Rejection in Nazareth - Luke 4:15-30
Jesus stayed with the Samaritans for 2 days, then he left to go to Galilee "and he taught in their synagogues, being gloried of all." When I read "glorified" I thought that that would mean worshipped but then I remembered that intelligence is the glory of God, and if I thought about this phrase in the context of Jesus teaching in the churches, then it would make sense that He enlightened and inspired the people that he taught and that would be a more accurate meaning, as another perspective.
I wonder if at this point the disciples had already left Jesus to go back to their homes because I don't see any mention of them here and then he goes and calls them again, so it would make sense that after Samaria they might have split up with Andrew, James, John, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael going back to the place where they were from, to see their families. I need a map. It appears that everyone returns home to be with their families and Jesus is no exception as He returns to Nazareth, "where he had been brought up." On the Sabbath, Jesus "went into the synagogue... and stood up for to read." This is familiar to us because we have people stand up to "read" or to give talks in sacrament meeting at church, so Jesus stands up and in the scriptures turns to Isaiah chapter 61, as we know it, and reads, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Let's get some background on this verse because honestly it just sounds like Isaiah being poetic as usual and doesn't really have a lot of significance for me. These verses are explained by the IM as, "The verses Jesus quotes provided a summary of HIs earthly mission and atoning sacrifice. The verses referred to a person who was 'anointed'- a term the Jews recognized as meaning 'the Messiah.' As the Messiah, Jesus was sent to 'heal the brokenhearted'- His atoning sacrifice would save those who offer the sacrifice of a broken heart and contrite spirit. He was sent to 'preach deliverance to the captives'- His gospel would deliver those in spirit prison as well as those in spiritual bondage. He was to provide 'sight to the blind'- He would miraculously restore physical and spiritual sight. He was to 'set at liberty them that are bruise'- fulfilling the promise to Mother Eve that her posterity, whose heels were bruised by the serpent, would have power to crush the serpent's head. He was to 'preach the acceptable year of the Lord'- to preach that the Lord had begun HIs ministry, which He had!" JTC also explains "Many times as boy and man He had sat in that house of worship (the synagogue), listening to the reading of the law and the prophets and to the commentaries..., as delivered by appointed readers; but now, as a recognized teacher of legal age He was eligible to take the reader's place. On this occasion He stood up to read, when the service had reached the stage at which extracts from the prophetical books were to be read to the congregation. The minister in charge handed Him the roll, or book, of Isaiah; He turned to the part known to us as the beginning of the sixty-first chapter, and read... The scripture He had quoted was one recognized by all classes as specifically referring to the Messiah, for whose coming the nation waited." That is a very in depth explanation but it makes what Jesus read more understandable as to why it was significant for the Jews.
After reading those verses, Jesus closes the book, gives it back to the minister and goes to sit down, and everyone is watching Him. This is a little bit more foreign to us these days as we do not teach this way, we stand at the pulpit and speak, then sit when we are done but the IM explains that Jesus's actions were in keeping with the customs of his day saying, "After reading the scripture, Jesus Christ sat down to comment. In Jesus' era, it was customary to stand while reading but to sit while teaching. As the eyes of everyone in the synagogue turned on Him, Jesus declared, 'This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." This was Jesus telling the people that He's known since childhood, "I am the Messiah, the one that you've been waiting for." It feels like the Jews at the time, especially those in leadership, really benefitted from the concept of the Messiah coming in the indeterminate future. Kind of like how we are with the second come, yeah, we know it's going to happen eventually, but it probably won't be in our lifetime. That can't be everyone's attitude all the time because eventually he will come in someone's lifetime and they will be so surprised. They never expected for it to actually happen.
The people of Nazareth are very surprised and "wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?" They knew his mother Mary, they knew the man who raised him as his own, Joseph, they knew his brothers and sisters, and they knew him. Unlike everyone else that has ever lived, Jesus was perfect so they couldn't cite their mind back to the awful things that He did as a child because they were none. They couldn't have been that surprised that he had said this because an attitude of "prove it" was their response, and knowing their thoughts Jesus says, "Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physical heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also in thy country." This makes me wonder if I have things mixed up and this happens after Jesus heals the official's son, but it's ok. They want to see a miracle, they want proof, they don't come to him in humility asking, "Master heal our sick" they come to him with entitlement saying, "prove it." Jesus had the ability to heal and he does often , and he probably could have healed and performed miracles here, but we know that miracles strengthen existing testimony, they don't convert, miracles are not done for proof, they are done as mercies. Jesus tells them, "Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country."
