There’s a key word in this passage that I would like to point out. It is not obvious in the English, so it’s a bit tricky. But the word ‘favor’ in verse 19 and the word ‘acceptable’ in verse 24 render the same Greek word, which is dektos. In fact, in the King James Version it is translated ‘acceptable’ in one place and ‘accepted’ in the other. It is not a small point, because I believe accepting Jesus is the issue in this passage. Jesus says in verse 24, ‘Truly…, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.’ The people there in His hometown, in Nazareth, did not accept Him. Nor do the vast majority of people. He was sent to proclaim ‘the Lord’s favor,’ or God’s grace, and, despite the well-meant offer, few embrace it. That’s the theme of my message this morning: Embracing Grace. And it’s something better make sure we do. If you look at the Westminster Larger Catechism, in its answer to Question 67, you’ll see that the Spirit of God makes the sinner ‘able…to accept and embrace the grace offered’ in Christ. It cannot happen without the Spirit’s work, as we shall see, but embracing grace is critical for each of us.
But how do we do it? Here in Luke 4, we are given three means. We learn here that we embrace grace by understanding God’s Word, by assenting to God’s Word, and by trusting God’s Word.
I
So, to begin with, we embrace grace by understanding His Word. This should be no surprise to us. We cannot accept God’s grace unless we know about it and unless we understand something of what we know. And how do we understand it?
First, by gathering around the Word. At the beginning of our passage today, we see Jesus as he is just returning from the wilderness, where He has been tempted sorely by the devil, to Galilee. He teaches in the synagogues of the region, and when He arrives at His hometown of Nazareth, as we read in verse 16, ‘as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day’—and what did He do? ‘He stood up to read.’ This is the beginning point. We gather around God’s Word. We go to the place where it is read. For Jesus’ contemporaries it was the synagogue. For us, of course, it is the church. But then what?
We listen as the Word is read. We understand the Word by gathering around it, and we understand the Word by hearing it read. When Jesus arrives in Nazareth, his hometown (‘where he had been brought up,’ 4:16), He attends worship at the synagogue (‘as was his custom,’ v. 16), and He is asked to read from the scroll of Isaiah. He finds the place where it is written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor…,’ etc. He is, of course, reading Isaiah 61:1-2.
In its original context, the Isaiah reading is an announcement of God’s gracious deliverance of exiled Judah and their restoration. The ‘poor’ are the afflicted, and the affliction, of course, is God’s judgment upon their sin. But an evangel has been proclaimed, a gospel, and the words used portray the beneficiaries are the ‘broken,’ the ‘captives,’ and the ‘prisoners.’ The ‘year of the LORD’s favor is also announced, referring to the year of Jubilee, when all debts are forgiven and debtors have their lands restored to them (Lev. 25:8-10).
This passage is filled with gracious words, announcing God’s favor upon people who have been afflicted, even (and especially) if their affliction has been a result of their sin. It is a perfect way for Jesus to announce His mission to His hometown neighbors. His arrival is ‘good news of great joy that will be for all the people’ (Luke 2:10). In Him God’s mercy flows. This is the era of grace, and God is kindly disposed toward the penitent.
II
When we understand this, we understand His Word. And that is the beginning of embracing grace. But we must also assent to His Word. We embrace grace by understanding His Word, and we embrace grace by assenting to His Word. So, how do we do that? We yield our attention to Jesus, and then we yield our will to Jesus.
The folks in Nazareth got the first part right. They yielded their attention to Jesus. Verse 20 says that Jesus ‘rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. In those days you stood to read the Scripture, and you sat to teach it. And look at the end of verse 20: ‘And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.’ The air is charged with expectation. And that’s the way it ought to be. Because what they heard next could have been life changing. ‘Today,’ Jesus said, ‘this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing’ (v. 21). And it looked like it was going to ‘take!’ Luke says that ‘all spoke well of him’—you can almost hear the buzz in the synagogue—‘and [they] marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth’ (v. 22a). But then something happened. Something went wrong.
We assent to God’s Word by yielding our attention to Jesus—something the people did that day—but we also assent to His Word by yielding our will to Jesus. And that’s something the people did not do. The next thing they said was, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ Mark gives us a fuller account. In Mark 6:2 and 3 we read where they said, “‘Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.’ They insulted Him.
