Luke 4:22-30
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. 23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’” 24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I 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. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
Reflection:
This scene is interesting as we see how quickly the sentiment turns against Jesus in his Hometown of Nazareth. At one point they are amazed at him and his words, and then by the end they were ready to throw him off the cliff. So how can we account for this about face in their opinion of him?
In response to the people wanting Jesus to do the miracles in their town, Jesus quotes two examples from the books of the prophets. In both scenes, one of Israel's own prophets Elijah and Elisha, offered salvation/healing, not to the Jews, but to the foreigners among them. In one case the widow in Sidon, and in another case Naaman, the Syrian. In the case of the Syrians, they were seen as Israel's oppressors and as an enemy. So while they were wanting him to do a miracle, Jesus reminds him that prophets aren't accepted in their own town. As the old saying goes, "familiarity breeds contempt".
So it isn't surprising then that this made the people furious, as they realized he may be foreshadowing their own response to the Gospel. As we will soon see, Jesus became a stumbling block to his own people the Jews because of what we might call "entitlement". They presumed that since Jesus was doing miracles elsewhere that they deserved a miracle. Because he was from their home town, surely they would benefit. Yet there is only one thing missing. The purpose of the miracles was not for the privileged. The purpose was to bring faith in the One who was the source of the miracle. The miracles of Elijah and Elisha were signs showing the God of Israel, and now the God of Israel had come in the person of Jesus.
So the question for us to ponder today is how do we take God for granted? Have we become entitled as believers and so think that God owes us something? Do we trade on the grace of God to pursue our own ends?
Reflection:
This scene is interesting as we see how quickly the sentiment turns against Jesus in his Hometown of Nazareth. At one point they are amazed at him and his words, and then by the end they were ready to throw him off the cliff. So how can we account for this about face in their opinion of him?
In response to the people wanting Jesus to do the miracles in their town, Jesus quotes two examples from the books of the prophets. In both scenes, one of Israel's own prophets Elijah and Elisha, offered salvation/healing, not to the Jews, but to the foreigners among them. In one case the widow in Sidon, and in another case Naaman, the Syrian. In the case of the Syrians, they were seen as Israel's oppressors and as an enemy. So while they were wanting him to do a miracle, Jesus reminds him that prophets aren't accepted in their own town. As the old saying goes, "familiarity breeds contempt".
So it isn't surprising then that this made the people furious, as they realized he may be foreshadowing their own response to the Gospel. As we will soon see, Jesus became a stumbling block to his own people the Jews because of what we might call "entitlement". They presumed that since Jesus was doing miracles elsewhere that they deserved a miracle. Because he was from their home town, surely they would benefit. Yet there is only one thing missing. The purpose of the miracles was not for the privileged. The purpose was to bring faith in the One who was the source of the miracle. The miracles of Elijah and Elisha were signs showing the God of Israel, and now the God of Israel had come in the person of Jesus.
So the question for us to ponder today is how do we take God for granted? Have we become entitled as believers and so think that God owes us something? Do we trade on the grace of God to pursue our own ends?
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