Revealed and Rejected

Luke 4:16-30 

16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

18 "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."

20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." 22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"

23 He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.'" 24 Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; 26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."

28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. 30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

Jesus was revealed and rejected at Nazareth where He had grown up and was known as a boy and young man but not the Anointed Messiah of divine lineage.  When He entered the local synagogue to read from the scriptures as expected, Jesus did something most unexpected.  He found and read the passages from Isaiah 49:8-9 and Isaiah 61:1-2 after that book was given to Him and proceeded to announce that these Messianic prophecies were fulfilled now that He was there.  They looked in astonishment and disbelief as they bore witness to His words and yet questioned who He thought that Jesus was to say such things.  All they could see was that Joseph from the town was the father of Jesus and they could not accept that God was His true Father in heaven.  Jesus responded with a veiled statement about the proverb asking that the physician heal himself as to work miracles as He had done elsewhere to prove His claims since they lacked the faith to take this son of Joseph at His word.  He went on to use the comparison of how Elijah was sent by God to a Canaanite widow in Zarephath and how Elisha who followed that prophet was used to heal Naaman the Syrian instead of God’s own people who suffered from leprosy.  These were examples of God’s grace and mercy on the nations because the people of God’s chosen land had likewise doubted God’s word and lived in immortality and idolatry instead.  Of course, these people of the covenant were incensed and not convicted to repentance and faith, leading them to angrily grab Jesus and take Him to a cliff on the edge of town to throw Him down and stop His message which they did not want to hear lest they turn and repent (Isaiah 6:9-10, Matthew 13:15, John 12:40-41) of their sins.  But it was not the time for Jesus to die, for He had a gospel of the kingdom to proclaim before He lay down His life on divine terms at the cross, and He simply walked out safely through the crowd and on His way to the next town with this message of repentance and  faith to enter the heavenly kingdom to come.  We often will face those who will listen to God’s word but then turn on us as the messengers of this kingdom when we expose the sin of all mankind and the need to turn from sin to Him and no other added in (Acts 4:12).  God may allow us to come through with our lives to proclaim the gospel another day, or He may allow us to suffer or even die for His glory.  When we reveal ourselves in Christ we can expect the rejection from many as well.  May we be prepared for all possibilities as we remain faithful to speaking His word of the good news of salvation in the face of the bad news of God’s wrath on sin under which we all are born in.