LUKE 4:14-30
NASB
14And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. 15And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
16And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17And the [a]book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the [a]book and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
20And He closed the [a]book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your [a]hearing.” 22And all were [a]speaking well of Him, and wondering at the [b]gracious words which [c]were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” 24And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is
welcome in his hometown. 25But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; 26and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to
[a]Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; 29and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.
30But passing through their midst, He went His way.
4:17 [a]Or scroll 4:20 [a]Or scroll 4:21 [a]Lit ears 4:22 [a]Or testifying [b]Or words of grace [c]Lit were proceeding out of His mouth 4:26 [a]Gr Sarepta
NLT
14Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. 15He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.[*]”
20He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
22Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
23Then he said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ 24But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.
25“Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land.
26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”
28When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. 29Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, 30but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.
[4:18-19] Or and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Isa 61:1-2 (Greek version);
58:6.
Any minister arriving in a new area to take on new responsibilities must become keenly aware of the expectations of the people there. Quite often, these expectations are unspoken, deeply held demands of which the people themselves are unaware. How well the minister manages these expectations can determine success. One must not necessarily give in to these demands, but one cannot afford to ignore them. A minister cannot allow the
hodgepodge of individual expectations to shape the ministry, but they must be taken into account.
When Jesus arrived in Galilee to begin His public ministry in earnest, the religious leaders there were operating in light of centuries of tradition and hundreds of rules that new rabbis were expected to follow. They also had a very clear picture of what the Messiah would look like and what He would do. So, when Jesus stepped onto the public scene and into the pulpit of His home synagogue, He faced His first challenge in ministry.
— 4:14-15 —
Luke introduces the public ministry of Jesus with a summary of His activity in Galilee, where initially He was received with enthusiasm.
The region derives its name from the Hebrew word galil [H1550], which means “ring,” “cylinder,” “circle,” or “district.” As far back as the time of the Assyrians (Isa. 9:1; cf. Judg. 4:2), this region had been made into a foreign province, and Jewish influence was very weak there. Jews living in this region consequently adopted many non-Jewish ways.
Josephus, writing around the time of Jesus, described the Galileans as “ever fond of innovations, and by nature disposed to changes, and delighting in seditions.”[42]
Stories of John the Baptizer and his introduction of the Messiah undoubtedly had preceded Jesus. Some eagerly anticipated the Messiah;
others simply wanted a leader to overthrow Rome. Regardless, the Galileans welcomed Jesus, probably because they saw His potential to reverse their fortunes (cf. John 6:15, 26).
— 4:16 —
The region of Galilee had no lack of opportunities to teach and to minister.
According to Josephus, “The cities lie here very thick, and the very many villages there are here, are everywhere so full of people, by the richness of their soil, that the very least of them contain above fifteen thousand
inhabitants.”[43] Jesus probably ministered for several weeks, or even months, in Galilee, teaching and healing, before deciding to teach in the synagogue of His hometown, Nazareth.
Luke stresses that Jesus faithfully attended the synagogue on the Sabbath. Furthermore, He participated in the reading of Scripture.
Synagogue worship followed a liturgy, consisting of several parts:
benedictions, recitation of the Shema, prayers, reading from the Law, and reading from the Prophets, followed by exposition. For each Sabbath, a Jewish lectionary[44] specified which passage to read from the Pentateuch.
According to Alfred Edersheim, “Every Sabbath at least seven persons were called up to read, each a portion, which was to consist of not less than three verses. The first reader began, and the last closed, with a benediction. . . . The reading of the law was followed by a lesson from the prophets.”[45]
While later Jewish lectionaries assigned specific lessons from the Prophets to suit the sections of the Law appointed for the day, first-century
synagogues may or may not have done this. It’s quite possible the man given the honor of reading from prophecy was allowed to choose which passage to read and then explain.
— 4:17-19 —
The fact that the book of Isaiah was handed to Jesus suggests at least some structure to the readings. Regardless, He located on the scroll the passage we know as Isaiah 61:1-2, although chapter and verse numbers were not in use at the time. As we read the NASB and other translations, the passage in Luke differs somewhat from the Old Testament text.
ISAIAH 61:1-2 LUKE 4:18-19
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;
To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
Because He anointed Me
to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me . . .
to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
The differences between the Old Testament passage as rendered by the NASB and Luke’s reproduction of the reading are quite technical, and are explained very well by my colleague Dr. Darrell L. Bock in his fine
commentary on Luke.[46] Luke most likely summarized Jesus’ entire reading, which may have included a reading from the closely-related passage, Isaiah 58:6.
Take note of Jesus’ decision to end His reading where He did. He
stopped short of reading, “And the day of vengeance of our God.” He ended His reading on the subject of grace. The purpose of His first coming was to proclaim the good news of salvation by grace through faith in the Messiah.
The “day of vengeance” will come soon enough. The day of wrath will occur in the future as predicted by John in Revelation. For now, however, the Lord’s anger against sin is held in reserve. Now is the time of grace, during which all who embrace the Messiah as their Savior will find mercy.
