When I was traveling in a bus around Israel, we went through Nazareth.  Firstly, I was surprised at how far from Lake Galilee Nazareth is.  I was expecting everything in the region of Galilee to be close to Lake Galilee.  Secondly, I had not thought through that Nazareth would be in the hills of Galilee.  There was one hill in particular that stood out as we drove through.  That was the hill where tradition says Jesus was taken by a mob who wanted to kill him.  The view from that mountain is shown above.

In this section of the book of Luke, the question is being answered, “Who is Jesus?”  The answer that Jesus gives to his home town so infuriates them that they want to kill him.  What Jesus reveals about himself also reveals something about his hearers.  People were amazed at Jesus’ teaching, but they did not flock to him. 

Who do you say Jesus is?  Do you place limits on who he can claim to be?  Do you go to him?

Luke 4: 14-30

¹⁴Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. ¹⁵He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

 ¹⁶He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. ¹⁷The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
 ¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
      because he has anointed me
      to preach good news to the poor.
   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
      and recovery of sight for the blind,
   to release the oppressed,
    ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”^[a]

 ²⁰Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, ²¹and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

 ²²All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

 ²³Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ “

 ²⁴“I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵I 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. ²⁶Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. ²⁷And there were many in Israel with leprosy^[b] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

 ²⁸All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹They 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 down the cliff. ³⁰But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Questions

1. How is Jesus’ return to Nazareth described?
2. Which prophet’s prophecy is fulfilled in the hearer’s presence?
3. What did people in his home town finally want to do with Jesus?
4. Was the religious community delivering God’s truth?
5. How does Jesus’ ministry in the gospels challenge the ministry of you and your church?

Going Deeper

Observation

1. Who has annointed Jesus?
2. To whom is the good news preached?
3. Where is no prophet accepted?
4. Whose example in Israel infuriates Jesus’ listeners?
5. What does Jesusdo when the people want to seize him?

Interpretation

1. How could Jesus apply a passage that Jews believed was a reference to end times to his own life 2,000 years ago?
2. Why would the fact that Jesus is Joseph’s son make the people of Nazareth skeptical?
3. If Jesus comes for the poor, in what different ways can ‘poor’ be understood?
4. Do the people of Nazareth think that Jesus is sick?  Do the people of Nazareth just want Jesus to perform a trick or two?
5. Why would Jesus’ retelling of the history of Elijah infuriate his hearers and apply to them so specifically?

Application

1. What is liberation theology and can a passage like this one support it? (http://liberationtheology.org/)
2. Do you decide what kind of Jesus you are prepared to accept?  How have you been surprised recently by the Jesus of the gospels?
3. How do we lose out on Jesus’ blessings when we decide not to let Jesus be who he really is?
4. Are you regularly listening to good teaching that starts with scripture and then brings its meaning to your life?
5. How does the teaching you hear both leave people saddened by their own condition and encouraged by Jesus’ ability to save?