JUST JESUS: CHAPTER BY CHAPTER THRU LUKE
REJECTING JESUS
LUKE 4:14-30
#JustJesus
INTRODUCTION … Rejection Imagination Exercise (p)
I would like you to imagine a situation as we begin this morning. Call it a thought exercise if you want. It is a normal run-of-the-mill situation that you or I might experience.
Imagine that you are sitting down for dinner at a restaurant and the person who invited you said that they will pay for the meal. They invited you out and so they will pay. It’s on them. You haven’t really known this person for very long, but they offer to buy your meal out of the goodness of their heart. They have the willingness and ability to do so. You order from the menu and the meal comes. You eat. You drink. You get to know the person a little more. You even have dessert. Wohoo! The bill comes and the person pays. That is the situation.
Now let’s throw some rejection into the mix and I am going to describe four possible scenarios at this particular dinner where rejection takes place and it changes the story a bit. The rejection will change the story. This will all make sense later, so just track with me and listen.
Scenario 1: Imagine you are sitting down for dinner at a restaurant and the person who invited you said that they will pay for the meal. You haven’t really known this person for very long, but they offer to buy your meal. You look at the menu and you decide not to order anything because you feel like you are not hungry. Your stomach is growling loudly. It is growling so much that the person at the next table over slides you some of their appetizers to aid you in your obvious hunger distress, but you are convinced that you are not hungry. You stick to your guns and you don’t eat or don’t drink anything. You don’t even have any dessert. You reject the offer of paid food because you don’t think you are hungry.
Scenario 2: Imagine if you will that you are sitting down for dinner at a restaurant and the person who invited you said that they will pay for the meal. They invited you out and so they will pay. It’s on them. You haven’t really known this person for very long, but they offer to buy your meal out of the goodness of their heart. You order from the menu and the meal comes. Just as you are about to eat, a few friends pass by the large window at the front of the restaurant and think they see you inside. They are gawking trying to figure out if it is you in there. You look across the table and realize that you’d rather not be seen eating with this person. You don’t really even want to be seen sitting in this restaurant. It is fine to be there, but not if other people you know are going to see you. You excuse yourself to go to the bathroom and exit out the back door of the restaurant.
Scenario 3: Imagine that you are sitting down for dinner at a restaurant and the person who invited you said that they will pay for the meal. They are going to pay which is great because you can’t afford the place. You can’t afford any place. You order from the menu and the meal comes. Just as your meal comes, so does the meal at the table next to you. You look at what you ordered. You look at what they ordered. You decide you don’t want what you ordered. You want what they ordered. So, you scoot your chair away from your table over to their table and order what they are having. You decide you’ll pay for it somehow.
Scenario 4: Imagine you are about to sit down for dinner at a restaurant and the person who invited you said that they will pay for the meal. They invited you out and so they will pay. You are about to sit, but you say ‘no’ because you decide you don’t like their motives. They invite you to sit, but you say ‘no’ because you don’t like what they chose to wear. They again invite you to sit, but you say ‘no’ because you can eat anywhere you don’t have to eat in this particular restaurant. They again invite you to sit and you again say ‘no’ because now you are embarrassed that you’ve said ‘no’ to much and you don’t like how that feels. You leave.
This thought exercise is meant to get you thinking about rejection and situations of rejection. Rejection is dismissal of an idea. Rejection is refusal of a proposal. Rejection is saying ‘no’ to something and choosing an alternative. Rejection can mean mistreatment or silence or no action at all depending on the situation and the people involved.
TRANSITION
I mention rejection in this thought exercise (which we will come back to) because the passage that we are going to read and dig into today in Luke 4 is all about rejection. Let’s read from Luke 4 and investigate the rejection we find. I usually read a passage all the way through, but we are going to go section by section.
VERSES 14-16
READ LUKE 4:14-16 (ESV)
“Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about Him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read.