Jesus gives them the example of the widow who cared for Elias during a great famine of three and a half years, who JTC reminds us was "a woman of Sarepta in Sidon, a Gentile, not a daughter of Israel." He also reminds them that though there had been many lepers throughout time, only Naaman demonstrated enough faith to be healed by Elijah, "and he a Syrian, not an Israelite." We see that the Samaritans welcomed him with open arms and many believed on him after only 2 days, but here in his home town he is met with skepticism and derision. The people of Nazareth are not please, JTC asks, "Did He dare to class them with Gentiles and lepers? Were they to be likened unto despised unbelievers, and that too by the son of the village carpenter, who had grown form childhood in their community?" This was incredibly offensive to them, to the point that they were willing to murder Jesus, the people in the congregation grabbed him "and took Him to the brow of the hill on the slopes of which the town was built, determined to avenge their wounded feelings by hurling Him from the rocky cliffs." They were going to straight murder Jesus because they were offended by what he was saying, this is incredible to me, the fact that they went from confusion to murder in the space of a single, short conversation demonstrates their immense wickedness. No wonder they didn't recognize Him, they wouldn't have seen or believed regardless of where He had grown up.
But Jesus doesn't die here, this isn't the end of his story, and it's not for a lack of trying on the part of the Nazarenes, because it's one man against a mob, by all statistics and common sense, he should have been killed right then and there, but he wasn't. And this is where I truly came to understand a key aspect of the atonement, and that was that Jesus had to choose to give up his life willingly because he was not worthy of death because he was sinless. It was an epiphany for me and I finally understood that it wasn't chance that Jesus lived until he died on the cross, it wasn't coincidence, he willingly chose to die. I had always wondered why he didn't plead for His life in front of Pilate, why he answered that Pilate only had the power given to him by God, I thought that that was such a flippant answer, but ultimately it was true, it didn't matter what answer he gave Pilate, because at any moment Christ could have stopped His execution, but he didn't, His death was his choice, and I had never seen if that way before I was made to understand the times when he chose NOT to die. JTC finished with, "Thus early in His ministry did the forces of opposition attain murderous intensity. But our Lord's time to die had not yet come. The infuriated mob was powerless to go one step farther than their supposed victim would permit. 'But he passing through the midst of them went his way.' Whether they were overawed by the grace of His presence, silenced by the power of His words, or stayed by some more appalling intervention, we are not informed. He departed from the unbelieving Nazarenes, and thenceforth Nazareth was no longer His home."
I wonder if at this point the disciples had already left Jesus to go back to their homes because I don't see any mention of them here and then he goes and calls them again, so it would make sense that after Samaria they might have split up with Andrew, James, John, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael going back to the place where they were from, to see their families. I need a map. It appears that everyone returns home to be with their families and Jesus is no exception as He returns to Nazareth, "where he had been brought up." On the Sabbath, Jesus "went into the synagogue... and stood up for to read." This is familiar to us because we have people stand up to "read" or to give talks in sacrament meeting at church, so Jesus stands up and in the scriptures turns to Isaiah chapter 61, as we know it, and reads, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Let's get some background on this verse because honestly it just sounds like Isaiah being poetic as usual and doesn't really have a lot of significance for me. These verses are explained by the IM as, "The verses Jesus quotes provided a summary of HIs earthly mission and atoning sacrifice. The verses referred to a person who was 'anointed'- a term the Jews recognized as meaning 'the Messiah.' As the Messiah, Jesus was sent to 'heal the brokenhearted'- His atoning sacrifice would save those who offer the sacrifice of a broken heart and contrite spirit. He was sent to 'preach deliverance to the captives'- His gospel would deliver those in spirit prison as well as those in spiritual bondage. He was to provide 'sight to the blind'- He would miraculously restore physical and spiritual sight. He was to 'set at liberty them that are bruise'- fulfilling the promise to Mother Eve that her posterity, whose heels were bruised by the serpent, would have power to crush the serpent's head. He was to 'preach the acceptable year of the Lord'- to preach that the Lord had begun HIs ministry, which He had!" JTC also explains "Many times as boy and man He had sat in that house of worship (the synagogue), listening to the reading of the law and the prophets and to the commentaries..., as delivered by appointed readers; but now, as a recognized teacher of legal age He was eligible to take the reader's place. On this occasion He stood up to read, when the service had reached the stage at which extracts from the prophetical books were to be read to the congregation. The minister in charge handed Him the roll, or book, of Isaiah; He turned to the part known to us as the beginning of the sixty-first chapter, and read... The scripture He had quoted was one recognized by all classes as specifically referring to the Messiah, for whose coming the nation waited." That is a very in depth explanation but it makes what Jesus read more understandable as to why it was significant for the Jews.
