Luke 4:21-30 (NIV) 21Then Jesus said to them, "What you have just heard me read has come true today." 22All the people started talking about Jesus and were amazed at the wonderful things he said. They kept on asking, "Isn't he Joseph's son? 23Jesus answered: You will certainly want to tell me this saying, "Doctor, first make yourself well." You will tell me to do the same things here in my own hometown that you heard I did in Capernaum. 24But you can be sure that no prophets are liked by the people of their own hometown. 25Once during the time of Elijah there was no rain for three and a half years, and people everywhere were starving. There were many widows in Israel, 26but Elijah was sent only to a widow in the town of Zarephath near the city of Sidon. 27During the time of the prophet Elisha, many men in Israel had leprosy. But no one was healed, except Naaman who lived in Syria. 28When the people in the meeting place heard Jesus say this, they became so angry 29that they got up and threw him out of town. They dragged him to the edge of the cliff on which the town was built, because they wanted to throw him down from there. 30But Jesus slipped through the crowd and got away.
The first response to Jesus’ words were positive, but before it was all over the people became so angry that they got up and threw Him out of town. What happened? How did we go from glad reception to angry rejection? The people of Nazareth admired the beauty and power of what Jesus said, but they discounted the words of a hometown boy. To discount means we say yes with our lips but we do not take the words seriously. We may totally agree, but we disregard the words.
Jesus was saying to them that they expected signs and miracles to prove to them that the reign of God is here. But, God’s help is not available to us on demand. God feels no obligation to prove Himself to us. Jesus confronts an underlying attitude of demand and the temperature of anger in the people was turned up a few notches and the fuse was lit. Jesus spoke of God doing miracles for the Gentiles, of God not simply loving the Gentiles, but showing favor toward them.
With these words the anger erupted in a wrath that ran Jesus out of the synagogue. How do we react? Lying under the surface of demand is a sense of deserving, and Jesus brings it to the surface. We walk out on God with our “I deserve” attitude. But, Jesus walked out on the people of Nazareth. He disappeared like a ghost in their midst. Jesus went away. Do we believe Jesus could do such a thing to you and me? Do we believe that if God really loves us He would never turn His back on us? After all, deep down we are very nice people who are doing the best we can, and God understands. Could it be that there is a despair of separation from God that we need in order to recover from this attitude? Remember, it all began with the people of Nazareth discounting the words of Jesus. Yes, I agree with what you say. But it is not real. It is not important. I don’t accept it. Do we discount the Word of God to us?
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 1, 1998
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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