Luke 4:14-30

Luke begins describing the public ministry of Jesus in 4:14.  As we saw in the previous chapter Jesus was now about 30 years old.  We don’t know for sure why God had him wait this long to start.   Levites began their temple ministry to God at that age, and Rabbis had to be 30 or older before they were considered eligible to teach.  It could simply be that culturally Jesus needed to be that old before people would listen. 

Or maybe He was unable to leave His responsibilities at home until that time.  The last time we hear of Joseph, other than referred to as the supposed father of Jesus, is when Jesus is twelve.  If Joseph had died then the responsibility for providing and caring for the family would have fallen upon Jesus, the oldest son.  Not until his half brothers, James, Joses, Judas and Simon were old enough to take on those responsibilities would Jesus be free to leave the family and begin His mission. 

Whatever the case God had Jesus wait until this point to get started.  Up until this time he was a carpenter.  Another Jewish peasant working hard to make ends meet.  Isn’t it nice to know that Jesus knows what it is like to have to run a household? He knows what it means to labor for your bread and to work to pay the bills.  He took those responsibilities seriously.

Now, however, it was time for Him to take on His preaching and teaching ministry.  His main job was to seek and to save that which was lost.  And for the next 3 years Jesus would travel around the small country of Israel doing just that.  The place in the Jordan River where Jesus got baptized was near Capernaum.  So when Jesus came out of the wilderness after His 40 day fast and victorious battle over Satan’s temptations Jesus naturally began His teaching and preaching in that area. 

It wasn’t until a little later that Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth.  And that is where Luke picks up the story in verse 14 of chapter 4. 

14Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

Well, just in case you haven’t heard yet, the Pittsburgh Steelers are this year’s Super Bowl Champions.  They won a hard fought game up in Detroit.  They played solid, mostly mistake free football and that generally goes a long ways towards helping you win.  There was much wild jumping around and celebrating on the field and in the locker room.  But according to several players the best celebration took place two days later.  It was then that the city of Pittsburgh put on a grand parade for all of the players.  Thousands upon thousands of people lined the streets to cheer on their hometown heroes.  They danced and waved signs that said, “Thanks!” and “We Love You” or simply “The Best.”  Videos and cameras recorded the event so that people could prove I was there to see my hero.  Several players described it as a wonderful homecoming and they felt overawed at the love and admiration of the crowds.

In some ways it first appears that Jesus was going to get that same kind of hometown welcome.  As He had preached around the surrounding areas He had built up a good reputation.  Verse 15 ends by saying “He was praised by all.”   And because of that news about Him was beginning to spread.

John the Baptist had gathered large crowds by preaching a gospel of repentance and preparation for the coming of the Messiah.  The initial message Jesus preached was also a message of repentance and it was well received by the people. 

Back then communication was limited.  Now days we are so used to the idea of instantly being able to know what is going on all over the world that we tend to forget it wasn’t always that way.  Back before you had TV, radio and phones it took news a long time to go from one place to another.  Word of mouth was it unless you sent a letter and since there was no postal service you could only send a letter if someone traveled to the destination and hand delivered it.  And travel was only done when necessary since it was slow and dangerous.  A big event could happen only 50 miles away and it could be days or even weeks before you would hear about it.  But when news did come in it was always the talk of the town. 

Long before Jesus ever returned to His hometown news of His ministry was the hot topic in Nazareth.  They had heard about His preaching and how it had captivated large crowds.  They listened to tales of healings by His hand. Was that true?  Could He really heal the sick and cast out demons?  Or were those just exaggerated stories?  You know how it goes when news travels from one person’s mouth to another.  You are never quite sure of what to believe and what to discard. 

So when Jesus walked back into Nazareth there was a fair amount of excitement at His return.  And that is part of the reason why He would have been given the privilege of speaking in the local synagogue service. 

16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read.

The synagogue service would have been quite similar to our church service today.  It always started with a blessing and then the entire congregation, which would have been all the men 13 years old and above, would recite the Shema.  The Shema comes from Deuteronomy  6:4-5, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God.  The Lord is one.  And you shall love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  After the Shema the Rabbi would pronounce another blessing on those in attendance.

Then there would be a long prayer that ended with everybody saying “Amen.”  After that they would do a reading from the book of the law, which is the 1^st 5 books of the Old Testament.  They always read in Hebrew but since most people spoke Aramaic the speaker would translate the passage.  That reading would be followed by a reading from the prophets.  Then a rabbi would give a message based on one or both of those passages.  The custom was to stand while reading God’s Word, then the Rabbi would sit while he taught.  The congregation usually stood for the entire service.  After the sermon a benediction was pronounced and the service would be over.

It was always a special treat when a traveling Rabbi came through and they were frequently asked to do the Scripture readings and sermon.  That’s how Jesus ended up leading the synagogue service in Nazareth.  The synagogue leader would have handed Jesus a portion of the law and then the prophets, which would have been written on scrolls, and Jesus would have selected the passages He wanted to read from whatever book He was handed. 

