“And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ And he said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ And he said, ‘Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.”

Are we to fear the Lord, or love the Lord? This is a question that every believer must contend with in some capacity, because the reality of Scripture is that we are absolutely called to do both. Deuteronomy 6:4–5 states,

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

And shortly after, in Deuteronomy 6:13 we read,

“It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.”

This is not some bizarre contradiction of Scripture, but rather a harmonized truth that we struggle to contend with. We are absolutely to love God and we are absolutely to fear Him – the fact that we have somewhat different connotations around the word “fear” than how it’s used in Scripture can sometimes be blamed for our confusion or lack of clarity, but while this plays a factor, it more often seems to be a strawman of an argument rather than anything legitimate. Despite the somewhat different uses, we understand if we’re paying attention at all, that we’re not to fear God in the way that people fear spiders, scary movies, or wild animals. Our fear for the Lord may in some way mimic a fear of light, fire, wind, or water. We need light to illuminate our environment, to see and understand, but it can also blind us in certain applications. Fire, much the same, is necessary for survival in a host of applications, but can also consume and destroy. Wind is responsible for the entire global climate we know, moving clouds and water from place to place, shifting the ocean currents and regulating temperature in a way that, if not present, would quickly lead to the death of most life on earth. Water, much like these others, is absolutely essential for life, it cools, it hydrates, we take food from the water in the form of fish, along with it being a crucial point of transport, to say nothing of any recreation. And yet the sea is also a pit of uncertainty and death – water drowns, it destroys, and in vast enough quantities it can swallow up as if something never existed. However any fear we may feel toward these vast elemental forces is nothing but a cheap imitation of the fear we hold for God, because there is no glory in nature that comes close to eclipsing the glory of the One who created and controls all. Our fear for the Lord is a fear of awe, of reverence, and of the knowledge that He is holy, and we are not, and that all we truly deserve before Him is death. In this fear, He is also our Comforter, because He has done the redeeming work that we could not, and reconciled us to Himself. There is a nuance to this approach – God is both the fearsome Judge who burned the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah into nothing with sulfur and fire, and the loving Master who washed the disciples’ feet. This is hard – truthfully impossible – for the human mind to really hold simultaneously, and so often we will try to pigeonhole God into terrifying deity, or casual friend. For many non-believers this means taking virtually everything Scripture says out of context – they’ll paint God as a psychotic, bloodthirsty tyrant, and Jesus as either a wise and friendly guy with some good ideas, or an insane rabbi who gathered a cult following. You have to stretch and manipulate the words of Scripture well beyond their breaking point to think this way – but the Scripture never claims that those who reject the gospel are operating from any place of wisdom or intelligence. Paul is unapologetically brutal when he writes in Romans 1:21–23,

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

It should be no surprise then when those who don’t believe give an inaccurate representation of something that they don’t believe. However sometimes believers slip into a pattern of pigeonholing God as well, again along the dividing line of fear. First there’s the church that seems to only highlight the fear. You’ve been to one of these churches, and if you haven’t, you’ve seen their stereotype played out a dozen times in books, movies, and TV shows. Here, every sermon is fire and brimstone, and at times it can feel like the Bible is being used to beat you into submission. The central message is that you are an insignificant worm of a sinner, you should bow and tremble at the feet of mighty God as you beg for forgiveness because the fires of hell are nipping at your heels, and the eternal damnation you so rightly deserve is waiting to swallow you up. Here’s the thing, while they can sometimes come off as heavy handed, and the pop culture stereotypes don’t help, they’re not exactly wrong. Lost in sin and estranged from God, you who are made of darkness should feel a sense of fear and impending doom, as the mist of the morning might fear the burning rays of the rising sun. This isn’t a fear tactic, it’s a reality, and failing to accept it because of your own pride will only lead to death. The problem with the style of this message is that so often the pendulum doesn’t swing back – it’s all fear, all wrath, all the time. God is always shown as mighty Judge, the attributes of His love, mercy, grace, and peace are regarded as afterthoughts – it’s an incomplete picture of our Creator. The other side of this coin, which I believe has become more commonplace, is the church where no one ever says anything bad at all. There is no idea of judgement, no notion of condemnation. Sin is regarded much the same as getting a C on a test, or gas prices being ten cents higher this week – not what you wanted, but not that big of a deal. There is a version of Jesus taught that I’ve heard referred to as “hippie Jesus.” He’s everyone’s friend, the message shared is only ever peace and love, and there’s no condemnation for anything – never mind the fact that there is no peace or love unless there is structure and accountability to define what peace and love actually are. If I claim that God is only wrathful, or only loving, then I have lied, because God is never only. In the justice of His wrath there is great love to be seen, and in the pouring out of His love there is justice on display. The trap for us as Christians can lie in many places, but what I want to highlight and discuss today is the problem of overfamiliarity. We can only think to be so presumptuous as to stick God in a box because we don’t know Him at all, or because we think we know Him too well. As we look at today’s passage and Jesus’ teaching and rejection in His hometown of Nazareth, we’re given a picture of a people who have managed to swing too far in both directions. They have an assignment, a clear designation that they’ve attempted to place upon God in their expectations, and despite His teachings and all apparent authority, they refuse to see Jesus for who He is, only viewing Him as they want, as they’re comfortable with. As Luke writes of Jesus’ teaching here, we’re given validation of the broad and expansive good news the Messiah has come to bring, but also a warning of just how blind a sense of overfamiliarity can make us, and a picture of just how unwelcome the Truth can be for hearts who are hardened against Him.

