Jesus' Hometown

Welcome

Good morning and welcome everyone. Today we are continuing to look at Jesus’ ministry and how he points out multiple times throughout his life that he is the promised Messiah. As Jesus has gone around healing and preaching, the time now arrives when he heads back to his hometown of Nazareth and he preaches to his local synagogue.

Prayer

Jesus’ Preaching

Luke 4:14–21 NIV

14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. 16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the 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 proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 Then 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. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Once again, we read about Jesus’ growing popularity. He is in Galilee going around to the different synagogues and people are praising him. All in all, so far things are going pretty good for Jesus’ ministry. Jesus makes his way back to his hometown of Nazareth and on the Sabbath he goes there to worship. Just a few things I want us to notice in these opening verses. First, public opinion of Jesus at this point was high. People were excited to hear that he was coming in their town and he would draw quite a crowd. Really the only illustration I have that kind of represents this excitement was when the show “American Pickers” came through town. I remember someone texted me about it and I thought that was pretty neat. Later I saw someone post something on Facebook about it, that they were on main street in Flanagan. I drove by just to see what was happening and was surprised how many people were there. It was a pretty big deal and was a fun topic for conversation for a few days. But we have to think about that and multiply it by an insane amount to understand the impact that Jesus was having. People were lining up to see Jesus when he gets to a town and now, he has arrived in his hometown. Nazareth is where he grew up with his family, and in our passge he’s going into the synagogue that he likely went to when he was growing up. The second thing I want us to see is that going to the synagogue was part of Jesus’ regular schedule. I think this is a good reminder that it is good to have church be a regular thing for all of us. Going to worship was part of Jesus’ life and so it should also be part of ours. It’s good to spend time in worship together because it can encourage us personally and help us in our relationship with God. But it is also good because it allows us time to connect with one another, time to pour into one another and love one another.

So as Jesus is there, he stand us to read from Isaiah. To help us understand what it happening here, it’s good to have an idea of what a service would have looked like back then. The congregation would recite Deuteronomy 6:4-9, which is called the Shema. The scripture begins, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” After reciting the Shema, they would share in prayer and singing songs. After the prayer and songs there was a reading from the Law of Moses and then a reading from the Prophets. Once the readings were completed, there would be an exposition of the text (what we would call a sermon today) that usually would tie the readings together. The service closed with a benediction, the pronouncing of a blessing on the people.

With that understanding, we know where in the service this passage takes place. We are in the part where a passage from the prophets were read and Jesus turns to the passage that we have in our Bibles as Isaiah 61:1-2. This passage in Isaiah is pointing towards a prophetic figure who will announce the arrival of salvation for the people of Israel. The figure of Isaiah 61 brings a message of God’s deliverance to the exiles. The Spirit of the Lord being upon this Messianic figure means that he would be God’s designated servant with a special task given by God. The Messiah was not going to be a self-proclaimed messiah, but one designated by God, which we see in Jesus’ baptism when the Father announces that Jesus is his son.

Three times Isaiah says that the Messiah is going to be proclaiming. He will proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, and the year of the Lord’s favor. This reading by Jesus helps us understand the thinking of the day. Israel had already been set free from Babylonian captivity. However, Isaiah’s prophecy had not yet been fulfilled because Isaiah was not merely speaking of a physical release from a world power. Rather, Isaiah is picturing the coming of the Messiah who will free the people from their sins. The prophecy pictures a messiah who will restore God’s blessings to the people (“proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”). The people are oppressed by sin and wandering in the darkness of sin. But the Messiah will come and bring light, blessings, and favor.

This picture of freedom in Isaiah and the phrase, “The year of the Lord’s favor” points the audience to the year of Jubilee. Under the Law of Moses the year of Jubilee occurred every fiftieth year and was when the debts were canceled and slaves were freed. People would have read this passage and also recognized that this pointed to their sin. Not only would the people of Israel be freed from their oppressors, but they would be freed from their sin as well. So Isaiah is picturing a time when salvation from sin for the people would finally arrive. This is what the people would have been thinking about as this passage was read that day.

So keep all of this in mind. Jesus just read a passage of scripture where Isaiah is pointing the people to the hope that will one day come. There will be a day when the people are set free, when the blind will see, and it will be good news to the poor. After Jesus reads this everyone is waiting for him to preach. They are waiting for the sermon part of this service. Jesus however walks back to his seat and sits down. He then begins by saying, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

This is what we would call a mic drop in today’s language. Here is Jesus, Joseph and Mary’s son, the carpenter’s boy, who reads a messianic passage from Isaiah, and then he tells the people that he is the fulfillment of that passage. That day that they have been waiting for has arrived.

