Hometown Rejection

Luke 4:21-32

Here is an occasional scenario.  A man who has been gone from his hometown for several years decides to come back.  While he was gone, unbeknownst to the folks in his hometown, he has gone to school and become a pastor.  After this fellow returns to town, he is invited to preach a message at the local church. Instead of giving him a warm welcome, those in the congregation get their feathers all in a ruffle.  “Who does he think he is?”, they mumble to themselves. This is especially true if the young man had been a troublesome person as a youth or child, and then turned his life around. “Who is he to preach to us? His family is nothing special.” As we read in today’s Gospel passage, this is the type of unfriendly welcome that Jesus received when he came to His hometown. Let’s look at our Scripture for today, and see what happened.

Jesus had grown up as a child and young man in the village of Nazareth, which is in northern Israel.  We can be certain that He was not a problem child, nor caused any trouble as a youth. As a young adult, Jesus worked at the carpentry shop of His earthly stepfather, Joseph.  When He knew that the time of His ministry was to begin, Jesus left town, headed south, was baptized by John the Baptist, and went into the desert 40 days for a time of tempting and testing. Now, a little while later, Jesus and His disciples have returned to Nazareth, where He was invited to speak in the local synagogue. When He reads a passage from Isaiah, and indicates that He is the fulfillment of the prophecy, the people do not take kindly to His words.

They start to think amongst themselves that this man has a lot of nerve, implying that He’s the Messiah.  Why, He grew up with us, with our children. He’s Joseph’s son (vs. 22). Now He’s in town, preaching to us?!  The people had heard that Jesus had done some miracles and healings in the neighboring village of Capernaum, and wanted to see some for themselves (vs. 23). However they did not have any faith. Instead, they were challenging. They were proud and angry.

Jesus then reminds the people of Nazareth of two incidents in their nation’s past, of two miracles that the prophets Elijah and Elisha had performed (vs. 25-27).  During a dire famine in the land, the prophet Elijah was sent by God to minister to a starving widow in Zarephath, which was in Sidon, not Israel (I Kings 17:8-24).  She was a Gentile, not an Israelite. Elisha healed the Syrian general, Naaman, of leprosy (II Kings 5). He was also a Gentile. There were plenty of needy widows and lepers among the Jews in Israel.  Why not them? At the time of Elijah and Elisha there was widespread unbelief, apostasy, and pagan idol worship among the people. Also, God wanted to show that He had concern for the Gentiles, as well.

The people of Nazareth were in just as much unbelief as the people of Israel were in Elijah and Elisha’s day.  They were not opening their hearts to God to accept the One who was standing right before their eyes. The words that Jesus spoke enraged the people (vs. 28). They were furious when Jesus implied that they were as unbelieving as the people were in the time of those two prophets, which was a time well known to them as one of great wickedness.  They were outraged when they heard that divine grace might be withheld from them, due to unbelief, but extended to the Gentiles, and that God would choose to care for Gentiles over the people of Israel.

This wasn’t an anger where they just showed Jesus the door, telling Him to leave and not come back again.  This was a fury so strong they were going to literally kill Him (vs 29). The people grabbed Jesus and dragged Him across town to throw Him off of the cliff. They must have been thinking, “How dare He speak to them like that, and say such contentious things.” However, Jesus had a miraculous escape from premature death at the hands of this raging mob (vs. 30).

As Christians, our faith and life might not be readily accepted by those who know us well and grew up with us, such as our family and neighbors.  This may be particularly true if one might have had a troublesome past, and now are coming with the message of Jesus and salvation. Don’t give up hope.  Jesus, Himself, was never really accepted by the people of Nazareth. His own family, with the exception of His mother, never accepted His message until after His resurrection.  Let your life be a light and a testimony, and God will use you.