Hometown

Jesus went from a hungry-wilderness-series of temptations to the rejection of His own people. In of all places, His own hometown. John chapters 2-3 cover in detail what happened between Jesus’ baptism/temptation and the event we are looking at today. So John in 2 chapters (2-3), Luke sums up in 2 verses (4.14-15).

He went home a couple of times in scripture. All four of the Gospels speak of this to some degree, but the only one who gives the details of what happened within the synagogue this go-around is Luke. Remember that Luke’s view of Jesus is: “The Servant”. So the question is being proposed… Is Jesus a hero come home, or is he merely seen as a carpenter’s son? 

He was praised in other parts of Galilee but then rejected in His own homes town. Had Nazareth not been Jesus hometown, the people there might have received him the way the rest of Galilee’s citizens did. Nazareth had a less-than-stellar reputation anyway, as John 1.46 records— “And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.”

This has been his hometown since his return from Egypt, when he was a preschooler (Matthew 2.13-23). Yet when he returned, something seems different about Jesus. “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And 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 for to read” (Luke 4.14-16). Notice the contrast in 15 and 16. Towns all through the small region listened, obeyed, and glorified Jesus by what was taught from the Word. Now to His hometown reception…

It would not have been unusual for Jesus to participate in the service this way. The synagogue service included free parts:

1. The worship part. In which prayer was offered and song.
2. The reading of the Scriptures. Which had two be taken out of a closet and formally brought before the reader. To which he would use a pointer and read aloud the text prescribed.
3. The teaching part. In the synagogue there was no professional ministry nor any one person to give the address; the presiding elder would invite any distinguished person present to speak; and discussion would follow. 

During the second part, Jesus steps to the front; a hush for the reverence for the Scriptures quieted everyone; the attendant handed Jesus the scroll of Isaiah, and we pick up in verses 17-20— “And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. [scroll and Hebrew text/very difficult] And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. [you didn’t adjust the location to be read, nor did you shut the book] And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.”

He read from Isaiah 61, one of the prophet’s famous Messianic prophecies, and He was getting ready to expound on it. He sat down, because Jewish teachers sat down to instruct the people then. So far so good. They were feeling proud of the hometown boy all of Galilee was buzzing about. They weren’t prepared for the bombshell Jesus was about to drop on them… “And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” (21)

The follow-up verse shows the switch in their attitude— “And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?” (22). ‘Wait? Isn’t this Joseph’s boy?’ Why the question? Jesus flat-out claimed to be the person Isaiah had written about, the Messiah, the Son of God. 

Can you imagine how their excited smiles turned quickly to scornful scowls. Immediate skepticism froze over their faces and hate began to grow in their eyes… “And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country” (23). Apparently, Jesus had performed several miracles in Capernaum (Mark 1.21-2.12); But true to His own rule, Jesus refused to whip up a miracle just to impress stony-hearted skeptics.

Well, now He had the floor. He took the opportunity to tell these hometown folks some more. He quoted a Proverb, that quickly followed up with two illustrations to make the point in 24-27— “And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.”

He was comparing himself to the scorned prophets: Elijah and Elisha. This was a punch on the chin to the holier-than-thou elitists. Both of these Prophets reserved God’s miracles for a couple of faithful Gentiles and not the Jews. (1 Kings 17.8-24; 2 Kings 5.1-14). With a sharp edge of scripture, Jesus was slicing open and exposing the prejudices and their Jewish way of thinking. Jews were so sure that they were God’s people (by birth only) that they actually despised everyone else. And here is this young Jesus, whom they all knew, preaching as if the Gentiles were specially favored by God or something…well, they are, Jesus is for everyone.

This filled them with rage in verse 28— “And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,” What do you do when you are raging? You rush to judgment… “And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.” (29). No warning, no trial, no appeal process. In a sudden wave of heat, the crowd crashed upon Jesus and swept him away to his punishment: death. Amazingly, these are the same people who, moments ago, we’re speaking well of him (22). Sounds a lot like the extreme shift in attitude in His last week of ministry 3 years later. They will give shouts of “Hosanna”, then a couple of days later scream, “crucify him”. Right from the beginning, the Messiah tasted the rejection of the friends He came to save. The one who would later walk across the stormy waters of the Sea, now parts this violent crowd and passes right through in verse 30— “But he passing through the midst of them went his way,”

So what do you do when the tide turns against you? 

Public opinion will turn against you, eventually. Maybe it already has. Maybe it’s been at a meeting at work, you looked around the table at your coworkers and saw the hardened faces, and you feared what it may do to your job and your future. Maybe it was in your friends eyes, as you saw that look of contempt or dislike for what you had said. All you have done is give your opinion, or your belief, and now you can feel the tension. Maybe you saw it in the eyes of your brother or sister, or your spouse, or even your own child. 

From Jesus’ life I want to give you some practical application, some things you can do when you feel like everything’s turned against you:

1. Don’t be surprised. When rejection hits us broad side, shock is a normal reaction, “I can’t believe he did that”, or, “I can’t believe she thinks that of me.” Being aware that rejection is natural, should help us handle the shock without freezing up. Criticism always comes when: we least need it; when we least deserve it; and from people who are the least qualified to give it! Just knowing that the tide will turn against you will go along way to keeping us calm when it happens. Jesus taught us that this is the norm. Expect it.
2. Don’t give up. Jesus pass right through the crowd that intended to throw him off the cliff he didn’t let one group of people keep him from pressing on to the next. The majority may be against you, maybe it’s just one very important person to you, but don’t give up. As long as you are obeying God, people will be against what you do. Imagine if Jesus had quit that day… what would have happened? Don’t let opposition keep you from accomplishing what God has designed you to do.
3. Don’t get sidetracked. After Jesus passed through the crowd it said that he kept on going. Their rejection couldn’t roadblock him. The path he had begun, he intended to follow to the very end! You have to be willing to do what is right in spite of difficulties. More difficulties were on the way for Jesus; more difficulties are on the way for us. 
4. Don’t forget Who you answer to. Everyone seeks to be your god one way or another. They want to control what you do, what you say and even what you think. This culture around us seeks to silence all objection to their norm. They want you to fit in their norm. They want you to seek them for approval and acceptance. I have one God, and his name is Jesus! 

Why go there at all?

Why return to a place you know is going to be trouble? Because He loved the people. His heart is and always will be concern for sinners who needed their sins forgiven. He was concerned that they were going to miss eternal life.

I keep saying “hometown”, in reality, His hometown is not Nazareth; it’s Heaven’s throne, where there is no rejection. Why would you leave that to come here at all, much less to be rejected? I think John 3.16 tells us it’s because He even loves the ones rejecting Him. 

Did you know His own family didn’t believe in Him until after His resurrection… John 7.5— “For neither did his brethren believe in him.” In fact, His family thought He had lost His mind… Mark 3.21— “And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.”

John said of Jesus in 1.11-12– “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” Rejecting Jesus will cost you eternal life. There is only one way and it’s Him. He said— “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me.”