Jesus, The Great Prophet (Luke 7:11-16) Series

Because they hear the echo. What God did, in the very distant past, He is now doing again through a new prophet, Jesus. God is visiting his people, helping them, rescuing them, through Jesus.

So here, we should find ourselves asking a question. Why does Luke build this whole story, frame it, to reach this peak? Why does it matter that Jesus is a great prophet?

If we were on Family Feud, and had to give Jesus 10 labels, I'm not sure that "prophet" would make the list. But it's apparently really important to Luke. And in a way that maybe surprises us, it's also really important to Jesus.

Back in Luke 4, near the start of his ministry, Jesus describes himself as a prophet. Let's turn there, and remind ourselves of his words. Luke 4:22-28 (NRSV updated no reason):

22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ” 24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months and there was a severe famine over all the land, 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many with a skin disease in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

So Jesus describes himself as a prophet. Today, if we were going to be cheeky about it (and gently poke modern culture, which is important), we'd say that this is how he self-identifies. Jesus says, verse 24, that no prophet is welcomed in his own hometown. He then compares himself to Elijah, and Elisha, and basically says that his ministry is like theirs in two ways. The first, is that his ministry is one of power. There will be signs and wonders. People will be healed. And second, his ministry will primarily be to outsiders, to people on the margins.

What we are going to see in the next few weeks is this idea, of Jesus being a great prophet, becomes a key theme in Luke-Acts. And really, it becomes a thread that holds part 1 and 2 of Luke's work together.

At this point, let's flip back to the high point of today's story, Luke 7:16:

(16) Now fear took/seized [them] all,

and they glorified God, saying that [1 Kings 17:23]

"A great prophet was raised among us!,

and that

"God has visited his people."

Our tendency, maybe, is read the crowds' words about Jesus being a great prophet and want to criticize them. Is Jesus a prophet? Is that an adequate way to describe Jesus? Is he someone like Elijah?

We want to add to this, and say more (and at least one of my commentators spends some serious time doing this). We prefer to describe Jesus using different words.

I think Luke is teaching a profound truth, that's deeply rooted in the OT. But this truth isn't something that I, at least, grew up being exposed to. Even after reading Jesus self-identify as a prophet, I struggle to appreciate it.