The Jarring Message of the Truth

1. A Hopeful Declaration

“And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.”

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the three synoptic gospels recount much of the same information, presented with differing degrees of detail, and in different order. As we’ve discussed multiple times already, each is preaching the same gospel, but each tailored in a particular way. Most times it’s easiest to compare Matthew and Luke, as Mark is significantly shorter and more punchy in its delivery, while Matthew and Luke are both fairly rich in detail. For all their similarities, their differences help us see the underlying purposes in the groups they were writing to. Following their sequences of events, Matthew and Luke both record the coming of John the Baptist and his ministry, Jesus’ baptism, Jesus’ temptation, and then lead into the beginning of His ministry, but here there’s a slight divergence between the two. After the temptation, Matthew addresses that Jesus left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum, but he doesn’t address Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth as Luke does in today’s passage until Matthew 13. Again, this isn’t a contradiction, it’s a recounting of events in an order to help the target audience receive the message. Instead Matthew shows us the central theme of Jesus’ message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” just as John the Baptist came proclaiming. We see the first disciples called with Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and we see that Jesus ministered to great crowds. We see of His spreading fame, and of the crowd that came to follow Him, but we don’t see the specifics of His teachings until we arrive at Matthew 5 and the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. This serves as the point where we can actually see the message and the context of Jesus’ ministry. Luke on the other hand immediately follows the temptation with the first two verses that we read today,

“And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.”

This is actually recounting much of the same information as Matthew, though Luke will address the calling of the first disciples later, and he doesn’t delve into the particular Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in the geographical movements that marked the start of Jesus’ ministry. Both gospel writers show that Jesus’ ministry had begun and was garnering much attention before they give us details around what was being taught. For Matthew’s part, as I said before, he begins recounting Jesus’ teaching with the Sermon on the Mount. This sermon, far from just being a list of helpful rules and explanations around what it means to be a follower of Jesus and a servant of the Lord, also stood as a broad clarification around the many wrongs that the religious rulers were using the Law to teach. As Jesus makes clear in Matthew 5:17, He didn’t come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. Part of what this meant was that He lived perfectly as a Man under the Law, but it also meant that He clarified and communicated the Spirit of the Law, rather than the many additional rules that were added and enforced by those who were supposed to teach and lead the people. This is a wonderful understanding for anyone to have, but it was especially relevant for the Jewish people to understand. This seems like a logical starting point for introducing the profound and life changing message of the gospel, and frankly, the Sermon on the Mount is one of my favorite sections in all of Scripture. Bearing this in mind, it may seem fairly easy to track why Matthew started here, but it begs the question as to why, bearing in mind that they each had their divinely guided purposes, Luke records Jesus’ spreading fame and glory, and then immediately goes into His rejection in His hometown. It’s not a mistake or error, and it’s not arbitrary, there’s a reason for it. But considering that it was no accident, what can we learn from it? Well, first we have to consider that what is initially presented isn’t Jesus’ rejection by the people, it’s the message He shares. Jesus, back in His hometown, goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stands up to read. Presented with the scroll of Isaiah, He doesn’t read a lengthy passage, in fact, as translated and written in English, He doesn’t read a full sentence. Isaiah 61:1–2 reads,

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor…”

