Introduction
Jesus now moves back to the His hometown of Nazareth, the place where he had grown up. Remember what it had been like for Jesus from your study in Psalms 69:12? Jesus may have suffered here in His youth at the hands of the elders who had constantly discussed what they were going to do with Him and the town drunkards who seemingly made up songs about Him. Now He was returning to teach in their synagogue on the Sabbath. What will happen?
Reading [You can read as much as you can, depending on your availability]
Luke 4:16-30
Meditating [Use these questions to start your thinking]
- What is this passage telling us about the person of Jesus?
- Why the anger in His hometown? (from Luke 4:28)
- What was their problem? Also see a later visit in Mark 6:1-6
- What other questions do you still have?
Sharing: Text ONE of your answers to the questions above to your team. Each team should post a sharing from a team member in the comments below.
Wow! Did you catch that drastic change in atmosphere? Jesus reads from the Old Testament scroll of Isaiah and the people are riveted on Him. They are listening intently and they are astonished. Look again at verse 22. What is the atmosphere like as Jesus sits down after reading the Word of God and says, “‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing’”? The people are all speaking well of Jesus and are somewhat shocked, saying, “Isn’t that Joseph the carpenter’s son?” Now, note the change in atmosphere by Verse 28. Go ahead and read it again. The people are filled with rage and ready to kill Jesus. How do you go from speaking well of someone to being ready to kill him? Something happens between verses 22 and 28 that changes everything. The people went from praising Jesus to wanting to kill Him. What could Jesus have said or done to invoke such a radical change in the people? I think you may need to stop and reread verses 23-27 again before you go on.
Jesus begins by sharing what He can plainly see on their faces, “I know what you want — you want me to do what I did in Capernaum.” What had they heard that Jesus had done in Capernaum? It was yesterday’s story of the physical healing of the royal officer’s son. Jesus could read it on their faces, and maybe they had already begun to say to Him, “‘Do here in your own hometown what we have heard you did in Capernaum.’” It is Jesus’ response to what they are asking for that will send the crowd through the roof.
Jesus basically says, “Because of your lack of faith, you will not be seeing and tasting what I have to offer. Instead, just like in the days of Elijah the prophet, the heavens will be shut for you. But instead,” (and this is what set them off) “I will do what was done in days past; I will heal and cleanse, but not Jews. I will help non-Jews. I will heal people like the son of the woman of Zarephath and cleanse people like Naaman the Syrian captain.”
What a slap in the face! But why? Why would Jesus be so tough and speak so sharply to the people from His own hometown? Again, the comparison is to the Old Testament stories of Elijah and Elisha. We also get a hint in Mark 6:4-6. It was because of their unbelief, their lack of faith. Faith is what energizes the work of God in your life and in the lives of those around you. Without faith, God has chosen not to work. He could work apart from our faith and on occasion does, but as a rule, God has chosen to allow us to be part of the process and to trust and obey Him. How is your faith? Do you want to see God move? Live by faith and you will see the impossible happen before your very eyes. Think about it.
This root of faith is a huge one. Without it you cannot be pleasing to your Dad in heaven (Heb. 11:6). I challenge you to dig a little deeper into the story of Elijah and Elisha and see faith in action.
Faith is key in your walk as a Christ-follower. The power of God is ignited in you as you willingly choose to live by faith and not by sight. The word “faithful” is often confused with the word loyal or with the concept of loyalty. Yet faithful means to be full of faith. God is looking for faithful men and women, people full of faith — faith in God, not in yourself, your abilities, your government, your ideals or your resources. The object of your faith is key. You will not have faith in Jesus if you do not know Him. The more you know God the more you will trust Him and obey Him; in other words, the more faith you will have in Him. Spend some time today talking to one of your friends about this concept of faith and being faithful.
What is this passage telling us about the person of Jesus? This passage is the of God
God’s love for humankind. God gave us words that satisfied our needs. That He came to preach the Gospel to the poor and to be there for the blind. I was reminded that every time I encounter rejections, it isn’t my loss but theirs. This is important because whenever I feel afraid to talk to my peers about who Jesus is or my faith, I often shy away because of fear of rejection. But I am comforted by how well Jesus handled the situation.
Why the anger in His hometown?
They are angry because Jesus is calling out the people in the synagogue for their lack of faith, comparing them to people during Elijah and Elisha’s time. He preemptively refuses to perform miracles that He did in Capernaum for them because of their disbelief, and they take offense to it because they’re familiar with the scripture He’s referencing
I think we learn from the passage that the person of Jesus is someone who is capable of saying “no”, which is an important distinction to realize. This is what differentiates Jesus from a genie that blindly grants wishes, what you want to happen isn’t necessarily going to happen just because you asked or prayed hard enough. We also learn that Jesus is keenly aware of the motivations of our requests and navigates through them accordingly. He understood the intentions of His hometown and knew that their requests stemmed from a place of disbelief and self-approval, which is why He called them out on it. This is relatable for myself as there have been times where I’m turning a blind eye to my selfish intentions by justifying it as beneficial to God. But just because you pretty up a request in God’s favor doesn’t change how the request came about in the first place. So, when I’m denied my requests, I become dissatisfied and wonder why things didn’t work even though I tried to make it seem like it was for God. Rather, I should learn to be satisfied with God’s decision at the end of the day and realize when I’ve been too selfish and/or self-centered.
I feel sad that people treated Jesus like so and it angers me to read the response of what they did after. When they did not like what they hear, rather than taking a step back they resorted to throwing him down the cliff. It really shows how destructive human nature can be. Today’s passage was only a glimpse of how often we act on our anger. Jesus remained gracious and rather than condemning him with his own wrath he just vanished. I mean he has the power to do so. Another thing that stuck out to me was his addressing to those who were oppressed by society. The fact that Jesus addresses them and has anointed them with the good news, I can’t imagine how hopeful and recognized they must feel yet rather than feeling like that they responded with their wrath.