Jesus is beginning His ministry. He is doing it with a fuel and direction of which we need to take note. Let’s not forget in the last chapter of Luke, that Jesus was baptized and the Spirit of God lit up the whole place as a symbol of His authority (3:21-22). We are also told at the beginning of this chapter that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by Satan (4:1). Now in verse 14 we are told again that Jesus is operating in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is significant. Jesus is not “willy nilly” going where He thinks is best or “giving it his best shot” or doing anything random, but He is fueled by the Holy Spirit and is taking His direction from Him. This is the most important truth to take away from these first few verses.
The Spirit directs Him to Galilee which is the broad area in which He grew up. The Spirit further directs Him to go home to the town of Nazareth. It wasn’t where He was born, but it was where His family moved back to when He was a toddler.
Jesus has been teaching in various synagogues in Galilee as His ministry was beginning. Preaching and teaching were His primary goals and synagogues were he perfect place to do that. If you don’t know what a “synagogue” is, it is like a local church like ours except it is not filled with Christians but filled with Jewish folks. The focus in a synagogue is prayer and the reading of the Old Testament. It was then and it is now. Jesus is teaching in various synagogues in Galilee and when He comes to His hometown of Nazareth He also goes to the synagogue. He has a reputation of being a teacher and so they ask Him to read from the Old Testament and make a comment.
VERSES 17-21
READ LUKE 4:17-21 (ESV)
17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” 20 And He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
We are not sure if Jesus rolled the scroll open to Isaiah 61 on purpose or if that was the assigned Scripture for the day, but Jesus is in the local synagogue and He reads from the Old Testament. This is a significant Old Testament passage about the Messiah. Isaiah 61 is in a section of Isaiah where chapter 60 is about the future glory and hope of Israel, chapter 61 is about the favor of God, and chapter 62 is about coming salvation. All these chapters are pointing and promising that one day a Messiah would come. He is about to let them know that the day has arrived.
What would this Messiah do?
Isaiah 61 describes that the Messiah would preach good news to those who had nothing. The Messiah would also be someone who gives freedom to people who are captive and bound and oppressed. He would allow blind people to see. And above all things, the Messiah would usher in a time of God’s favor like the Year of Jubilee described in the Old Testament where debts are forgiven, slaves are set free, and God’s favor rests on people. All of the promises of the Christ revolve around good news, freedom, and favor. Good news and freedom and favor is what Isaiah 61 is all about and it is the passage that Jesus reads before His fellow Nazarenes.
Jesus reads the passage standing, as was the custom, and then He sat down to make a comment, which was also the custom. Everyone is waiting for His comment. He says very specifically, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” What is Jesus saying?
* Jesus identifies Himself as the One coming in the Holy Spirit
* Jesus identifies Himself as the One bearing the good news
* Jesus identifies Himself as the One Who brings freedom and favor to the oppressed
Jesus says that the Old Testament prophecy that was written centuries before was pointing to Him. He is claiming to be the One Isaiah wrote about. Jesus just identified Himself to those listening as the promised Messiah.
What happens next?
VERSE 22
READ LUKE 4:22 (ESV)
And all spoke well of Him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from His mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph's Son?”
The people listening are intensely looking at Jesus and the Greek word used in this verse indicates that the people were surprised and amazed, but the word does not mean if they were amazed good or amazed bad. The word does not carry with it favor or disfavor, just amazement.
What we get in this verse is that the people were perplexed and wondered about how Jesus could say such things. They recall Jesus growing up in their town. They know Him. He is not what they would expect if He were the Messiah. They know Him to be the son of a local carpenter. He’s a carpenter not a teacher. He’s a carpenter not a Messiah. He’s a carpenter not a freer of captives or the bringer of God’s favor. They don’t quite know what to make of Him.
Then, Jesus keeps talking.
VERSES 23-27
READ LUKE 4:23-27 (ESV)
And He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to Me this proverb, ‘“Physician, heal Yourself.” What we have heard You did at Capernaum, do here in Your hometown as well.’” 24 And He said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
Jesus could have just kept His mouth shut and let the questions and the assumptions and misconceptions of the people ride, but He doesn’t. Jesus’ words in verses 23-27 are not meant to reassure them, but are meant to challenge them and push their attitudes into the open. Jesus knows that they will ultimately reject Him.
