Who Is Jesus To You? Series

People make judgments about us all of the time. It’s not so much that they are judgmental, but that they get to meet us or get to know us based on certain associations. I know, by virtue of the fact that I’m a pastor, when I introduce myself to people, they make an immediate judgment. If they had a bad experience with a pastor in the past, they may take a step back or give me a questioning look. If they had a good experience, they may have a different reaction. When they hear I’m a pastor of a baptist church, there is another whole series of responses.

I know I’m not alone in this. Whether it’s our background, place of origin, skin color, career, body type, parents, education, etc., people will make assumptions and judgments about all of us.

We are in good company - because they did that with Jesus to!

As we read earlier, Jesus visited his home town of Nazareth and another town in the region of Galilee, Capernaum, and received completely different responses. In one, He was judged because His teaching and His heritage did not seem to match up. In the other, people judged him on different standards.

If you have your copy of God’s word, open to Luke 4. We’ll be looking at verses 14-44.

So, after Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he was led by the Spirit to begin his work. Luke provides a bit of a summary of his ministry.

Luke 4:14–15 ESV

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll see this pattern of ministry play out - showing up in synagogues, teaching, and often healing.

Here, this first synagogue that Luke tells us about is in his hometown of Nazareth. Because people thought they knew him, or at least knew what to expect of his family, we see first of all that they…

Rejected Jesus as son of Joseph (14-30)

As was his pattern, he came to the synagogue. On this specific day, he was given the opportunity to read from the scroll of Isaiah. As Luke reveals this encounter, some commentators delineate it as two cycles of conversation - an action or teaching on Jesus part, followed by a response from the assembly.

Cycle 1: Scripture, sermonette, suspicion

Jesus took the scroll of the book of Isaiah, found the place that he wanted to read. In our bibles, this is Isaiah 61:1-2. He read the passage

Luke 4:18–19 ESV

“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,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He returned the scroll and sat down - taking the position of a teacher. Then he shared a very brief message.

Luke 4:21 ESV

And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

What did he mean by that? Is he claiming to be the one about whom the prophet spoke? Is he he claiming anointing? How do his words fulfill that prophecy?

Initially, people marvelled and were intrigued by what he said, eventually responding - “isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

Of course, these Nazarenes don’t have the benefit of having read the first four chapters of Luke’s gospel. They did, however, have the opportunity to see Jesus grow up in the context of his earthly family - and assumed that Jesus was Joseph’s son. It’s as though they are marveling at the fact that Jesus would be able to speak in profound ways given his blue-collar background, after all, Joseph was a carpenter.

They conclude this cycle of the conversation with curiosity or suspicion.

So Jesus returns their curiosity with controversy as he starts cycle 2:

Cycle 2: Proverb, historical precedent, hostility

We could say that he shares a proverb or a parable and an historic precedent for the work of God, to which they respond with hostility.

Jesus seems to begin by poking the bear:

Luke 4:23 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.’ ”

He then goes on to talk about the fact that in the days of Elijah and Elisha, there were many people in need, but God had these men work in the lives of some foreigners - a widow in Sidon and a Syrian leper. Jesus uses these accounts of Elijah and Elisha and the unbelief of the Israelites of their day to point out the unbelief of the people of Nazareth in Jesus’ day.