Hometown Skeptics

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:14-21


Where to start? Galilee, of course. Where to make the announcement? Nazareth, His hometown. Everybody had been talking about "the carpenter's son" who was preaching and healing throughout the region. My, how they admired Him....UNTIL...He told them Who He really was. When Jesus read the passage from Isaiah 61:1-2a, He identified Himself as the One written about. The Messiah. He didn't read the last part of v.2, because it prophesies the 2nd advent. We're not there yet. 1st advent, long suffering and the cross. 2nd advent, judgment and the crown.

All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. Luke 4:22-30

Well, Joseph's boy certainly speaks well, doesn't he, and with authority. We hear good things about how he's been healing and helping people all around. Surely he will heal all of our ills, too, since we're hometown folks. Well, not exactly. You see, it was only the ones who were willing to believe God who were healed and helped. He gave the examples of the widow in Zarephath (I Kings 17) and Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5). God knows who will believe Him and obey instruction. Jesus knew going in that these hometown folks would be skeptical of His proclamation of Messiahship. If they won't accept that truth, they can't be helped. This is the way with unbelievers. They ridicule the Word of God because what little they know of it seems implausible. In their flesh, they have no concept of spiritual things. Religion is no help, because it is basically a superstitious points system. They admire ascetics and pacifists and quote some of the "love" passages, but have withering contempt for the reality of the God-Man, and the salvation He came to provide.

So, now this upstart is mocking us! We'll just have to get rid of him! Driving Him out of town, they hustled Him to the edge of a cliff, to throw Him over to His death. He just calmly walked away. Notice He didn't argue or plead with them to understand and believe. He gave them the truth. They rejected the truth. He moved on.

Divine Institution #1: Volition: the right to be dependent on God or to act independently of Him. The individual has the right and authority to make certain decisions and to be responsible for those decisions. We call it free will. The Jews in Nazareth exercised their free will to reject the Only Savior. Everyone has that option. Jesus provided it for us.