— 4:20-22 —
In keeping with good synagogue etiquette, Jesus stood to read Scripture and then sat to teach. After hearing stories of His astounding miracles and
authoritative teaching throughout Galilee, the hometown crowd sat with rapt attention. His mother, brothers, sisters, cousins, neighbors, and teachers all wondered what Jesus would say.
His declaration may not have come as a surprise. He unequivocally identified Himself as the object of Isaiah’s prediction about the Messiah.
But this may have been said often of Him in Nazareth, as Joseph and Mary probably told their story many times. Besides, talk of His ministry had
taken all of Galilee by storm. Nevertheless, the crowd marveled at His teaching on grace. God’s vengeance they understood well; His grace, on the other hand, may have been difficult to accept, especially with open
corruption taking place in the temple.
The people marveled in the same way small-town folk often shake their heads in disbelief when the world considers one of their own a hero. They looked upon Jesus with a mixture of bewildered incredulity and pride.
— 4:23-24 —
A speaker doesn’t have to be omniscient to read an audience. When Jesus recognized that the congregation hovered somewhere between
bewilderment and anger, He quoted a proverb to characterize their attitude;
in today’s terms, he was saying, “Practice what you preach! Take some of your own medicine!” Having made the claim to be the Messiah, He sensed that the people wanted Him to prove it. They had heard of His performing miracles elsewhere, but they wanted to see His supernatural power for themselves.
Jesus didn’t shy away from performing miracles. He performed
miraculous signs throughout Galilee for two reasons. First, compassion. He healed people to relieve them of their physical, mental, and spiritual
burdens, simply because He loved them. Second, authentication. He performed miracles to give the people a tangible reason to believe His words. Each miracle was a “sign,” a supernatural validation of His identity.
Most importantly, each miracle was an act of His sovereign choice, never in response to coercion or manipulation.
When people came to Jesus wanting to believe, He gave them “signs” to validate their decision. When people came to Jesus looking for a reason to reject Him, He gave them all they hoped to find.
Sometime between Luke 2:51 and 3:1, Jesus had relocated to Capernaum (Matt. 4:13; Mark 2:1). And, because He had performed
miracles in Capernaum, the people of Nazareth demanded that He perform signs there as well—not because they wanted to believe His claims, but to
overcome their skepticism. Anticipating their unrighteous demand, He
turned their objection around. He pointed to Israel’s long history of ignoring and even abusing messengers from God.
— 4:25-27 —
To illustrate His point—and to give the skeptics even more justification for their lack of faith—Jesus recalled two particularly dark episodes in Israel’s history. He used a phrase (“I say to you in truth”) similar to His
characteristic phrase, “Truly I say to you,” to indicate that His next
statement would be authoritative or significant (Luke 4:24; 12:37; 18:17, 29; 21:32; 23:43). And what came next was a scathing indictment of the Nazarenes’ character.
He first recalled a time when Ahab and Jezebel ruled the territories later called Galilee and Samaria (1 Kgs. 17:1-24). In addition to their cruelty and corruption, they led the Israelites in the worship of Baal, the storm god.
While the ruling classes gave their tacit support, authentic believers in God remained silent. Meanwhile, one man, Elijah, stood alone against Ahab, Jezebel, and the priests of Baal.
To demonstrate the impotence of their storm god, God caused a three- year drought, during which time Elijah depended upon the Lord for
provision. God sent the prophet to a Gentile woman living in Sidon, a
woman whose supply of food and water had nearly run out. Through Elijah, the Lord promised the woman, “The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain on the face of the earth” (1 Kgs. 17:14). She believed Elijah’s words, provided him room and board, and survived the drought.
Jesus also recalled an episode from the life of Elisha in which Naaman, a Gentile military commander, received cleansing from a skin disease, while Israelites afflicted with the same ailment remained in their condition (Luke 4:27; 2 Kgs. 5).
This cut the Nazarenes to the quick. Jews considered skin diseases to be an outward manifestation of inward corruption. To be cleansed of “leprosy”
was to be cleansed of sin. Furthermore, Jesus implied that the Gentile’s faith qualified him for divine favor the Jews could not receive. Because first-century Jews believed they were favored by God—and therefore saved
—simply because of their ancestry, they rejected Jesus’ teaching as heresy.
The people of Nazareth were insulted by these two references to Israel’s past because Jesus was suggesting that Gentiles, whom the Jews despised, were more worthy of His teaching and healing ministry.
— 4:28-30 —
Not surprisingly, the Nazarenes erupted in a rage and attempted to execute Jesus as a false prophet, lynch mob-style (cf. Num. 15:35; Deut. 13:5). But Jesus “passed through their midst”—a statement that mildly suggests a miraculous escape. Luke doesn’t offer any details of His escape; they aren’t important. Jesus eluded their grasp because His time to die had not yet come.
Luke used this experience early in Jesus’ public career to show the polarizing effect the Lord had on those who encountered Him. While eagerly embraced by the needy, He was flatly rejected by the wealthy, the powerful, the comfortable, and the complacent. His hometown leaders expected preferential treatment. Not only were they Jews, they had known Jesus “back when.” But Jesus set the record straight. The Messiah didn’t come to rescue only one particular race; He came to save those who wanted a Savior. His domain is the whole world, and His subjects are all those who call Him King.