Story: Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

Category: New Testament
Scriptures: Luke 4:13-4:30

Commentary

Now Jesus has come back to His childhood home of Nazareth. So how did the people in Nazareth respond to Him? How did they respond to this famous person, the One who did miracles? Jesus would not have been able to keep His presence a secret. People would have been eager to talk with Him, if for no other reason than to ask if the reports about Him were true.

When Jesus arrived at the synagogue and stepped inside, He probably found it filled with people who were eager to see and speak with Him. The elders would have been seated in the front, with the men and women on different sides of the room. We will soon discover that the chief ruler, who was responsible for the service, had asked Jesus to read and preach that morning. It appears that they wanted to hear this famous rabbi speak.

His reading from Isaiah was at first, well received. However, the response of the people of Nazareth to one of their own was ultimately, unqualified rejection. The prophet Isaiah, in speaking of the One who would come as the sin-bearer, as the Suffering Servant of Israel, spoke in this manner: “He was despised and rejected of men.” This was the modus operandi of the Lord’s Anointed: He would be despised and rejected.

In John 1:10, the apostle writes: “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” It could be said in the same way, “He was in Nazareth, and Nazareth was made through Him. But Nazareth did not know Him. He came to His own Nazarenes, and His own Nazarenes did not receive Him.”

See Commentary

Luke 4:13-4:30

13 When the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until another time.

14 Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and news about him spread through all the surrounding area.

15 He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

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

17 The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened the book, and found the place where it was 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 heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed,

19 and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

20 He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21 He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

22 All testified about him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will tell me this parable, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in your hometown.’”

24 He said, “Most certainly I tell you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

25 But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land.

26 Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

27 There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian.”

28 They were all filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things.

29 They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff.

30 But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way.