Luke 4:16-30 - Cauterized by Handling of Holy Things
Tonight I’d like to look at the passage of scripture from Luke 4:16-30. It describes what happened to Jesus when He returned to His home after having ministered to others outside of His hometown. Let’s read.
Let me tell you a story. Around the turn of the century there was a young man named James Lewis Kraft who was a clerk in Ferguson’s general store at Fort Erie, Ontario, across the Niagara River from Buffalo. Kraft had been born on a farm near there. He was obviously a good clerk, appreciated by his employer, because he was making $150 a month—a good salary in those days.
A neighboring storekeeper, a man named Land, remembered him very well. Years later, when Kraft revisited the Land store on a trip home, the elderly proprietor identified him with every sign of pleasure.
A good deal of water had gone over the falls during that interval. James Kraft had founded the Kraft Cheese Company in Chicago. He was a humble man, even though he built a multi-million-dollar business. The company’s products had reached practically every grocery store in the US. and Canada as well. Millions of dollars in advertising had etched the Kraft name into public consciousness, and J.L. Kraft expected that of course his old friend would know all about his success.
But Land merely said, “Why, hello, Lew. Haven’t seen you for years. You still clerkin’ up at Ferguson’s?”
Sometimes hometown heroes don’t get quite the respect that they perhaps deserve. This is what happened to Jesus. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, a mighty instrument to accomplish God’s purposes on earth. He came home to Nazareth, the town He had grown up in.
Both Mary and Joseph were from the town of Nazareth in the province of Galilee. For the census mentioned in Luke 2, Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem in the province of Judea. Now, geographically it’s down, southwards. But it’s the hills, so the Bible says they went up, like going up and down the River. We say it’s down to Miramichi, but on a map it’s really up and over.
Mary and Joseph were planning on heading right back to Nazareth after Jesus was circumcised on the 8th day. But the wise men arrived, bringing with them gold, to pay for the flight to the country of Egypt. King Herod was going to kill Jesus, and Joseph was warned in a dream to flee. I don’t know how long they were in Egypt, but they eventually made their way back to Nazareth in Galilee.
When He was 30 Jesus left Nazareth, some 20 miles from the Jordan River, where He was baptized by John. There He found some disciples, though likely not all of them. He performed a few miracles – turning water into wine at Cana, a few miles north of Nazareth. He cleared the Temple in Jerusalem, and did some other miracles there too. He spent time in Samaria, reaching out to the people there. He went to Capernaum where He healed the nobleman’s son. Perhaps Jesus had been ministering for about a year by this time.
And then He came back to His hometown. As a visiting preacher, He was given the opportunity to read from the scriptures in the synagogue. Now, there was only one Temple in Jesus’ day, in the capital of Jerusalem, but there were many synagogues scattered in towns all over. They did not offer sacrifices there, but they did have weekly meetings of prayer, confession, scripture reading, preaching, and so on. This is what Jesus did.
He opened to Isaiah 61 – read v18-19a again – and said that was Him. The passage describes the year of the Lord’s favor – the year of Jubilee, where land is returned to its owners, slaves are set free, debts are cancelled, and everyone gets a new start. This is what Jesus came to earth to do – to give new starts to people who need them. To give life and freedom back. This is Jesus’ ministry.
Now, they spoke well of Him, v22 says. Then, v22 also describes their comments. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” This sounds like a simple question, but it’s more than that. It’s belittling. Now, granted, there is a hidden compliment, as in, “You mean to tell me that the carpenter’s son did those amazing things?” But it’s belittling in that it’s almost like a pat on the head, saying, “Aww, isn’t He cute? Our little boy can do such big things.”
They were almost humoring Him. To them He would never be seen in His full identity: as the Son of God, mighty in power, humble in deeds, full of love and mercy and compassion. To them He would always be Joseph’s boy, that carpenter’s apprentice.
Yes, He was impressive. Yes, He had done other things in other towns. Yes, He read the scriptures well and understood them. But He would still always be Joseph’s boy, the son of just a humble carpenter.
So Jesus went on to speak to them – v23. It’s interesting that even though they were trying to compliment Him with words, Jesus didn’t care. He didn’t care what they were saying, because He knew what they were thinking. He knew they would be looking for the miraculous signs, not because they wanted to know Jesus better or have their sins forgiven or have their bodies healed, but because they wanted Jesus to show off His power. They wanted Him to do the fireworks that we talked about this morning. They wanted to see how impressive and entertaining this carpenter’s son could be.
