The Painfully Honest Messiah

Today's Reading: Luke 4:14-30

This passage starts with Jesus returning to where he grew up.. Galilee. But before we dig in, I think it would be beneficial to ask the very important question of "Where was He coming back from?". In order to do this, we need to make a brief timeline.

Please read each individual verse below, which will help you navigate Jesus' travels from the start of His miracles in Cana (turning water into wine) up until His arrival to his hometown back in Nazareth. And draw a line in your notepad to make your timeline. On each point, you will want to jot down the location, and anything else you see in the verse that may give you a brief detail about what He did there.

John 2:11, John 2:12, John 2:13, John 2:23 (same loc. but what was happening there?), John 3:22, John 4:4, Luke 4:14, Luke 4:16

Now that you have your timeline.. I want you to take a glance at it. Now go back to our very opening verse at Luke 4:14. I think now we can see the picture a little bit better when the scripture says "..and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district." Jesus had not only made a buzzworthy debut at Cana, turning water into wine, but had been busy ever since, doing miraculous signs in Jerusalem (after "clearing out" the temple with His home-made whip!), baptizing in Judea, gaining converts in Samaria, and so forth before coming back home.

Jesus was the talk of the town.. literally. And he was "praised by all" upon His arrival (Lk 4:15). But If you know Him like I do, I'm sure it won't shock you to find this warm welcome to be short lived by his peers.

It was proper custom for Jews, in that time, for leaders to appoint men to read from the "Law" and the "Prophets" in the synagogue on the Sabbath. It was Jesus' turn to read and the scroll from the prophet, Isaiah, is handed to Him.

“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, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”

And the scripture says that Jesus said, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Now read the very next verse (4:22) and tell me what sort of reactions to do you see there in the text?

Now seat yourself in that synagogue. For a moment it's so quiet you can hear the wind ruffling through the pages of the scrolls. All eyes are GLUED on Jesus. Can't you begin to hear the murmur slowly starting to simmer after he sits down? Jesus had just stood and practically gave a public announcement to everyone in there that day, that the "Me" in that passage he had just read was indeed himself! Men were whispering to eachother, "Isn't this Jospeh's son?" "Is this the same little 'Yesh-u' we use to catch throwing olives at our window?" "Isn't that Mary's baby?" Their over-familiarity with Jesus had fought against their susceptibility to believe in Him and His messianic proclamation.

No doubt, these people had been in complete "wonder" at His words also because of the deep contextual meaning of the phrase, "the favorable year of the Lord." Now, these people actually knew their scriptures a lot better than we do, so they didn't have to go shuffling through their parchments to get a crash course on this one (they most likely had these verses memorized), but for our distant, western mentality's sake, let's just go back and take a look at the passage in particular to get a better idea. Read Isaiah 61:1-9.

And yet amidst all of the murmuring starting to generate; the excitement and mental images of the "favorable year of the Lord" stirring in their minds, the curiosity of what it could mean for them, the concoction of praises and questions and doubtful remarks.. Jesus does what He does best! Read Luke 4:23-27 again.

Physician, heal yourself?? What does that mean? Well, just like we have our idiomatic expressions, and figure of speech in our language where the words don't really mean what the literal translation suggests, this phrase was a popular and very common idiom for Jews to use during that era. If I claimed to be a surgeon and wanted to perform triple bypass on you, you'd probably want to see some sort of evidence to back up my claim. Physician, heal yourself is just another way of saying.. you call yourself a physician? Prove it! Heal yourself first. Show me you can do what you say you can do first before I just start believing you.

And what is the significance of the two examples Jesus uses in verses 25 through 27? What do both Zarephath the widow and Zaaman the Syrian share in common?

Well you'll find this answer in passages 1 Kings 17 and also in 2 Kings 5:1-14. Both instances involve a prophet of God sent to deliver someone from a broken, desperate and degrading situation. Both of these people were chosen out of the myriad of Isrealites in the regions surrounding them, by God, to be saved from their distress. Yet both of these individuals were Gentiles. Now to let a statement like this fall from one's own mouth, in the middle of a synagogue.. filled with Jews was almost like signing one's own death sentence. Just to get an idea of the amount of animosity that religious Jews had for their Gentile neighbors, just take a look at the next two verses. Read Luke 4:28-29.

And to think all of this could've been avoided, had Jesus merely kept silent after sitting down. He could've easily accepted the many who were "speaking well of Him" at that point and relaxed in His good standing with the Jewish synagogue. Yet, he traded comfort and celebrity status for brutal honesty. Can you remember a time in your life when people were speaking very highly of you? How did it make you feel? Have you ever corrected anyone to give them the raw truth, even when you knew it would damage your reputation? Has your life ever been threatened by anyone simply by telling the truth?

Yet, Jesus passed through the midst of the angry mob, and "went his way." (Lk 4:30) It's almost mind-boggling to imagine this scene. I often marvel at how these angry, hostile men were so swept up in the rage that they failed to even notice Jesus walking right past them! But yet sometimes we too, let our emotions work us up into such a frenzy that we're completely blinded and can't even recognize what's right there in front of our eyes.. either that or we just forget exactly what we're so angry about.

Anyway, I had an some pretty eye-opening experiences with this one. All the result of God really dealing with me at church today. I felt pierced in so many different directions, and yet at the same time, full of focus and clarity on the direction in my life now. I see only one thing to chase after now, and it's Him! He's all I need to see, right now. Everything else is just background and landscapes..

Your thoughts, prayers, and insights are most welcome here.
~Jip