UBF Daily Bread

JESUS REJECTED IN HIS HOMETOWN

Passage: Luke 4:14~30

Key verse: 18

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

¹⁴Jesus returned to Galilee^(A) in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.^(B) ¹⁵He was teaching in their synagogues,^(C) and everyone praised him.

¹⁶He went to Nazareth,^(D) where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue,^(E) as was his custom. He stood up to read,^(F) ¹⁷and 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,^(G)
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news^(H) 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.”^[a]^(I)

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

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.^(L)

²³Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown^(M) what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”^(N)

²⁴“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.^(O) 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.^(P) ²⁶Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.^(Q) ²⁷And there were many in Israel with leprosy^[b] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”^(R)

²⁸All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹They got up, drove him out of the town,^(S) and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.^(T)

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Footnotes

Luke 4:19 Isaiah 61:1,2 (see Septuagint); Isaiah 58:6
Luke 4:27 The Greek word traditionally translated leprosy was used for various diseases affecting the skin.

Jesus visited his hometown Nazareth. In the synagogue, he read Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah’s mission: He would proclaim the good news to the poor, freedom for the captives and sight to the blind; His coming would be the year of the Lord’s favor. Jesus fulfilled the prophecy. He is the Messiah. He frees us from sin and opens our spiritual eyes. He brings us God’s great favor.

The initial response of people in Nazareth was positive. But because of their familiarity with him, the poor carpenter’s son, they became hard- hearted to him. They could not believe that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. Jesus taught them that the Prophets Elijah and Elisha could not help the unbelieving Israelites but blessed only Gentiles who had faith in God. As the Israelites had tried to put their prophets to death, so did Jesus’ hometown people. Like the saying “Familiarity breeds contempt,” they saw Jesus humanly and rejected their Messiah. We are to live by faith in God like the widow of Sidon and Naaman the Syrian, not by human thinking.

Prayer: Lord, renew my heart and spirit and help me to proclaim the good news in the power of the Spirit.

One Word: The Lord’s favor comes through faith