provision in this arrangement for securing that you shall infallibly understand me? There is not.

But suppose that, with my written word, I could convey, into your mind or spirit, my mind or spirit; and that my spirit had such command over your spirit as to secure that the action of your intellect and heart in reading my letter should fit in exactly, and harmonize, with the action of mine in writing it. Then, though we might be separated by the diameter of the globe, or, though one of us should be in heaven above and the other on the earth below, I am present with you by my word and spirit; and very real and intimate and intense is our communion, — more so, by far, than if we were merely face to face in the flesh.

Is it necessary to point out that this is the very arrangement which actually subsists under Christ's present method of instructing you, while he is in heaven above and you are here upon the earth; very beautifully illustrated, yea literally exemplified, by his letters to the Churches? "These things saith he"; — so do these epistles open: they are the Word of Christ. "Let him that hath an ear hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches"; — so do these epistles close: the Spirit of Christ is in them, and with them. It is the very arrangement which we have supposed; only freed, as between you and your God, from all the imperfections to which even this arrangement, as between you and a fellow-creature, would be subject? So that you shall even infallibly be put in possession of the Lord's meaning. You shall assuredly "have the mind of Christ." And Christ's most intimate Presence shall be with you — not to the eyes of your flesh, but to the now heaven-bright eyes of your spirit. But we must resume and extend a former inference also.

Go to the next installment:
Christ's Presence in the Gospel History: Part IV