Luke 4:14-30 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.… The temptation of Christ strengthened all the graces within him, so that he felt himself prepared, on returning from the wilderness, for public work. Luke does not take us, as John does in his Gospel, back to the Jordan; nor does he take us to the marriage in Cana of Galilee, where the wonderful works began (John 2:1-13). He prefers to sum up for us his early Galilaean ministry in two verses, before proceeding to a detailed account of his visit to Nazareth and his rejection by his countrymen. Let us consider - I. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HIS PUBLIC REPUTATION BEFORE APPEARING IN NAZARETH. (Vers. 14, 15.) Had he gone to his own city first without a reputation, he would not have received the attention he did. Jesus knew that a prophet has no honor in his own country; he knew that he need not go among his old companions without having achieved something remarkable; hence he made a name for himself in other parts of Galilee before advancing to the difficult task at his old home. And the method he pursued was significant. He did not create rival institutions to the existing Churches. He went into the synagogues and availed himself of the opportunities they offered. He read the Word, expounded it, and made a reputation for himself as a popular Teacher. Of course, along with his teaching, there was a measure of miracle. But his wonderful works were merely to secure increased attention to his still more wonderful words. His expositions of truth were really the important element to which all else was but subsidiary. It was, therefore, with an established reputation that he advanced to Nazareth to test his countrymen as to their cordiality towards him. II. LET US NEXT CONSIDER HIS VISIT TO NAZARETH. (Vers. 16-21.) We are not informed on what day of the Jewish week he came to Nazareth; but we are told what happened on the first sabbath day after his arrival. We shall notice the significant facts as they are told us by Luke. 1. He shared in the public worship. If any one ever had a right to absent himself on the ground of knowing more than others could tell him, it was surely Jesus. Yet we find him subjecting himself to family training, and putting all honor he could upon social and public worship. Moreover, it was his "custom." The habit of waiting upon God at the sanctuary has thus the highest warrant. In this, as in all else, our Lord is the perfect Example. But: 2. He took part in public worship. The Jews in their synagogues seem to have encouraged greater freedom than Church forms now admit of. They welcomed the help of young men as readers, and took exhortation from strangers when they happened to be present. Our Lord, then, took the place of reader on this occasion, and, as Isaiah's prophecy was handed to him, he selected as his text the notable passage about the mission of Messiah. The Anointed One was sent to "preach the gospel to the poor," etc. And here it is instructive to notice (1) the class Messiah gathers round him. Not those whom the world would choose, but the poor, the broken-hearted, the captives, the blind, the bruised, the imprisoned! What a. policy to inaugurate! Again, (2) it is significant what treatment he gives them. He gives the gospel, not wealth, to the poor; healing, not freedom from trial, to the broken-hearted; freedom from sin to the captives; the recovering of sight to the blind; liberty to the bruised in spirit; and acceptance and jubilee joy to all imprisoned ones. In short, iris spiritual comfort over and above physical which he brings to them I It is here that the world's wisdom fails. It may do something to alleviate physical distress, but is as helpless as the doctor in Macbeth in "ministering to minds diseased." 3. He embodied and illustrated his text. When he had read the text he gave the book back to the minister and sat down before the congregation, and proceeded to expound the passage. He had to speak of himself. He was the Person referred to in it. No wonder the eyes of all were fastened on him. The Anointed One was in their midst, and he was ready to heal the broken-hearted and to work the wonders in the spiritual realm which were so important. The exposition was really the embodiment of blessing in his own Person. The Healer was there, the great Physician of souls. III. LET US NEXT CONSIDER THE EFFECT OF HIS SERMON. (Vers. 22, 23.) The first effect was wonder and admiration. He had evidently interested them by his spiritual exposition. No such sermon had ever been heard before in Nazareth. It was a case of ministerial joy at the glad reception of a message. But if these were the lights of joy in the picture, they were speedily followed by the shadows of ministerial disappointment. Their admiration gave way before familiarity. They began to say, "Is not this Joseph's Son?" They knew his antecedents, and so will put the worst construction possible upon his work. But the contempt of familiarity was not their only danger; they imagined that, as his countrymen, they were entitled to demand such miraculous credentials as he had given elsewhere. He had lived among them for the most of thirty years a sinless life, the greatest of all miracles in a sinful world; but they demand something more, and think that he will have but a sickly reputation if he does not accede to their request. The physician who cannot cure himself will not be in much demand to cure others; so if Jesus will not, by a miraculous display at Nazareth, establish his reputation which familiarity is undermining, they are prepared to say it is because he cannot. The mistake they make is in forgetting that Nazareth had no right to the treatment of Capernaum, since it had thirty years of the sinlessness of Jesus, which the seaside town had not. IV. CONSIDER OUR LORD'S SOVEREIGN REFUSAL OF THEIR DEMAND. (Vers. 24-27.) The notion of the Nazarenes was that they had a right to a miraculous display from Christ. As Jews, and as his own townspeople, they fancied they had a claim which could not be got over. This self-righteous spirit must be put down. Hence our Lord declares, in the first place, that "no prophet is accepted in his own country." To this law of limited influence through familiarity Jesus himself has to bow. It is the principle which secures a missionary enterprise. Men are more influential away from home than they can ever be at home. Better leave the plain of Shinar than wait only to have one's tongue confounded and one's influence gone. But, besides, our Lord from history recalls two illustrations of God in his sovereignty passing all the Jews by and selecting Gentiles and outsiders for blessing. The first case was in Elijah's time, when many an Israelitish widow was famishing for want of bread; but none of them was visited by the prophet, or got her barrel of meal miraculously replenished, as did the heathen widow at Sarepta. Again, there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, but they were all passed over, and Naaman, the Syrian general, was cured. It was in both instances to show that Jews, as such, had no claim upon God's bounty, who could, if he pleased, pass them all by. This humiliation is one of the great lessons we must all learn if we are to profit by Christ's salvation. Divine sovereignty is to humiliate in order to exalt; but if sovereignty is denied to God, the curse comes instead. V. CONSIDER THE SAD ISSUE OF THE VISIT. (Vers. 28-30.) The Nazarenes are filled with wrath. They will not accept the invitation, but will contend for their rights, so called. So indignant are they as to meditate his destruction. Hence they take him towards the brow of the hill, with the intention of casting him headlong over it. It was a diabolical attempt. It was frustrated, however, by the majestic bearing of the Redeemer. He went through them by simple majesty of bearing, and they dare not touch him. Over the hills he passed in judicial separation from the misguided city. And now we are surely taught by this history not to be surprised if we are apparently unsuccessful in our work. It was the same with the Master. All, in such circumstances, we can do is to lay the truth of God before men's minds, and show them at once their unworthiness to receive it, and their responsibility in rejecting it. Moreover, if old acquaintances do not receive our testimony with that eagerness and respect we imagine it deserves, let us remember that our Master was subject himself to the same law, and accepted the situation. Patience under disappointment is the great lesson of comfort from such a passage. - R.M.E. Parallel Verses KJV: And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. |
    |