After reading those verses, Jesus closes the book, gives it back to the minister and goes to sit down, and everyone is watching Him. This is a little bit more foreign to us these days as we do not teach this way, we stand at the pulpit and speak, then sit when we are done but the IM explains that Jesus's actions were in keeping with the customs of his day saying, "After reading the scripture, Jesus Christ sat down to comment. In Jesus' era, it was customary to stand while reading but to sit while teaching. As the eyes of everyone in the synagogue turned on Him, Jesus declared, 'This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." This was Jesus telling the people that He's known since childhood, "I am the Messiah, the one that you've been waiting for." It feels like the Jews at the time, especially those in leadership, really benefitted from the concept of the Messiah coming in the indeterminate future. Kind of like how we are with the second come, yeah, we know it's going to happen eventually, but it probably won't be in our lifetime. That can't be everyone's attitude all the time because eventually he will come in someone's lifetime and they will be so surprised. They never expected for it to actually happen.
The people of Nazareth are very surprised and "wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?" They knew his mother Mary, they knew the man who raised him as his own, Joseph, they knew his brothers and sisters, and they knew him. Unlike everyone else that has ever lived, Jesus was perfect so they couldn't cite their mind back to the awful things that He did as a child because they were none. They couldn't have been that surprised that he had said this because an attitude of "prove it" was their response, and knowing their thoughts Jesus says, "Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physical heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also in thy country." This makes me wonder if I have things mixed up and this happens after Jesus heals the official's son, but it's ok. They want to see a miracle, they want proof, they don't come to him in humility asking, "Master heal our sick" they come to him with entitlement saying, "prove it." Jesus had the ability to heal and he does often , and he probably could have healed and performed miracles here, but we know that miracles strengthen existing testimony, they don't convert, miracles are not done for proof, they are done as mercies. Jesus tells them, "Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country."
Jesus gives them the example of the widow who cared for Elias during a great famine of three and a half years, who JTC reminds us was "a woman of Sarepta in Sidon, a Gentile, not a daughter of Israel." He also reminds them that though there had been many lepers throughout time, only Naaman demonstrated enough faith to be healed by Elijah, "and he a Syrian, not an Israelite." We see that the Samaritans welcomed him with open arms and many believed on him after only 2 days, but here in his home town he is met with skepticism and derision. The people of Nazareth are not please, JTC asks, "Did He dare to class them with Gentiles and lepers? Were they to be likened unto despised unbelievers, and that too by the son of the village carpenter, who had grown form childhood in their community?" This was incredibly offensive to them, to the point that they were willing to murder Jesus, the people in the congregation grabbed him "and took Him to the brow of the hill on the slopes of which the town was built, determined to avenge their wounded feelings by hurling Him from the rocky cliffs." They were going to straight murder Jesus because they were offended by what he was saying, this is incredible to me, the fact that they went from confusion to murder in the space of a single, short conversation demonstrates their immense wickedness. No wonder they didn't recognize Him, they wouldn't have seen or believed regardless of where He had grown up.
But Jesus doesn't die here, this isn't the end of his story, and it's not for a lack of trying on the part of the Nazarenes, because it's one man against a mob, by all statistics and common sense, he should have been killed right then and there, but he wasn't. And this is where I truly came to understand a key aspect of the atonement, and that was that Jesus had to choose to give up his life willingly because he was not worthy of death because he was sinless. It was an epiphany for me and I finally understood that it wasn't chance that Jesus lived until he died on the cross, it wasn't coincidence, he willingly chose to die. I had always wondered why he didn't plead for His life in front of Pilate, why he answered that Pilate only had the power given to him by God, I thought that that was such a flippant answer, but ultimately it was true, it didn't matter what answer he gave Pilate, because at any moment Christ could have stopped His execution, but he didn't, His death was his choice, and I had never seen if that way before I was made to understand the times when he chose NOT to die. JTC finished with, "Thus early in His ministry did the forces of opposition attain murderous intensity. But our Lord's time to die had not yet come. The infuriated mob was powerless to go one step farther than their supposed victim would permit. 'But he passing through the midst of them went his way.' Whether they were overawed by the grace of His presence, silenced by the power of His words, or stayed by some more appalling intervention, we are not informed. He departed from the unbelieving Nazarenes, and thenceforth Nazareth was no longer His home."
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