Jesus identifies Himself with a long line of prophets that spoke the Word of God and were ignored and rejected by the People of God. He mentions Elijah who ministered to a widow outside of Israel during a famine. He mentions Elisha who ministered to a man from another country. Jesus is saying that there were widows and lepers in Israel, but because they turned their back on God and ignored Him that He did not do miracles there.
Basically, Jesus knows that He will have to prove His identity by doing a miracle for them. They will demand it. It happens to Him later in Luke 11:16 and 11:29. People like what He has to say, but they want Him to prove Himself over and over on the spot with miracles. Jesus says He will not perform on command for those in His hometown like a circus monkey.
What happens next?
What happens after Jesus claims to the be the Christ in His hometown?
What happens after Jesus challenges them and pushes their attitudes into the open?
VERSES 28-30
READ LUKE 4:28-30 (ESV)
28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove Him out of the town and brought Him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw Him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, He went away.”
I want you to notice that it is in between verses 27 and 28 that rejection happens. They are about to get mad. In fact, the word used in verse 28 that we read “wrath” means “boiling angry heat.” They are not just a little upset or slightly bent-out-of-shape, but they are furious to extreme actions.
Nazareth is a town that sits among the ridges and slopes of the hills of Galilee. Jesus allows them to drive Him out of town. I’m not sure why, but He does. We are not talking about Jesus taking an Uber here or hopping in the passenger side of His best friend’s ride, but by “drove Him out of the town” they were angry and I imagine shouting and rude gestures. Perhaps there were rocks or dung thrown as well, but that is probably more my imagination than Scripture. These people were so offended and they were so angry that they were going to throw Him off of a cliff. That’s not my imagination, that is Scripture.
Their intent was to throw Jesus off a cliff and be done with Him. Jesus does not allow this to happen and verse 30 tells us very cryptically and without any explanation that Jesus just passed through the crowd and went away. We are not told how Jesus passed through them all and left; just that He did. Later in His life, Jesus would be driven from town and killed, but it would not be this day. It was not in this place and in this way. His time had not yet come.
TRANSITION
It is that thing that happens between verses 27 and 28 that I want to focus on for a bit.
REJECTION
Here is where our thought exercise comes into play that we began with this morning. Human nature or the sinful nature is not all that complicated and most of the time we act in similar ways in similar circumstances. I described for you a fully paid dinner that you were invited to and I then described four situations in which you might reject that paid meal.
* You first rejected the meal because you thought you were not hungry.
* You secondly rejected the meal because you feared what other people thought.
* You thirdly rejected the meal because another meal was more appealing.
* You fourthly rejected the meal because in the end they didn’t do what you wanted.
As I thought about Jesus and the synagogue time in His hometown, it occurred to me that in the end the people of His hometown rejected Him. They said ‘no’ for probably a few different reasons which brought me to a series of questions:
Why did the people of Nazareth reject Jesus?
Why do people today reject Jesus as their Lord and Savior?
Why might our children or grandchildren or family or friends or coworkers reject Jesus?
Why might you, who sit in the pew week after week, just decide Jesus is not for you?
As I thought about those questions, it occurred to me that the answer to those questions are not one thing, but are many and confusing. The fancy word “plethora” comes to mind. The answers are as many as people answering because we are all different and we all have different reasons why we might reject Jesus. So, I picked four.
First, some people reject Jesus because they do not think they need a Savior. Most of the time we think we are good people and we are moral and we live good lives. This is true especially when we compare ourselves to others like murderers or child molesters or people who are Notre Dame fans. These people consider themselves to be “basically good” and do not realize that they are sinners in the hands of a holy God. There will be many good people who are separated from God for all eternity because they rejected the way to God.
