Amy C Walters

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth – Luke 4:14-30

Jesus returns to his hometown and begins to preach. But the people want to see some miracles. When Jesus challenges their attitudes, they get so angry that they attempt to kill him! This wild story should prompt us to consider, how will we respond to Jesus?

In this story, we get to witness Jesus’ homecoming and it does not go well. Jesus has come into the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he’s handed the scroll of Isaiah. He reads from Isaiah 61:1-2a and says, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 

This is a mind-blowing statement. Jesus is saying that the prophet Isaiah, who spoke about the Messiah centuries ago, was referring to him. “I am the awaited Messiah.” 

That is an audacious statement. And such a statement should get an equally intense response. We would expect people to be incredulous, maybe in awe, their jaws dropping open, their minds racing to think, “Could this be true?” 

Instead, we get this very blase, cool response. Luke writes, “All the people thought well of Jesus and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.” They “thought well of him.” This response is disproportionate to the major news that Jesus just dropped! 

Now, it does say they were “amazed at the gracious words from his lips.” Okay, so maybe they are starting to consider it. But then you get this question: “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” 

Now, this is really not a question. These people know full well who Jesus is. Nazareth is a small town and everyone knows everyone else. 

Instead, it’s a statement. “We know who Jesus is. He’s the carpenter’s son. He grew up down the street. He may make these grandiose claims, but really, he’s just Jesus.” 

This question is also a little bit of a dig, because Jesus was conceived outside of marriage. It was a miracle by the power of the Holy Spirit, but people still probably thought that Jesus had a checkered past.

Jesus anticipates what’s going on in their minds here because he goes on to say, “Surely you will quote the proverb to me, ‘Physician, heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we have seen you do in Capernaum.’” 

The people are not actually speaking these things, but Jesus anticipates what’s on their mind. In essence, he says, “You want to see miracles. That’s what you’re really looking for, not teaching from Scripture.” 

At the beginning of this story, in Luke 4:14-15, Luke summarizes what Jesus has been up to, that Jesus taught in the synagogues of Galilee and news spread about him. But if we look at a parallel passage, like in Mark 1:21-28, we see some of the miracles that Jesus had done in Capernaum, a town in the region of Galilee. This is what Jesus is referring to with “do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.” 

So Jesus’ audience is thinking, “Yeah, this teaching is great. These are ‘nice and gracious words.’ But we want to see a miracle like you’ve done in other places. 

They wanted the benefits of those miracles. They wanted the show. But Jesus does not bow to those expectations. He goes on to say, “No prophet is accepted in his hometown.” 

Jesus knows that their over familiarity with him is going to keep them from seeing the reality of who he is. They are defaulting to the familiar. “We know you as the kid from down the street. You can’t be the Messiah.” 

So instead of bowing to those expectations and doing some miracles there, Jesus tells them two brief Bible stories. The first one is of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17). 

Elijah has commanded that it won’t rain for three and a half years, which has caused a great famine. There is no food left in the land.

God sends Elijah to a gentile widow in Zarephath. Elijah asks her for some bread, and she just has the tiniest bit of flour and oil left. She was going to bake that into some bread and cook up some sticks to feed herself and her son their last meal. She was out of all the things that she needed.

But she graciously bakes this bread for Elijah. Then we’re told that he stays with her for some time, and the entire time that he’s there, she and her son and Elijah have enough food. They survived the famine because of the widow’s humble obedience and God’s gracious favor. 

The second story is about Elisha from 2 Kings 5. In it we meet Naaman who is a commander in the Syrian army. As a commander, he’s made raids into Israel and taken people captive, including a slave girl who serves in his house. 

Naaman has leprosy when he can’t find a cure, the girl tells him there is a prophet in Israel who can cleanse him. He goes to Israel and is given instructions for how to be cleansed, and at first he doesn’t want to do it. It would be too humbling to do those things. But eventually he humbles himself, follows the prescription, and is cleansed from his leprosy.

And what Jesus is saying here is that God’s blessing is for those who humbly respond to him with acceptance and obedience. That includes the Gentiles in the story. They humbly obeyed and were blessed. 

Here are the people from Jesus’ hometown saying, “Jesus, you owe us some miracles here.” They are acting entitled. But Jesus’ stories show that even Gentiles are blessed when they respond humbly. 

That’s what sets the people off. Before they had a cool, calm reception to Jesus, they thought well of him, and now they are so furious that they want to kill him. 

This negative comparison of these hometown people to Gentiles upsets them. It reveals their true colors. When Jesus says something they don’t like, it shows what’s really in their hearts.

What are the consequences of this behavior, of them getting so angry about Jesus’ words that they want to kill him? Jesus leaves town and they don’t get to see any amazing things. They don’t get to hear more of his teaching. Ultimately, they miss out on the good news that Jesus brought.

By rejecting Jesus, the people have rejected that good news and what could have been theirs, the blessings that could have been theirs. They also set themselves up for God’s judgment.

When Jesus reads the passages from Isaiah 61, he stops in the middle of verse 2 about “proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.” But the verse goes on to say, “the day of the vengeance of our God. 

You see, there’s a huge pause in history between the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of his vengeance. We are in this time of his favor because we still have time to accept Jesus for who he is, to respond to him with obedience and belief.

But there will come a day of the vengeance of our God when Jesus returns a second time, when there is judgment, where time has run out. And the people of Jesus’ hometown, by rejecting him, chose judgment.

What about you?

How will you respond to Jesus?

That’s our key truth for today. And yes, it’s not a truth, it’s a question. But the response of Jesus’ neighbors should prompt us to consider how we are responding. 

Maybe you are someone who has been familiar with Jesus. Maybe you grew up hearing about him. Maybe you even consider yourself a Christian.

And maybe there’s things that he says and does that you like. You want to see more of those miracles. But some of the things that he says, like his claims to being the exclusive Savior of the world, you don’t really want to wrestle with.

Maybe you’ve outright rejected Jesus for those claims. Or maybe you just try to ignore them. Maybe you’ve brushed them aside. You accept the things that you like about Jesus and ignore the rest.

But keep in mind that Jesus told the people, “No prophet is accepted in his hometown,” before they dragged him outside the city to kill him. Their lack of acceptance of Jesus on his terms was rejection.

Even if you have not outright rejected Jesus and all those claims, if you are ignoring the things that he has revealed about himself to be the only true Savior of the world, you have rejected him. And there are huge consequences to that. Because, as we know from the rest of that Isaiah passage, a day of judgment is coming.

My prayer for every single one of you who reads this is that you accept Jesus on his terms. That you are like the widow of Zarephath or Naaman who humbly obeys.