The confidence which the early disciples had in Jesus was a grace given them by God. It was supported by their experience that Jesus fulfilled all that had been written in the Law and the Prophets - the Old Testament. We read last Saturday how Philip had used this description to attract his friend Nathanael to Jesus. Jesus' own way of speaking about His fulfilment was more frequently to appeal to the Prophet Isaiah. We can with some justification say that Jesus discovered Himself and His vocation in the pages of this great prophet, especially in what Isaiah had to say about a suffering servant of God. One of the most striking examples of this is today's Gospel. At Nazareth, Jesus read the reading from Isaiah and affirmed that this was a great moment of grace, both for His listeners and for the whole world. His "today" marked, not an end, but a transition and a fulfilment. When anyone grasped the significance of this "today", all the Old Testament - the Law and the Prophets - fell into place. God's word reached a flowering, a climax that was beyond all thier hope and dreams.