14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘“Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” 24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away. – Luke 4:14-30 ESV
Unlike the first Adam who, along with his wife, fell prey to the temptations of Satan and ate the fruit from the forbidden tree, Jesus resisted the tantalizing offers of the enemy. In doing so, Jesus proved that He was far more than just another man on a mission from God. He was the God-man, the incarnate Son of God. He was the Davidic heir who, as King of the Jews, had come to do battle with Satan and end his monopolistic rule over the earth. Jesus, operating in the power of the Holy Spirit, successfully repulsed Satan’s repeated attempts to distract Him from His mission. Satan was fully aware that Jesus was the Son of God, and he used that knowledge in crafting his plan of attack. The enemy attempted to get Jesus to compromise His God-ordained orders through self-gratification, self-exaltation, and self-glorification. But Jesus refused. He stood firm in His commitment to the Father’s will and walked away victorious over the enemy. But the battle was far from over.
Still empowered and guided by the Spirit of God, Jesus made His way from the wilderness of Judea to the region of Galilee. Luke reports that, as Jesus passed through the towns and villages in the region, He taught in their synagogues. But Luke provides few details about what Jesus said or did on those occasions. In his gospel account, Matthew sheds a bit more light on Jesus’ actions and the impact He had on the people living in Galilee.
And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. – Matthew 4:23-25 ESV
News began to spread and the crowds began to grow. Jesus was developing a reputation and a following. And there’s little doubt that a big part of His attraction was the miracles He performed. But there was also a growing interest in His message. As Matthew records, Jesus was continually proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. In fact, Jesus had begun His ministry by echoing the words of John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17 ESV).
When John the Baptist had declared that very same message, he had been in the region of Judea near the Jordan River, and Matthew records that “Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him” (Matthew 3:5 ESV). But now, Jesus had moved further north, where the people had not yet heard the news of the coming kingdom. Yet, as He began to proclaim the imminent arrival of the kingdom of heaven, the people of Galilee knew exactly what He was talking about. They too had longed for its coming for generations. For hundreds of years, the people of Israel had been praying for the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah, and now the news of His arrival began to spread. Reports of Jesus’ amazing miracles made their way from village to village. And the people began to question whether this stranger named Jesus might be the Messiah the prophets had talked about.
Eventually, Jesus made His way back to Nazareth, the town in which He was raised. News of His return would have been accompanied by the rumors of all that had happened in the surrounding towns and villages. For the people of Nazareth, all of this would have been a shock. They knew Jesus as the son of Mary and Joseph. In all the years they had known Jesus, they had been given no reason to believe that He was someone special, let alone the potential Messiah of Israel.
Yet, upon His return, Jesus did what He had done in every town He had visited: He spoke in their synagogue. It’s likely that the local synagogue ruler invited Jesus to speak because he had heard the rumors about Him addressing the synagogues in other towns in the region. It was not uncommon for traveling rabbis or teachers to speak in the local synagogue. But when Jesus stood up to speak, He chose to read from the scroll of Isaiah, and He chose a particular passage: Isaiah 62:1-12.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” – Luke 4:18-19 ESV
This was a well-known Messianic passage, and the crowd in the synagogue would have been quite familiar with it. They would have noticed that Jesus had left out an important part of the passage: “and the day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61:2b). As Jews, their concept of the Messiah was one of deliverance and vengeance. When the Anointed One of God showed up, He would set the people of Israel free from their oppression by delivering a fateful blow to the Gentiles who ruled over them. They were expecting a King who would defeat the pagan enemies of Israel and re-establish the primacy and superiority of Israel on earth.
But Jesus stopped where He did for a reason and, rolling up the scroll, He took His seat in the synagogue. And Luke reports that “the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him” (Luke 4:20 ESV). They were waiting for some explanation. What was He going to say? Why had He read that particular passage? And Jesus didn’t leave them waiting long. He calmly stated, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21 ESV). You can almost hear the audible gasp that came from the people as they heard Him utter those words. He was claiming to be the Messiah. This would have been a bold and shocking claim for anyone to make, especially someone they had known all their lives. But Luke reports that “all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth” (Luke 4:22 ESV). Yet Matthew paints a slightly less favorable response.
When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, “Where does he get this wisdom and the power to do miracles?” Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?” And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. – Matthew 13:54-57 NLT
Jesus was not surprised by their reaction. He knew He would have a difficult time convincing His own hometown of His identity as the Messiah. He responded to them by saying, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown” (Luke 4:23-24 NLT).
In a way, Jesus was using Nazareth as a symbol for the entire nation of Israel. As the apostle John wrote, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11 ESV). Here He was in His own hometown, and they refused to accept Him as who He was: Their Messiah and Savior. Which led Jesus to make a profound and somewhat surprising statement that left His audience offended.
“Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.” – Luke 4:25-27 NLT
Don’t miss what Jesus is saying here. First of all, He compares Himself to the prophets, Elijah and Elisha. His audience would have been highly familiar with these two men. But Jesus focused on two specific incidents involving these prophets of Israel and their interactions with two Gentiles: One a Sidonian widow and the other, a Syrian leper. Jesus infers that God seemingly overlooked the needs of Jews in order to minister to these two non-Jews. This unthinkable idea left His Jewish audience appalled and angry.
When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff… – Luke 4:28-29 NLT
Keep in mind, these were His neighbors, the very people with whom He had spent His entire life. But as soon as Jesus placed a preference on Gentiles, they turned on Him like a pack of ravenous dogs.
What the people of Nazareth failed to understand was that their Messiah would be a Savior for all the people of the earth, including the Gentiles, whom they despised. And this bit of unexpected news didn’t fit their concept of the Messiah. They were expecting a Jewish Messiah who would wreak havoc on the pagan nations of the world, much as David did to the Philistines. They were hoping and longing for a Messiah who would deliver a devastating blow to their Roman occupiers and revive the Jewish state. There was no place in their concept of the Kingdom for Gentiles. And their anger with Jesus was so intense that they tried to kill Him. But Luke simply states that Jesus “passed right through the crowd and went on his way” (Luke 4:30 NLT).
This would be the first of many attempts on Jesus’ life. But what sets this one apart is that it came from those who knew Him best. His own friends and neighbors tried to take His life. But it was just a foreshadowing of what was to come as, eventually, the entire nation of Israel would turn against Him.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson