No Hometown Hero
Luke 4:23-28 NKJ
23 He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’ ” 24 Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; 26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
Jesus was in His hometown synagogue and stood up to read the scriptures. He declared to the people that the prophetic scripture regarding the Spirit of the Lord being on Him was being fulfilled. His hometown people were not buying in, and Jesus explains why. Of course, He did it in such a way that it revealed the truth of the situation and made the people mad.
Jesus knew the people wanted Him to do some of the miracles there in His hometown that He had done in Capernaum. But their mentality was for Him to do something while they sat back and did nothing. In other words, do something amazing, and we’ll believe in you. Jesus said this was the problem. No prophet was accepted in his hometown among his own people.
The examples that Jesus gave of people who received miracles infuriated the people of Nazareth. The first one was the widow that Elijah was sent to when the nation of Israel was in a famine situation. The whole region was in a famine, but Elijah was sent to a widow in Zarephath. The problem was that the widow was not Jewish but of Sidonian descent. There were many widows of Israel, but why was Elijah sent to a foreigner? Because the foreigner would believe him and do what he said. This was the lady who Elijah asked to make him a cake first using the little flour she had left. She was about to die of starvation, but she obeyed the prophet's directive, and she and her son, and Elijah ate for months. God multiplied the oil and flour for the one who believed.
This was the problem in Nazareth. The people were not believing the words that Jesus was saying. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus was amazed at the unbelief of the people and could not do any mighty works in His own hometown because of it. And Jesus was not done. He gave the people another example of a man being healed of leprosy. There were many lepers in Israel, but the only one who was healed was Naaman the Syrian. Naaman was the man who came to Elisha, the prophet, to receive healing. The prophet told him to go dip in the Jordan seven times. Naaman balked at first, then obeyed that directive and was healed of leprosy. Naaman is a great example of humility and faith. And Naaman was healed while many lepers in Elisha’s day did without.
Jesus basically told the people in His hometown of Nazareth that they had no faith and very little humility. They could have repented. Instead, they were filled with rage and tried to kill Jesus. They could have believed His words and seen God do amazing miracles right there in their town. But they did not receive Jesus as a prophet and most definitely not the divine Son of God, the Messiah. Their lack of an accurate perspective hindered their faith and hindered the Lord from doing big things.
Application
Here is a cautionary tale. We need to believe the message of the Scriptures and not get caught up in the messenger. We need the spiritual perception to receive from others, even if we knew them way back when. Or know them from a different context. If God is using someone, don’t do as they did in Nazareth - just rejoice and receive.
Prayer
Lord, give me the discernment to see the people You use in the right perspective. I can see You working and hear Your message regardless of the messenger.