Broken down into verses, Jesus doesn’t even finish the second verse before rolling up the scroll and sitting down, signifying that He was done reading and was commencing with teaching. All these traditional elements help us understand what’s going on, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees – what is Jesus actually saying? He’s reading the words of Isaiah, but they’re His words that were given to the prophet to begin with, this isn’t just a recitation, it’s a declaration. If the message that Matthew presented as most important to the Jews was that they understand the clarification around the Spirit of the Law, what was the most important thing for a gentile to understand? That this message was for them too. The purpose of the Jewish people was never that they alone be special, they alone be called to God, and the rest of the world could wander off, perish and burn, because the Jews were special and the gentiles weren’t. Their purpose was that they be a people called to God who would shine like a beacon under His provision and testify to the world that there is one true God, and that all should worship Him. Yet if there’s one thing we fail to consistently see from the people of Israel, it’s evangelism. As is consistently shown through the gospels, the ruling Jews of Jesus’ day viewed their lineage under Abraham as making them special and privileged, while failing to look at the condition of their hearts. But what God began with Israel was never meant to be only for Israel. This is why Isaiah 56:6–8 states,

“‘And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.’ The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, ‘I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.’”

And why Jesus declares in John 10:14–16,

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

This is the same message that Jesus is communicating as He reads from Isaiah 61, and it’s the first teaching that Luke records from Jesus to the people in his gospel account. For a gentile reading this, the first words we see from Jesus, aside from His quoted Scripture as He rebukes Satan, is this: the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him, He holds this power, and to the poor, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed – in other words, all who are enslaved and shuttered by the darkness of sin – the favor of the Lord, the path to your freedom and redemption has come. There is no limitation or qualifier that this is just for the Jews, but carries broad implications of hope for everyone who is lost and dead in sin. Luke doesn’t start with Jesus’ rejection, though that soon follows, he starts with the declaration of the good news that has come for both Jew and gentile. Where Jesus stops His reading of Isaiah is also extremely telling because Isaiah 61:2 goes on to say,

“.. to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn…”

In this we have to remember who the people expected the Messiah to be, verses who Jesus actually was. The people of Israel wanted a champion, a liberator, a king who would come and lead them in revolution against the empire that held complete dominion over them. They wanted the destruction of their enemies, which would have meant their dominance over the gentiles, and the establishment of their kingdom here on earth. We know however that this wasn’t the purpose of Jesus’ first coming. John 3:17–18,

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Jesus’ purpose was not to deliver the judgment of the sword against unrighteousness, but to be the Light, the standard by which all unrighteousness is clearly seen, and to lay down His life and pay the price that those who were once drowned in their sin could be raised to new life in Him. It’s not that Jesus never serves as Judge – that is made abundantly clear as His decisive victory at Armageddon in Revelation 19:19–21,

“And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.”

But what we see from His earthly ministry and is clearly communicated in today’s passage as Jesus makes His proclamation from Isaiah is that this judgment has not arrived today, what He comes in is the Spirit and power of the favor of the Lord, to correct and set right, but not to pour out vengeance. And while this is good news to all, it’s particularly good for the gentiles, as what they’re being told is that their doom has not come upon them, but rather their hope. But while many may celebrate this, what we see from the crowd gathered to worship in the synagogue this Sabbath is not joy, but is a sense of marvel and wonder that is quickly replaced by indignation. Jesus came to deliver far more than an earthly kingdom – He didn’t enter the world to claim victory over Rome, but rather over sin itself. He did not come to establish Israel as an earthly empire, but set Himself as the cornerstone of a kingdom that would endure into eternity. Because of where Jesus leaves off in His reading He points specifically to the work that He has come to do, rather than what the Jewish people expected of Him. And so while what Luke recounts shows us a wonderful declaration of good news, he also shows what it looks like for this to fall on deaf ears, for hard hearts to hear and reject the good news that has been brought to them.

• 2. A Sobering Reality

“And they said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’”