And Jesus did not show off. Jesus did not use His power to impress people. He used His power to improve people. To forgive them, to save them, to heal them. That’s why Jesus always used His power.
And He went on to describe 2 OT stories, from the prophets, Elijah and Elisha. Each one stepped outside their own people and country to heal foreigners. And the people got the point. Jesus was saying that the prophets went where they were wanted and needed. He even implied that outsiders were just as good as the insiders, the Jewish people.
This thought did not sit well with them – v29. They tried to kill their hometown boy. Somehow He escaped through the crowd, perhaps miraculously, and He lived to preach another day.
This is actually a sad story. His own hometown people rejected Him. The very ones who watched Him grow up became the ones who tried to kill Him. Bruce Larson says, “As far as we know, Christ never returned to Nazareth. Rejection can be irreparable, final. God never sends anyone to hell. It is a chosen state. Having pursued it through life, God finally lets us have it our way.”
My dad, who was a schoolteacher for years, left his home on Grand Manan and taught in St.George for a few years, before returning to his hometown. He has said, “There are 3 groups of people who should not work in their own hometowns: preachers, teachers, and policemen.” He said there is the authority issue: are you going to listen to a someone who you watched grow up and made mistakes and act like an idiot? Where is the respect there?
This issue describes a common problem, in the church and in the world. It’s the issue of arrogance. It’s the question, “What can I possibly learn from someone so many years younger than me? What can I learn from someone who I saw grow up in this church? What does he or she have to tell me that I don’t already know?”
Now, it works fine if the upstart never says or does anything that grates on anybody. If the person only says good things, then fine. But if the person actually dares say something that offends or annoys or rubs the wrong way or convicts or condemns, then woe to them. Jesus was fine as long as He said only pleasant things. But when He stepped on toes, out He went.
The people had become unteachable. They weren’t about to let this young fella criticize the way they were. Despite being immersed in the scriptures for years, they could not handle someone coming in and using the scriptures to point out flaws in their lives. They had become so familiar with what they knew, and rejected anything new.
It was the philosopher Francis Bacon who said, "The true atheist is he whose hands are cauterized by holy things." That is, they won’t listen because they don’t want to. But a pastor named Ben Patterson updated the quote. He said, “Sometimes I think our hands are cauterized by handling of holy things. We’ve been there and done that so many times that our hearts get calluses.”
That’s just it. As people who use the scripture regularly, as people who know what the scriptures say and what they mean, we can become so used to it all that it doesn’t affect us anymore. Like a beekeeper who eventually gets used to stings, or a woodsman who gets used to splinters, people who use the Bible regularly often get used to what it says, and it doesn’t affect them as much anymore. Our hearts grow and hard and unaffected. Almost bored with the old, but resistant to the new.
This is pride. This is arrogance. This is a person so steeped in his or her ways that no one will change their minds, even if they could be proven wrong. So what happens then?
Well, the same thing in our story. The presence of Jesus moves on. I’m not saying the person forfeits his or her whole life because they get unteachable. I’m saying that their lives become a shadow of what they used to be. They talk about the good old days, mainly because they haven’t seen any good days lately. They talk about how good things used to be, and how everything is so different now, and how the church is so lacking in power, and how theologically far off people are now. They point fingers and blame the pastors. They figure everybody but them is wrong and carnal and hypocritical.
So what happens is that they complain that God’s presence isn’t around enough. That’s true, because God hates complaining. Grumbling and murmuring about how wrong things are really drives God away. I’ve seen it time and again, in every place I’ve ever lived. Unteachable people complain about how things are, and how wrong everything is, and the presence of the Lord slowly creeps from their lives. And anyone who might possibly have a message from the Lord gets tuned out. They reject God’s message and God’s messengers. Jesus, after all, did say in John 15, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”
If it happened then, it can happen now. Don’t get unteachable. Don’t figure you know it all. Don’t block out what God might say to you through anybody. Don’t allow pride into your life. Don’t become “used” to what the Bible might say to you. Don’t become hard to someone explaining a new truth to you. Test what they say, yes, but don’t disregard all new ideas just because they’re new. Don’t let your heart grow hard. Don’t become cauterized by the handling of holy things.
