Jesus stopped reading and handed the roll back to the minister. He sat down in the seat from which Jewish preachers always spoke to the people in the synagogue.
The whole congregation was very still, waiting to hear what Jesus had to say. That was an exciting lesson he had read from the Scriptures. It made the people think of the Messiah. Someday a preacher would be able to say, "This has all come true!" And that would mean that the Messiah had come.
Jesus looked around at the faces he knew so well. Thirty years he had lived among these people. Now he was back to tell them something that they had never known before.
He began to speak.
"Today," he said, "you are seeing this Scripture lesson come true."
A thrill ran through the audience. The Scripture had come true? The Messiah was really here? Could he mean that he was the Messiah? The people gasped. Some laughed. Others were angry. They started to talk among themselves.
"The Messiah? Him? Why, that's only Jesus! The carpenter's son!"
"Everybody knows who Jesus is! Lived down the street since I don't know when!"
"Who does he think he is?"