Luke 4:21-30 – Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth

Everywhere Jesus went in Galilee, He was warmly welcomed. His teaching was well-received. Here He was now at Nazareth, His hometown and in the Synagogue. This was the place He grew up as a boy and learned His trade as a carpenter. He must have also been to the synagogue many times in the past. This time it was different. He was given the task to read the Scripture. So Jesus read from Isaiah 6:1-2a. When He had finished He rolled up the scroll, returned it to the attendant and sat down. As every eye was fixed on Him in expectancy, He said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” They accepted Him initially and even spoke well of Him. As they pondered over His words and recalling His background, they began to entertain doubt over His teaching. They knew He was referring to His mission as the Messiah. So they asked “Is this not Joseph’s son?” It was a loaded question. What they meant was: if this is Joseph’s son, then how can He be the Messiah? Is He not just a human like anyone after all?” What they heard Him say and what they knew of His status, just did not seem congruent.  Sadly, we will see their acceptance turned into cynicism. Jesus had lived with them so He could tell that he was not accepted for who He is.

In response, Jesus dealt with their question. He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” Jesus took the words out of the mouth of these good people of Nazareth and pious worshipers. They were in effect cynical: “How can he be a prophet? If he is, anyone of us is Isaiah. Hey Prophet! How about showing us your capability and your tricks. Is this too much to ask of a prophet? The poor? The prisoners? The blind? The oppressed?  Who does He think he is?”

There was enough evidence from all that He had done elsewhere to believe in Him. All of Galilee was raving about all that had happened in His ministry. But their difficulty in accepting him was not due to a lack of evidence, but their emotional bias. His background as Joseph’s son was their stumbling block. So Jesus went right to the heart of the matter – their pride and lack of spiritual poverty. So He cited two famous Old Testament accounts.

The first one involved Elijah and the poor starving widow of Zarephath in Sidon. The story is recorded in 1 Kings 17:7-16. During Elijah’s time there were many widows in Israel. When a time of drought and famine hit the land for three and a half years, Elijah was not sent to anyone but only to the widow at Zarephath. Because the widow obeyed the prophet, she had flour and oil throughout the duration of the drought. Had the widow been like the people of Nazareth and insisted on seeing a miracle first, she would have died hungry. Though she was in absolute poverty and had only one meal left, she was prepared to give it to the prophet without asking for evidence. Let’s imagine the reverse, if she had a barrelful of flour when she met Elijah, she would have placed her faith in what she had rather than in God. What she had going for her was the fact that she was desperately poor, and she knew it. If the people wanted to see all that Jesus had claimed, they had to trust Him absolutely. But in their minds they were not poor. They were self-sufficient, respectable, solid citizens of Nazareth. To compare them to a poor Gentile widow in Elijah’s day was a massive insult.

The second Old Testament account Jesus told was the story of Namaan, the Syrian. There were many in Israel who suffered leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet. Yet only Namaan, a Syrian army officer, was healed through Elisha’s ministry. The full account of his healing can be found in 2 Kings 5.  In short, Jesus was saying that this officer, though high in position, would listen to his servant, and in humility obeyed the instruction of the prophet. He was not afraid to humble himself, and so was cured. The people of Nazareth have had enough. It was bad enough to identify them with the poor, prisoners, blind, and oppressed, but now to be told that they were less spiritual and wise than a Gentile was too much. They were enraged. They didn’t even wait for the Benediction. All those in the Synagogue got up and drove Jesus out of town. They took Him to the brow of the hill with the intention to throw Him off the cliff. But Jesus was divinely protected and verse 30 tells us, “…passing through their midst, He went His way.”

Jesus’ dealing with the people of Nazareth leaves us a lesson. He can see through all our religious façade. He wants us to trust Him and accept Him wholeheartedly and believing that He is Who He says He is. We must not doubt what Jesus can do for us, no matter how bleak our circumstance may be. He truly came to set us free!