It seems that the only reason anyone can look at themselves, sin-stained as they are, and imagine themselves to be a “good person” is because they can identify past mistakes. We look back and essentially armchair quarterback the past, we consider things we did wrong – whether ethically, practically, or socially, and we think of exactly how we could have navigated that situation with the unfair advantage of retrospection. We believe that had we acted the way we’re imagining, we would not have made past mistakes, and so given that we hold that knowledge in the present, we imagine ourselves wiser, mistake-proof for the moment. The fact that we will, with absolute certainty, err again in the future is irrelevant, right now, in this moment, we imagine ourselves masters of our own pasts, and with this knowledge, master of the present moment, and maybe, vaguely, we’re not really going to focus on that, masters of our future. But this is all built on a lie – hindsight isn’t actually 20/20. Sometimes distance can provide perspective, and through that perspective God may grant wisdom. But the sanctified Christian doesn’t look at their past and somehow use the mistakes that they now know better from to justify their current condition. The Christian looks on their past self and knows with certainty that they’re not a good person, they see the evidence of their own wretchedness, and in the changes from who they were to who they are now, an affirmation of the goodness of God. The imagined perfect path of the past does in no way grant us any certainty of right action in the moment we currently occupy, much less the future – understanding that it was a stupid thing to have put your hand in a bear trap doesn’t somehow grant you immunity to foolish things in the future. Understanding past wrongs gives you nothing if that “understanding” comes from a place of secular analysis or self-discernment. There is a kind of overfamiliarity we have with our pasts, taking out and analyzing memories that can spur us to such arrogance in our flesh, and it is this same brand of too comfortable familiarity that we see from the people of Nazareth as Jesus teaches. It’s not as though the man they watched grow from a boy picked a random Tuesday and started making grand proclamations. We know from Luke’s account of the young Jesus in the temple that while He was very much a human boy, He was also much more than a human boy. What’s more, we know that as Jesus teaches this Sabbath He already has a following and considerable renown within the region. Popularity alone isn’t a reason to follow someone or attend to what they say, but the reason for His notoriety, the message He was proclaiming, and the miracles He was working give credence to Him possessing more than just a few clever words. But after marveling at what Jesus has said for a moment, they immediately turn back to their own biased perspectives, failing to see the Truth before them. Proverbs 3:5–8 tells us,

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.”

There is great peril in resting upon your own certainty, of building upon your preconceived notions. It makes me wonder how many people close their ears to the gospel simply because they went to church as a kid or grew up in a somewhat religious household, and they think through that familiarity they can know, judge, and write off the good news. And so as the people’s marveling dies out and their question of doubt blooms among them, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” We see them stumble over their block of familiarity instead of seeing the Truth. Knowing this, Jesus addresses the matter, why they haven’t borne witness to the things that others have, why they haven’t gotten the validation they think they require, and the reality is crushing.

“And he said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ And he said, ‘Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.’”

Jesus returns to Nazareth, now with a confirmed reputation behind Him. Where He has gone the sick have been healed, the blind have seen, and the lame have walked, all by His hand. He now comes before the people of His hometown, and the news He proclaims is amazing and wonderful, and yet because of their understanding of who they see Jesus as, they disbelieve. Jesus says to the ruling Jews in John 10:37–38,

“If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

Similarly, the people of Nazareth could look to His work and validate the truth of what He says, but they don’t. Again, looking to John’s gospel, after the feeding of the 5,000, the crowds come following after Jesus looking for more food. When Jesus tells them to work, not for the food that perishes but for the food that endures to eternal life, we see the discourse in John 6:28–31,

“Then they said to him, ‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ So they said to him, ‘Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’”

“What work do you perform?” Jesus literally just multiplied a meal that was barely enough for one person to feed upwards of 20,000 (the 5,000 just being the count of the men present), the crowd that is following after Him is doing so because they were there, and they somehow have the audacity to ask, “Well what sign will you give us to know that you’re legitimate.” The fascinating and tragic thing is that what this comes down to is a heart problem, and Jesus tells the people this through drawn comparison to the history recorded in the Old Testament. There were many widows in Israel during the years of drought while Elijah served as prophet, and many lepers while Elisha served after him – but the fact that God’s blessings were poured out in these ways on foreigners wasn’t because God had forsaken His people, but because they had forsaken Him. During these times, as well as many others, there was greater righteousness found among the foreigners than there was with God’s own people, and the miracles worked through these two prophets reflect that. During the drought that Jesus speaks of, Ahab reigned over Israel – one of the most morally corrupt kings in the kingdom’s history, husband to Jezebel, the woman who killed the prophets and glorified Baal among the people. In the midst of this drought and in need of food, God sends Elijah, not to one of the people of Israel, but north among the pagan people of Zarephath. When Elijah meets the widow he asks for water, which she goes to fetch for him, and then asks for food, to which she replies in 1 Kings 17:12,

“… As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.”

She doesn’t swear by one of her own pagan gods, but rests her statement on the one true God whom Elijah serves. On the brink of starvation, she is about to prepare a final meal for herself and her son. In response Elijah tells her in 1 Kings 17:13–14,

“And Elijah said to her, ‘Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.”’”

