PREACHING IN NAZARETH. Luke 4:14-30 The public ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ lasted about three years before He died on the cross. There is not a lot spoken about in the first years. In the first four chapters of John's Gospel, we read of some of the incidents that happened in the first year of the Lord’s ministry. Many people followed the Lord wherever He went during the second year, observing Him healing the sick and raising some who had died. As news of Him spread, large numbers came to Him, and He taught them in a way they had never heard God’s truth presented before. People were still following Him during the third year even though opposition against Him was always getting stronger.
Most of the second year and part of the third were spent in Galilee, His home province. It is that period of time Luke wrote of, beginning in chapter four and through chapter nine. After that time, He went to the area east of the Jordan River, which we read about in the section of Luke beginning in chapter ten and on through chapter nineteen. He was always in fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit in all His movements. His ministry was Spirit-empowered, as He spoke as a man among men. The Holy Spirit in Him is the same One who gave power to the disciples to be effective witnesses for Him after His resurrection and ascension. The Spirit of God leads us and gives power to us to do God’s will and speak for Him our day in ways that are appropriate to our times and the people we speak to.
After having preached and taught in the many communities of Galilee and doing “wonderful works” in Capernaum and other cities, the Lord went back to Nazareth, where to them He was “Joseph’s son.” It is a significant statement that He went to the synagogue “as His custom was.” That means He attended the synagogue regularly when He lived there and wherever He was in other communities. Each Sabbath, He would have been there with the other people to hear the word of God read and explained even during the silent years of His life. He had met weekly with the people of Nazareth when He lived there, and when He returned, they gave Him the scriptures, and He read and explained them as He likely had done before.
Young people need to have been taught a pattern of life in their youth that they will follow when they are responsible for their own actions. Children may not appear to pay a lot of attention in the meetings of an assembly, but a pattern of life is formed that includes getting respectfully dressed, taking a Bible in their hands, and sitting with other people to hear the word of God read and explained. The singing of hymns with others, respectful public prayer, and reverence for God and His word in the place where the word of God is publicly taught will stay in their minds and consciousness.
Even though they may later want to avoid the meetings of a church and even reject the truth they were taught, there will remain an awareness of what is important to those people who meet at that place. Parents may grieve because their children walk away from what they have been taught, yet they know the word of God has been implanted in their minds, and they will not be able to escape what had been taught them. Women covering their heads and men taking off their hats may seem like a small thing to those who were never exposed to that in their youth. Those whose “custom” was to follow the teaching of the Bible will not forget what they were taught, even though they may reject it.
When the Lord found the place in Isaiah, He wanted to read, and with the respect the scriptures deserve, He stood up and read the passage. Then He sat down to teach the word and unfolded to the hearers an amazing thing – those words had come true that day! No wonder the people who heard Him speak were amazed at the “gracious words” He spoke. It is not too likely that anyone has taken the words they read seriously any more than people do today. Studying them and showing respect for the scriptures is important, but to accept this as a word from God to me personally is not normal to most people who read the Bible. To say that the day of salvation had come that day meant Jesus and His ministry were the fulfillment of prophecy!
Our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled many prophetic messages during His life and ministry here. We who have been saved by His grace and are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ must realize the importance and significance of our association with Him. It is expected of us that we should be like Him, not like the people of the sinful world around us. There is often a similar response when we tell others we know we have eternal life now and will never lose it. Some people say, “No one can know that,” or “How arrogant you are to say such a thing!” Those people responded, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” In other words, “Who does He think He is?”
Those who heard Him understood Jesus was proclaiming Himself to be the One the scriptures said would bring the good news of the Gospel. People with the problems listed in that passage would get the relief they needed. The full benefits of salvation would come through Him to those who came to Him in faith. Those who heard Him did not miss what He meant and marveled at the words, but they still only considered Him “Joseph’s son.” To marvel at the words of Jesus and the word of God is not accepting His words as the truth. The people of Nazareth still rejected the Lord Jesus as the Messiah and Savior sent from God.
People may be impressed with what we say about our Lord when we give our testimony to them. What we teach from the scriptures may also make sense to them, to the extent they might speak well of us, but that doesn’t mean they accept what we say. The Lord, by then, had a reputation as a healer in Capernaum and other parts of Galilee, but to the people of Nazareth, He was just one of them. The phrase, “Physician, heal thyself!” is similar to our saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” People who know us, our background, and even our failures are often not able to see beyond that to what God has done for us and made of us. All we can do to offset any preconceived opinions others have is to let God do His work in us, be patient, and be consistent in our witness of what we profess.
When they rejected the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, the people in Nazareth showed the same attitude as the nation had toward Elijah and Elisha. When people believe God’s messenger, they will receive God’s blessings no matter who they are. The Jews despised Gentiles, and to be compared with the widow of Sidon and Naaman, the leprous general from Syria, so enraged the people that they wanted to kill Jesus.
In a remarkable act of grace, the Lord Jesus went with them to the top of the hill, where their evil intent was openly exposed. Their attitude was an example of Israel’s rejection of Jesus that ultimately sent Him to the cross of Calvary. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” It was made plain by the people of Nazareth that they did not want anything to do with Jesus. When their hearts were exposed to their murderous attitude toward Him, He walked right through the crowd gathered on that hill and went His way. They couldn’t touch Him, let alone throw Him over the cliff!
The universal scope of the Lord’s time here on earth is an important part of Luke’s message in this book. He goes beyond the boundaries of Judaism so Gentiles, who the Jews despised, could see that the Gospel is proclaimed to everyone. Rich and poor, old and young, Jews and Gentiles are all included in the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ through the Gospel. People with the problems in the list that Jesus read about from Isaiah 61 are still worldwide today.
The good news of “this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” is that our Lord Jesus Christ will gladly accept needy, repentant people. Each group of needy people mentioned in this passage finds an illustration in real life through the ministry of the Lord Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. Prejudice has no place in the Gospel message. When prejudice is seen, and people act in a prejudiced way like those of Nazareth, the Lord Jesus will leave them and go His own way.