Some people reject Jesus because they do not think they need a Mediator. Most of the time we think we will get before God and as long as all the good things we have done in this life outweigh the bad things in this life that the scales of justice will tip in our favor and we will slide into God’s presence on a technicality. It does not work that way. All people will stand before the Judge of All and we will either be there on our own or we will have our Mediator with us pleading our case and paying our fine.
Remember, Jesus is the only way to have a relationship with God and He is the only way for sins to be made right or to have eternal life. Jesus is it. The words that Jesus read from Isaiah 61 were absolutely fulfilled in the hearing of those in Nazareth and they ultimately rejected Him.
READ ACTS 4:12 (ESV)
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Please do not reject Jesus because you think you are good enough. You might very well be a good moral person…. you probably are! You might have integrity and a good heart and good motivations more often than not. That doesn’t actually matter a whole lot because sin is a really big deal. Please do not reject Jesus because you believe yourself to be a good person.
Second, some people reject Jesus because they do not want others to see them as one of “those people.” I’d like to tell you that the word “Christian” always has a good reputation and good context, but the truth is Christians show their butt quite a lot in society and are not always the best representatives of Christ. In addition, sometimes there is hardship or suffering because of being a Christian which is not a great selling point. The fear of social rejection or social hardship or being seen as different is real.
This is absolutely true in the Bible. John 12 says:
READ JOHN 12:42-43 (ESV)
Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in Him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
Please do not reject Jesus because you don’t want to be “one of those people.” We Christians often present ourselves as having it all together, but we do not. Every single one of us is a work in progress towards Christ. Some of us walk slower than others and to be honest, some of us are faking it. Please do not let the slow walkers or the fakers deter you from Jesus. Jesus is Who saves us. Christlikeness is the goal, not to be a good church person.
Please do not reject Jesus because of social pressure or what other people think. That fear is real. I know it is and all I can ask and encourage is that you don’t bow to pressure that leads your soul away from God towards emptiness and hurt and spiritual death. Run to Jesus.
Third, some people reject Jesus because they believe the world and culture and society and money and family and sports and education and entertainment has more to offer and has more meaning and is more appealing than Jesus and eternal things. This is also something understandable. If sin wasn’t fun or in someway filling, it would not be an issue. Sin is filling, it’s not fulfilling. There is a big difference. The things of this world are strewn along a wide path that leads nowhere good. I can tell you that, but most likely you are going to have to experience that for yourself. The Book of Hebrews tells us this same truth about Moses in the Old Testament:
READ HEBREWS 11:24-26 (ESV)
“By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”
I can only share with you that the pleasures and rewards of this life are fleeting. You have to decide if that is true or not. Christ offers eternal rewards. Please do not reject Jesus because you think there is something out there better than Him. Ain’t nuthin better than Jesus.
Fourth, and I think this bears out in the passage that we read today in Luke 4, people reject Jesus because He doesn’t do what they want. There is always a temptation to treat God like a vending machine and to put Jesus in a particular mold or to expect our lives to be a certain way because God is in it. There is also rejection of Jesus because we don’t want to do what He wants. There is always a temptation to place our desires and our sense of fairness and our pride and our view of what is good over God and therefore we must reject Him because we don’t like what He does and says. The Apostle Paul talks about this in Romans 1:
READ ROMANS 1:21 (ESV)
“For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
READ ROMANS 1:25 (ESV)
“they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
Please do not reject Jesus because He didn’t do what you wanted. Jesus is God. He does what He wants. He is allowed to have ways that are not our ways and to think above us. He’s God. We do not want God to fit into any kind of box or to be beholden to our vending machine prayers. He is bigger and greater and more powerful and we want Him that way. Please do not reject Jesus because He did the godly thing and in your small finite mind and perspective, you don’t understand.
SUMMARY
I will end today with this thought: It is a big deal to reject Jesus.
If you are here and you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, please do not reject Him. If you are here and you have folks in your life who have rejected Jesus, keep praying and sharing and having spiritual conversations. Keep sharing that Jesus is the good news of freedom from guilt and the and the favor of God the Father.
PRAYER
INVITATION
