Have you ever been away from home for a long time? It’s so good to get back, see everyone again. People want to come and say hello, catch up on old times, etc. It can be an exciting time. That’s what is happening in our text today. Jesus is about one year into His ministry, and He has been in Galilee for a little while ministering when He decides to stop by His hometown of Nazareth. It is a small town and people there will know Him from the 30 years before His ministry began. He grew up there.
Read today’s text. We see in the first verses that Jesus has returned “in the Spirit” ministering throughout Galilee. He was teaching in the synagogues and news of Him is spreading. People were praising Him. Praising is a word the Bible only uses to describe something people do in worshipping God. How amazing! Folks in Nazareth would have heard of the two miracles he had done in nearby Cana when he turned the water into wine at the wedding feast (John 2:1-11) and when he healed the Nobleman’s son (John 4:43-54), so when Jesus visited Nazareth, this would have made Him a bit of a hometown hero.
In the synagogue, in those days, it was customary that a designated reader would be handed a scroll containing the reading for that day. They would stand and read the Scriptures, hand back the scroll, and then sit down in front. Instructional commentary would then follow.
On the Sabbath day, Jesus went to the synagogue there in His hometown. Most of the people there would have known Him. He was chosen as the designated reader that day and was handed the scroll containing the words of Isaiah the prophet. This was an interesting choice as Isaiah is the book that contains more of the prophecies of the Messiah than any other Old Testament book.
What does verse 20 say the people were doing after He sat back down? In verse 21, He told them that today this Scripture is being fulfilled. But what Scripture did He read to them? It was Isaiah 61:1-2. This Scripture is a clear prophecy of the Messiah that would come. It is a job description for that Messiah, if you will. And Jesus was telling them that the prophecy was being fulfilled today. No wonder they are all staring at Him.
When you compare the words of Luke 4:18-19 with Isaiah 61:1-2, you will see that Jesus only read to them half of verse 2 from Isaiah. He stopped when He had read the portion pertaining to His first peaceful ministry on earth. The second half of Isaiah 61:2 pertains to the end times when He returns triumphant and vengeful. He read to them only the portion that was coming to fulfillment at that time.
Let’s look at this job description a little bit closer. First, it says that the Spirit of the Lord was on Him because He was anointed to preach Good News to the poor. The Bible is not speaking here about the financially destitute. It is speaking of the spiritually poor… those in utter helplessness and distress. God wants to help us through our periods of spiritual helplessness and distress. Everyone’s lives have them. Times when we reach such despair… when we are struggling. Sometimes we must depend on others to fill our cups. And some people can even over drain the cups of other people until no one wants to help them anymore. But God is always there for us. When we have come to a saving faith in Jesus, He is there to fill our cup any time we need Him. He is the only one who can fill it completely.
Next, we see that the Messiah has come to heal the brokenhearted. Anyone who has grieved knows what this means. Sometimes, only God can comfort. Ex 15:26 tells us that God calls Himself ‘the Lord who heals you’. I like to think about this in terms of getting stitches. Each painful penetration of the needle helps control the bleeding of a wound and reattach the tissues. Yet, without the pain, healing would not occur. He doesn’t always take away our pain. Sometimes, God helps you to get through the things that you just can’t get over.
Isaiah tells us that the Messiah has come to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. To understand this, let’s look at Psalm 107:10-16. In this Psalm, why are the prisoners in chains? And how are they set free? Our sins hold us captive, but God’s saving Grace can set us free eternally. How exciting is that?
Next, we see the Messiah healing the blind. How does 2 Cor 4:4 describe spiritual blindness? What things can cause the spiritual blindness of the unbeliever? Scientific theories come to mind. Satan uses anything He can to keep us from seeing God’s truth. And sometimes He distracts us with the trials and difficulties of life. But God wants us all to see His truth clearly. Thus, the teaching of His Word and of His Son are freely available to all.
The Messiah came to release the oppressed. Oppression usually has the result of breaking us. That is the enemy’s goal… to make us unable to function. God wants to bring us to spiritual brokenness so that we are ready to turn to Jesus as our salvation… to accept His grace. But Satan wants to break us until we are truly broken and blame God. Don’t confuse the two. (Isaiah 58:6)
And finally, the job description that Jesus read that day from Isaiah said that the Messiah was to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. God's desire is that no man should perish but that all should have everlasting life (2 Pet 3:9). Mankind has until Christ’s return to accept Him but for each individual God has a distinct time and place where His Holy Spirit works within us (John 3:34). It is different for each of us, but God reaches out and tries to draw us to Him. But He does not force. We must willingly accept Him and give our lives to Him. Repentance is our responsibility. When the prophet Isaiah referred to the year of the Lord's favor, he was referring to this age of grace, which we are currently in, when man is no longer under the Law but can come to salvation by repenting of his sins and believing on the saving power of the death and resurrection of our Lord.
In verse 22 of our text, we see that the people were marveling at Jesus’ teaching and asking, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” They knew that Jesus was selling Himself as the Messiah. So, in verse 23, He challenged them with more Scripture, saying surely they will tell Him to heal Himself and to do in Nazareth the amazing things they have heard about Him doing in Capernaum and Jerusalem. And then He told them directly that no prophet is accepted in His own hometown.
Jesus then goes on to remind them of the Old Testament story where Elijah cared for the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:7-24) and the story where Elisha cleansed Naaman the Syrian of leprosy (2 Kings 5:1-14). The important thing about these two stories is these were examples of when God sent a prophet to minister to Gentiles and not to Jews. The folks in the synagogue that day would have picked right up on that. Jesus was also not doing miracles in Nazareth as He had in Cana and Jerusalem.
Our text tells us that the people in the synagogue were so furious that they drove Him right out of town, and they took Him to the top of the hill on which the town was built. There, they intended to throw Him off the cliff (now that is angry), but He walked right through the crowd and went on His way. These people had their moment when God’s Holy Spirit reached out to them, and they rejected the message. Has God’s Holy Spirit been calling you to repentance? Don’t miss the opportunity.
Responding to God: Worship God and thank Him for His love and grace. Praise Him for His fulfillment of prophecy. Pray to be filled with God’s Holy Word and His Holy Spirit. Ask Him to help you to be more like Jesus, leading others to the freedom and healing that comes with salvation. Seek His comfort for your griefs and His healing for your hurts. Ask Him to give you the ability to see His truth. Ask Him to fill your cup when you feel utterly helpless. Share your struggles and worries with Him.
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