Now, if you’re a pagan and a priest of God, whom your people don’t claim as their own comes and requests something from you there are a few logical responses that might come to mind. “No,” being one of them, “go away,” another, but another reply might be a request for proof. Prove that you’re legitimate, that you are who you say you are, that your God can do what you claim. That’s not what this woman does. Living in a neighboring region and apparently knowing enough to place faith in the God of Israel, she obeys completely, and God blesses her – the flour and oil do not run out, and she and her family, as well as Elijah are fed. Now after this the woman’s son becomes ill and dies. Again her response is telling and frankly, shocking, as she says in 1 Kings 17:18,

“… What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!”

She doesn’t curse God for taking her son, she doesn’t express bitterness over a fate she didn’t deserve. Instead she laments the fact that this has happened, that “remembrance of her sin” has been brought upon her. She doesn’t demand a sign or miracle because of her obedience before God, she acknowledges the existence and problem of her own sin. Elijah for his part is troubled for the woman, and takes the child to his own room and prays to the Lord, asking three times that the child’s life be restored, to which God listens and restores life to the child. This account ends after Elijah returns the boy to his mother, and we read in 1 Kings 17:24,

“And the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.’”

Look to the order of events and what this says to the condition of her heart. Elijah wasn’t sent to anyone in his own nation but to a woman living among the pagans, and yet her faith was true. She did not demand a sign that she might know if God were truly with Elijah, but trusted and received validation multiple times for her faith. Naaman the Syrian commander who Jesus speaks of was about as different of a figure from the widow of Zarephath as there could possibly be, and yet in him we see similar characteristics of faith. 2 Kings 5:1 describes Naaman, saying,

“Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.”

It’s easy to read something like this and blow right past it, failing to recognize its significance, but this is an astounding thing to read. Syria was, like all the nations surrounding Israel and Judah, a pagan people. They were frequently at war with the northern kingdom of Israel, and at one point, after Naaman’s time, recorded in 2 Kings 16, they actually ally with Israel to attack the southern kingdom of Judah. Simply put, the Syrians weren’t the good guys – and yet it is because of Naaman’s character that God has given them the victories that He has. Reading on, 2 Kings 5 tells us that as the Syrians raided the land of Israel they carried off a young girl who came to work in the service of Naaman’s wife, and that this young girl told her mistress of a prophet who is in Samaria, speaking of Elisha, who could heal Naaman’s leprosy. Learning of this Naaman informs his king who sends him at once to Israel, with a letter ahead to state his business. Despite the fact that they’re enemies and that Syria is the more powerful nation, Naaman doesn’t come before the prophet of the Lord empty handed – bringing with him approximately 750 pounds of silver, 145 pounds of gold, and ten changes of clothing to offer. When the king of Israel receives word of Naaman’s coming and what he’s making his journey for, he despairs. It’s interesting to see that his response shows no faith in the Lord, only apprehension and fear for what he sees as an attempt at stirring up conflict. But 2 Kings 5:8 says,

“But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, ‘Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.’”

When Naaman arrives at the home of Elisha and is told to wash himself seven times in the Jordan he’s furious and scoffs at the instruction, preparing to leave. But 2 Kings 5:13–14 goes on to say,

“But his servants came near and said to him, ‘My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, “Wash, and be clean”?’ So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”

Grudgingly or not, Naaman obeys what Elisha has told him to do, and the Lord heals Naaman in his obedience. It’s after this that we see the true depth of the man’s devotion before the Lord. 2 Kings 5:15–19,

“Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, ‘Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.’ But he said, ‘As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.’ And he urged him to take it, but he refused. Then Naaman said, ‘If not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the LORD. In this matter may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon your servant in this matter.’ He said to him, ‘Go in peace.’…”

Having been healed, Naaman graciously offers the gifts he’s brought with him, but Elisha declines. After this Naaman asks for dirt, which may seem strange to us in modern context, as there are two possible explanations. One pulls from Exodus 20:24–25,

“An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it.”

One possibility is that Naaman will use the dirt taken from Israel to form mud bricks and build an altar from earth. The second explanation comes from 1 Samuel 5:2–5 after the Philistines capture the ark of God,

“Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.”