Imagine living back in Nazareth and experiencing this. Imagine if a boy who you watched grow up announce at church, “I am the fulfillment of prophecy.” We would probably have questions ourselves. And the people of Nazareth are no different.

Luke 4:22–30 NIV

22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. 23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ ” 24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I 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. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And 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.” 28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

The people don’t respond well to Jesus. After all, they know him. They know his parents, they watched him grow up, and here he is placing himself into this passage in Isaiah.

Jesus says that they will not believe him and that they will demand the miracles that were done in other places be done in Nazareth. This is an interesting part of this passage for me. The people really didn’t want to see a miracle to know if Jesus’ claim was true. They just wanted to see miracles. The Gospel of Mark gives us more detail, but it doesn’t matter what Jesus does, whether it is teaching or miracles, the people will not accept him. They won’t believe that he is who he claims to be. And instead, they will keep asking for more signs. How many of us have asked God to perform some kind of miracle and offered some kind of belief as a response. “God, if you would just do this or that… God if you would just heal me or heal this person… God if you would just send me a sign… then I will believe, then I will know and understand that you are who you say you are.” Yet as we look at scripture, we can see that signs and miracles do not necessarily produce belief. The people of Nazareth heard countless stories about what Jesus could do. They likely knew people that witness it or experienced miracles and yet it was not enough for them. They weren’t actually interested in Jesus, they were interested in what he might possibly be able to do for them. We must be careful that we are not approaching Jesus in this same way. We need belief in Jesus because he is who he says he is, not because of what we hope he does in our lives.

Jesus doesn’t end there though, he brings up two prophets and explains how he will be like them.

First, Jesus uses the days of the prophet Elijah. The time of Elijah was an evil time, a real low point in Israel’s history. Jesus points out that there were many widows in Israel at that time. But Elijah did not go to those widows. Elijah was not sent to one widow in Israel, but was sent to a widow in Sidon. The point is that God blessed a Gentile widow. God did not send Elijah to Israel’s widows because of the nation’s unfaithfulness. In the same way, the prophet Elisha also did God’s work during a time of Israel’s unfaithfulness. There were many lepers in Israel at that time, but God did not send Elisha to any of the lepers in Israel. Instead, God sent Elisha to Naaman who was a Syrian. Again, another Gentile received God’s blessing. In both of those cases, the prophet was not sent to Israel’s people in need. He didn’t go to a Israelite widow, he didn’t go to someone who had leprosy in Israel. In both cases the prophet went to people who were outside of the nation of Israel.

Jesus is comparing their current time, the time when Jesus is going around with his ministry, with one of the least spiritual periods in Israel’s history. Jesus is essentially bringing up how unfaithful the people were back then and going, hey, you are more similar to this than you think.

The story concludes with the response of the synagogue of Nazareth. They do not take this message to heart. They do not reconsider their ways. They try to kill Jesus. They rise up on the synagogue and drive Jesus out of town. They were going to throw him off the cliff, but Jesus passed through their midst. Here is a sign for the people of Nazareth. They are trying to kill Jesus, but Jesus passes through them unharmed.

Action

So what does this mean for us today?

We must realize that all of us are verse 18. We are spiritually poor, spiritually blind, and spiritually oppressed.

We all have to recognize that we are fallen, sinful people. If we don’t understand our condition, we will never understand what God is offering to us through Jesus.

(Terminal illness illustration, if I don’t know that I have a terminal illness and someone says I can be healed from it, I would think they were crazy. There is nothing wrong with me. I don’t need healed. But if I recognize that I have this illness and it is terminal, I know that it will ultimately destroy me, and someone offers healing, I would freak out. I would be overjoyed. In order to see the greatness of God’s salvation through Jesus, we need to recognize our sin.)

Jesus has come and he has broken the power of sin and death by living a perfect, holy life, dying for our sins, and raising from the dead. The good news is proclaimed to us that we can be free. We can be free from the broken life. Jesus has come offering to heal our lives and change us. He wants to open our eyes so that we can see how much he has done for us and how much we need him. May we recognize our sin and understand how amazing it is that Jesus offers us healing and forgiveness.

Prayer