Jesus knew what they were saying, and in verse 23, He quotes a familiar proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ Verse 14, remember, tells us that ‘a report about him went out through all the surrounding country,’ so the people in Nazareth were likely to say, ‘What we heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ But Mark says, ‘He could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief’ (Mark 6:5).
Up until this moment, we would do well to emulate the fine people of Nazareth. They went to worship. They gathered around the Word. They heard it read. They understood it. But they would not believe it. They yielded their attention to Jesus, and, at first, everything looked good. But then they couldn’t yield their will to Jesus. And there’s no assenting to the Word of God without yielding the will to God. And so Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable’—no prophet is accepted!—in his hometown’ (v. 24). The people of Nazareth will not benefit from Jesus’ presence because they will not accept Him, because of their own resistance to Him.
III
What we have seen so far is that we embrace grace by understanding His Word and by assenting to His Word. But there is one more thing: We embrace grace by trusting His Word.
How close these people were to receiving grace! And yet, they missed it. Why? Because grace is sovereign. Trust—or faith—comes to those to whom God gives it. It is effectual only for those elect by God. It is offered to all. Otherwise, Jesus wouldn’t be there in Nazareth. So, it is offered to all. But it is not welcomed by all.
The other day I came across a guy named Kern Pegues, and this is what he said. He said, ‘The Reformed churches have always believed in, taught, and confessed precisely the opposite of the caricature. We confess that we cannot know who are the elect. We preach the gospel to all indiscriminately.’
That’s what Jesus did. ‘He knew all people and needed no one to bear witness to him about man, for he himself knew what was in man’ (John 2:24, 25). He knew the people in Nazareth would not believe, but He was sent ‘to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor’ anyway.
The people of Nazareth were responsible for their choices, but only those stirred by the Spirit would in the end embrace the grace that was announced. Jesus shows this by referencing the accounts of Elijah and Elisha, through whom the grace of God came not to whom you would expect but to others. How truly sovereign is His grace! ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion,’ He had said (Rom. 9:15; cf. Ex. 33:19).
At this point, the reaction of the crowd intensifies. Now it is no longer verbal insults but physical violence. We embrace grace by trusting in God’s Word, and trust is seen in those who accept Jesus. But to these people Jesus is not ‘acceptable.’ Our Lord said so Himself back in verse 24. Now Look at the verbs in vv. 28 and 29. We read that ‘they…were filled with wrath,’ ‘they rose up,’ ‘they…drove him out,’ ‘so that they could throw him down’! This is the reaction of hearts armored against grace!
Grace came! It came in Jesus, ‘anointed’ no less, to ‘proclaim good news to the poor,’ ‘sent…to proclaim liberty to the captives.’ But the poor will not admit their poverty. The captives will not acknowledge their imprisonment. And they cast Jesus out, drive Him out, throw Him down—or attempt to—and with Him the offer of grace.
Notice verse 29, where it says, ‘They…brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.’ The two little words, ‘the hill,’ foreshadow another hill, one that awaits Jesus at the end of His ministry, one that is farther south, outside another city. Luke writes in chap. 23 that, ‘when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him’ (v. 33). Golgotha, it is called in Aramaic, and it is a skull-shaped hill outside Jerusalem.
The people of Nazareth were intent on killing Jesus. Of course, it was not yet His ‘hour,’ as John puts it in his Gospel, so they were unsuccessful. But Jesus’ adversaries, among whom are His childhood neighbors, will eventually accomplish their aim, and He will die on that other hill. But we need to know that it was as He Himself said. No one took His life from Him. He gave it up on His own. ‘For this reason the Father loves me,’ He said, ‘because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father’ (John 10:17-18). No one can lay a hand on Jesus until He is ready. So we have Luke’s statement: ‘But passing through their midst, he went away’ (Luke 4:30).
Why would Jesus die on a hill called The Skull? He would die there for sinners, taking upon Himself their sins, bearing their shame and guilt and absorbing not only the wrath of men, like the wrath of His neighbors attested in verse 28, but, what is much more significant, the wrath of God. God’s wrath against His elect was exhausted on Jesus. Do you know the words to the old hymn that go: ‘My sin—Oh the bliss of this glorious thought!—My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!’
The vast majority of people do not ‘accept’ Jesus. They refuse the ‘favor’ He offers. They do not embrace grace. But we must. We must understand His Word, assent to it, and place our trust in it.
