Week 20: Steering Clear of Jesus' Hometown

This week's reading unfolds as follows:

Sunday (Epistles): 2 Corinthians 9-10
Monday (The Law): Exodus 25-28
Tuesday (History): 2 Samuel 15-19
Wednesday (Psalms): Psalms 57-59
Thursday (Poetry): Job 39-40
Friday (Prophecy): Jeremiah 37-41
Saturday (Gospels): Luke 3-4

Scripture
While this week's readings are wide and varied, as usual, I would like to focus on one of the most interesting passages in the New Testament, taken from our reading in the Gospels.

It's Luke 4:14-30, the key statement of which is v 24: "Truly I tell you...no prophet is accepted in his hometown."

Observation
Luke's account of Jesus' visit to his hometown of Nazareth is striking for a number of reasons. The first of which is where Luke locates this in the narrative...right at the outset of Jesus' ministry...on the heels of the 40-day wilderness temptation after his baptism. Matthew and Mark, the other Gospel writers to speak of Jesus' visit to Nazareth, locate the story later on, well after he chose the 12 disciples.

Luke does this for emphasis. When Jesus began his earthly ministry after his baptism and temptation, he made a whole new start. He made a decisive break from all the people and things that his life had been bound to...which leads to the second unique characteristic of Luke's account.

Neither Matthew nor Mark include what Jesus actually taught when he visited the synagogue in Nazareth...or how his hometown Nazarenes responded.

Jesus read Isaiah 61:1-2, rolled up the scroll, handed it to the attendant, and then said, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." It was a prophecy about Jesus' ministry "to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, [and] to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Luke shows that Jesus perceived the skepticism behind their question, "Isn't this Joseph's son?" (v 22). (Matthew and Mark include more than Luke does: "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us?" And they took offense at him" [Matt. 13:55-57; Mark 6:3].)

Jesus went on to say that in Elijah's day, God showed favor to two Gentiles while withholding favor from his own people due to their unrepentant hearts.

Jesus' fellow Nazarenes were so infuriated by this comparison that they drove him out of town to the brow of a hill. They indented to kill him! But, strangely (miraculously?), Luke says, "he walked right through the crowd and went on his way" (v. 30).

Thus begins the ministry of Jesus Christ!

Application
There are more than a couple of applications we could make from this story.

Following Luke's lead, we could underscore the need to make a decisive break from our past when we take up new life in Christ. This appears to be at least one reason that Luke placed the story at the beginning of the Gospel narrative and included the details he did.

We could compare Jesus' rejection by his townsfolk to ourselves when, after embracing Jesus as our Savior, we experience the rejection of those closest to us. What was true of Jesus can be no less true for us!

We can also use this story to make the point that "those who know us best may help us least" when we attempt to make a major life change...like going back to school, taking up a new hobby, losing weight, or answering God's call to ministry.

All of these represent legitimate applications of this passage, but I would like to consider another...

Is it possible that I might become Jesus' "hometown?"

They thought they knew him...they DID know him! But they didn't know the most important things about him. And that rendered what they did know completely errant.

I know Jesus too...but do I know him as well as I think I do? How often do my assumptions about Jesus keep me from really knowing him?

When he came to set them free, they rejected him on the assumption that he simply couldn't deliver what he promised.

This reminds me of Nathanael's incredulous remark when posed with the idea that the Messiah was from Nazareth: "Can any good thing come from Nazareth?" (John 1:46).

The Hebrew word for "branch" is netzer (plural netzerim) and may have been the word from which Nazareth was derived: "branch town," "the sticks," "the boonies."

Maybe the citizens of Nazareth believed that the town's reputation was true. "Jesus is just like the rest of us...a nobody! He can't be who he says he is because...after all...he's one of us!"

How often do I unconsciously fashion Jesus into my own image? I reduce him to a friend, a celestial chum. I lose sight of his lordship, his divinity.

And whenever I get that snuggly with the Lord of the universe, I become a de facto unbeliever.

He's a buddy I confide in and occasionally consult on important decisions...but he's not "my Lord and my God."

Mind you, I would never say that Jesus is not the Lord of my life, but I end up functioning that way when I envision him as "one of my peeps."

I want constantly to bear in mind the Bible's admonition: "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire'" (Heb. 12:28-29, quoting Deut. 4:24).

Prayer
Jesus, you are my Lord and my God! You are a consuming fire!

I take off my shoes before you and feel the heat of your holy ground with my bare feet.

I fall on my face and declare, "Jesus, you're not 'mine'...I am YOURS!"

Make me the temple of your life-giving Spirit.

Let me be as close to you as is divinely and humanly possible.

But never let me become your hometown. Amen!

Have a blessed week as you read God's Word...

Faithfully,
Chuck