We don’t know what portion of the book of the law Jesus read, but when it came to the prophets he was handed the scroll of Isaiah, verse 17:

17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

 18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
      because he has anointed me
      to preach good news to the poor.
   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
      and recovery of sight for the blind,
   to release the oppressed,
    19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

This was a popular portion of Isaiah and it was frequently read in synagogue meetings.  Any of the prophecies that talked about the Messiah were always well received.  As I mentioned in a previous message expectation that the Messiah would appear on the scene at any moment were running at a fever pitch in Israel.  So it was not out of the ordinary that Jesus read these verses. 

And it was with great eagerness that the people waited to hear what Jesus would say.

20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

They had heard rumors about his powerful preaching and supposed miracles.  They could hardly wait to hear what this man would say about the Messiah, but verse 1 probably took them all by surprise!  As far as we know from what is recorded in the four Gospels, this is the first time that Jesus actually made any direct statement concerning His true identity.  And this created a conflict in the people.  They wanted the Messiah to come.  They had been anxiously awaiting his arrival.  They just weren’t 100% sure this Jesus fellow fit the bill. 

22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.

We need to remember that what we have recorded here is just a condensed version.  That one sentence wasn’t the entire sermon Jesus gave.  I mean, how would you like it if I just gave a one-sentence sermon?  Wait!  Don’t answer that question.   Luke recorded that one sentence because it was the pertinent point. 

So the situation we have is that at first people were struck by the graciousness of Jesus and His preaching.  What a great guy!  What a positive and uplifting message.  They liked all that and it attracted them to Jesus.  But then He comes out and makes this astounding declaration that He is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. 

And immediately they start murmuring and mumbling to themselves.  Who does he think he is?  We know this guy.  We grew up with him.  He’s just the son of a carpenter.  Mark, in his gospel, records the complaining with more detail.  “He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, ‘Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at Him. “

Now Jesus hadn’t performed any miracles in Nazareth yet.  So their statement about miracles being done by His hand was probably said in a sarcastic way.  They found it hard to believe that this common peasant, one of them could possibly be the Messiah.  Which is most likely why Jesus answered the way he did in verse 23:

23Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' "

Jesus heard the people grumbling so He spoke out loud what they were whispering to one another.  The ‘heal yourself’ would be in reference to his character and the assertion that He was the Messiah.  If you are who you say you are then prove it.  We’ve heard the rumors of the ‘so called’ miracles in Capernaum.  Lets see what you’ve got. 

Jesus was going to get this a lot during His ministry.  But He knew that if people didn’t want to believe, they weren’t going to believe.  No matter what Kind of miracles He performed.  In Luke 9 we have the record of the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 men.  That, to me, is one of the most spectacular miracles Jesus performed.  The day after that event Jesus confronted the people He had fed with their need for them to believe in Him.  Do you know how they responded?  They asked, “What miracle are you going to do to prove that you are the Messiah?”   Can you believe that?  He just did an awesome miracle.  Jesus was smart enough to know that miracles will never convince an unbelieving heart. 

So He didn’t do a miracle for that crowd in the Nazareth synagogue.  He didn’t come to be a traveling dog and pony show.  He came to seek and to save the lost.  That meant, first of all, that people had to be willing to see that they were in fact lost.  To that end Jesus illustrated that point in verses 25-28:

24"I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian." 28All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.

Now why did the people get so mad at this?  These were both true stories from Israel’s past.  Elijah and Elisha ministered during what can be called the low point in Israel’s spiritual history.  There was rampant unbelief in the land as the people chased after various false gods.  And the men in the synagogue got so mad because they immediately saw that Jesus was comparing them to those unbelieving Jews of Elijah’s day.  But even worse than that Jesus was implying that Gentiles, non-Jews, people who were not descendants of Abraham, He was saying that they would receive God’s blessings instead of the Jews just because they believed. 

The Jews held Gentiles in such contempt and with so much hatred that a common saying among them was that God had created Gentiles just to be fuel for the fires of hell.  So when they understood that Jesus was saying those two Gentiles were in a better position to receive God’s blessing than they were it filled them with rage.  The rest of the story tells us that they actually forced Jesus out of the synagogue and were going to kill Him, but God didn’t permit it so Jesus ended up walking away.

Now there are a couple of obvious lessons for us today.  The first is that Jesus truly is the promised Savior.  He wasn’t just on some ego trip when He claimed that God had sent Him to preach the gospel and to set free the captive and give sight to the blind and heal the broken hearted.  Jesus is the Messiah and it is to Him you must go if you want salvation. 

Jesus never returned to Nazareth after this incident

If you have not come to Christ in faith for the forgiveness of sins then please understand He is calling to you right now.  Don’t let any walls or barriers keep you from responding.  As far as the record shows Jesus never returned to Nazareth after this incident.  The people had Jesus right there in front of them and they rejected Him and for many they never got another chance.  Don’t let that be you.  If Jesus is tugging at your heart then come today, right now.

I think there is also a lesson here for those of us who are already saved.  Jesus came preaching the gospel and we have been charged to carry on that mission preaching the good news to the world today.  But notice that Jesus did His preaching surrounded by a ministry of compassion and care.  He gave sight to the blind, set free the down trodden and bound up the broken hearted.  Unless people, and by people I mean your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers or even your unsaved family members, unless they see that you genuinely care and have an active compassion they aren’t going to be very interested in the message you have.

As we saw in the story today compassion doesn’t guarantee that people will accept salvation.  But if we want to be like Jesus it means making sure we care about people.