There is thought to have been a correlation in these ancient cultures between the gods of varied nations and the land itself. In this instance, God had asserted Himself over the pagan idol Dagon, and so the plot of land where this threshold lay wasn’t stepped on by the priests because as far as they were concerned it no longer belonged to Dagon, but had been claimed by the Lord. Bearing this in mind, the mud brick altar is still a possibility, but it also may be that Naaman intended to take this dirt and make a plot of land on which to build an altar devoted to God. Regardless, what we see from the Syrian commander is a faith beyond what is displayed in Israel, a sincere devotion to God despite the pagan culture and leadership he knows he returns to. Driving this point home, this account ends showing as Gehazi, Elisha’s own servant follows after Naaman to lie and swindle some of the gifts he’d brought from him. For his greed Gehazi is cursed with the leprosy that Naaman once carried – the Israelite falling short while the foreigner is found right before God. These are the stories that Jesus references as He speaks to the people of Nazareth concerning their own condition. Jesus proclaims good news, the favor of the Lord – intended for everyone, but in this case given to the foreigner and not to the Jews before Him because of their hardness of heart, Matthew 13:54–58, affirming the nature of the people’s doubt says,

“and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’ And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.’ And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.”

And Mark, covering many of the same details as Matthew, closes the account by saying in Mark 6:5–6,

“And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.”

Jesus begins with a proclamation of the good news, but with this comes the sobering reality of why the people of Nazareth are not receiving Him as others have, and what this means for them. Their response, far from repentant or contrite, is to be moved to violence, proving the words that Jesus has spoken of them as true.

• 3. A Blinded Response

“When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.”

We started off by addressing the problem of overfamiliarity with God, and we now come face to face with what happens when that is directly challenged. When our preconceived notion of who God is breaks and we’re faced with the reality of who the One who is the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man truly is, we have two options. There is the path of repentance, of acknowledging that we don’t define who God is – The Lord, speaking from the burning bush didn’t say, “I am who you say I am,” but rather, “I AM WHO I AM.” God defines who He is, He is the Author of reality, the Creator and Shaper of space and time, and to be right before Him is to be truly right. This is what we seek as Christians, that our own broken wills would die away and be replaced by the perfect desire of God. This is the right response to realizing that we’ve somehow mischaracterized God – casting off what is wrong, regardless of our desires, ambitions, or pride and clinging to what is right and true. But there is another option – we can also cling to our wrongs and blame God for threatening our own selfish desires and delusions. We can respond blindly, failing to see the Truth and cherishing the darkness of our own lie. Consider the fact that what the people desired and expected was some degree of inclusion – the idea that the Messiah would come and lead them in revolution against their enemies. There’s a desire, not just to be saved, but to have some degree of autonomy in the act of saving. It’s understandable to some degree, partly from an understanding of human selfishness, but also from Biblical precedent. God called Abraham and established His covenant with him, He placed Joseph in Egypt and blessed him, providing a place for His people to prosper. He called Moses to lead the people of Israel from Egypt, blessed Joshua to lead them into the promised land, and raised up judges and kings to lead the people. But none of these men achieved anything by their own power, they were blessed to be part of God’s unfolding will, and suffered when they opposed it. And so the Christ, God made flesh followed this same pattern – Jesus called disciples, He used men and women, blessing them to be part of the establishment and spread of His Church. But no Apostle could claim credit for the spiritual victory that was held by Jesus alone, none of them could claim to be the driving force behind the spiritual revolution that swept over the entire world – it was their great blessing to be faithful servants to a work that was already finished in Christ. And so, there is a conflict of the human ego, which we see in the people’s response to Jesus. They wanted a Messiah who was a revolutionary and king, not the Man that they watched grow from a boy, coming to tell them a message they had no desire to receive. His ministry has begun and crowds are marveling at the work being done at His hands and the revolutionary nature of His teaching. And yet as He proclaims good news to the people who have known Him the longest, they stifle their own fascination and wonder with their pride. They lean on the fact that they’ve watched Him grow, that they knew His parents, and question how He could think to proclaim such wonderful things, to claim such authority, to call them out on the failings of their faith. Never mind the fact that it’s true, that His words are without flaw, that His power has no need of human assistance – their pride flares, and in their pride their ears are closed and they turn to violence rather than joyful acceptance. It’s telling that while John records the ruling Jews who were so threatened by Jesus responding to His teachings by attempting to kill Him, only for Him to slip away as His time had not yet come, the first time we see anything of the sort in Luke’s gospel it comes from the ordinary people that Jesus grew up around. This passage holds great hope for those who are lost, and great condemnation for those who insist upon remaining so. It shows that the good news of the gospel is truly open to all, and that those who close their hearts to the calling of Christ, be they Jew or gentile, can only respond by hating the Holy One, and thereby bringing their condemnation upon themselves.

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFB5SE87RaE