"At the basis of the church's life, therefore, stand the Holy Scriptures. It is through the Scriptures alone that the church hears of its redemption. And it is through the Scriptures alone that the church learns what is consequently required of it. The Scriptures mediate to us both gospel and law, and both are necessary for our response to our Lord."

In unrolling the scroll to read that day, Jesus was just doing what other men of the synagogue did by turn – reading from the prescribed text for the day. This was a passage from Isaiah that the other worshipers would have known. But when he sat down and began to reveal himself to them as the fulfillment of God’s Word they heard the gospel according to Jesus for the very first time. Hearing Jesus declaring himself to be the fulfillment of God’s Word – describing himself as being the answer to the problems of poverty, captivity, incapacity and oppression – was undoubtedly puzzling and incomprehensible to those who knew him as the village carpenter. But Jesus was unrolling the scroll of God’s Word for his listeners and for us in a new way – telling the world what God wants for the world and how those things will be accomplished.

We are often reminded that we need to read the Scriptures in order to know what it is that God has to say to us. But we also need to HEAR God’s Word. Reading and hearing are not the same thing. One of the reasons for reading aloud three lections each Sunday is so that the gathered body of Christ can HEAR what God says to us through the writers of the First Testament, the Gospels, and the other New Testament writings. I happen to believe that, whether I’m using all three of the readings for my sermon or only one of them, it is important that we hear what else God has to say to us through the other texts. But whether we hear the Sacred Story in a church setting or read it in the quiet of our living rooms, we do need to be "hearing" God’s Word with an understanding that only comes through unrolling the scroll – or opening the book, if you prefer – and making it a part of our lives.

Elizabeth Achtemeier is correct in saying that it is only through the Scriptures that the church learns what is required of it. The Scriptures transmit to us both gospel and law, and both are, indeed, necessary for our response to Christ. Indeed, the quotation from Isaiah that Jesus reads and interprets to the synagogue, taken with Paul’s words to the church at Corinth in the New Testment reading create a "job description" for all believers. These two passages tell us what we're supposed to do: bring sight to the blind, good news to the poor, let the oppressed go free, proclaim the year of the Lord's favor – and, according to Paul, the way we are supposed to do these things is together – working as a body, respecting and using the gifts that we have been given!

When Jesus sat down and began to interpret the scroll for those in the synagogue he was doing much more than his hearers could comprehend. They knew God’s promise for a time when there would truly be justice for all people. But that was for some future time. It wasn’t for them and their time! And how could the village carpenter possibly be the fulfillment of the promise? But the fact is that this carpenter from Nazareth changed the world through his life, his teachings, his death, and his resurrection. He DID teach us that God has certain expectations of us. He DID show us how to live so that - in our own time - the poor hear the good news, the captives are released, the blind can see, and oppression ceases.