The preacher stood in front of the congregation, as he did every week, to  read from God's Word.  He selected a passage, prophetic verses, and began to read.  Then the preacher closed the book and began to return to his seat.  But he stopped and looked over the crowd.  "Today," he said, "the prophecy I just read will be completed in your very presence."

Wow.  Kind of a startling end to a routine Sabbath activity, I'd say.  What would be going through your mind if your preacher read verses from Revelation or Daniel or Ezekiel and claimed that one of God's prophecies was going to be accomplished on that exact day?  You might think, "Who is this guy, to declare when God does His will?" 

Well, the people in a congregation probably had a similar response when a preacher really did make this claim.  One Saturday in the synagogue, Jesus read out of Isaiah.  He gathered the attention of the entire group and said, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."

As could be expected, this sent quite a murmur of amazement through the rest of the audience.  "Isn't that Joseph's son?" they asked, no doubt astounded that the son of a carpenter would be so bold.

This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible.  I can imagine myself sitting in the audience, hearing Jesus speak these words.  It would send chills down one's spine to hear a speaker say, "today this scripture is fulfilled."

I wonder if Isaiah knew that the words he wrote would someday be read to a Jewish congregation by God's own Son, Savior of men.

Another amazing thing about these verses is that Christ leaves something out of the Isaiah passage.  When He gets to the end of the verse, He stops after "to proclaim the acceptable year of our Lord."  But Isaiah continues, adding "and the day of vengeance of our God."

It is difficult to be sure, but one could almost picture a sigh of relief coming from the Old Testament scholars when Jesus quit before that part about God's vengeance.