Jesus Preaches At Nazareth
JESUS PREACHES AT NAZARETH
LUKE 4:14-22
Those who thought they knew him well were astonished at Jesus’ power, but the reading he chose was a claim they couldn’t take.
He who came from Nazareth, and belied the reputation of the town (John 1:46), came back again. Luke begins his story of Christ’s ministry at this point, but much had already happened to bring fame and reverence to his name. The times are uncertain, but events recorded up to Mark 6, Matthew 13 and John 4 had probably already taken place. 4:23 shows that Luke was aware of this.
Isaiah was an appropriate book. Since John’s ministry Isaiah had been active in the minds of men. The passage read was Isaiah 61:1-2, with a phrase from Isaiah 58:6, though, perhaps, in the roll from which the Lord read, those words were included in the later passage. The Lord thus took up the theme of John, with one significant variation. John had spoken, and rightly spoken, of judgment. The Lord stressed the fact that the Day of God’s grace postponed the final hour of retribution.
His method was dramatic. The passage should be read in Isaiah where, in all versions, it will be plain that the Lord broke off his reading in the midst of a verse. He can only have meant that “the day of vengeance of our God” was not yet. He could have chosen no more effective demonstration to impress upon all that a new age of God’s grace was opening, and that no liberating crusade against the enemies of Israel was at hand.
Mercifully the day of acceptance continues. The poor are still found in an affluent society, though, like those of Laodicea, “rich and increased with goods,” they are not always aware of what God deems poverty (Revelation 3:17); the broken-hearted are multitudinous—lives soured by rejection, chilled by disappointment, disillusioned by love, because true love was misconceived; the captives, bound by evil habits, day and night under the mastery of alcohol, nicotine, drugs, or the masterful lusts of the flesh; the blind, who see no pervasive Presence in the loveliness of the world, no wider life beyond the grave, nothing save that which can be felt, looked at, heard or tasted; the bruised in spirit are a multitude who still need liberty from obsessive fears, gnawing hate, imprisoning bitterness … Christ’s offer stands.
Notes The incident here is very probably that described in Mark 6:1-6 and Matthew 13:53-58. 4:17: “there was given to him”—Greek, “further handed to him”—ie after the reading of the Law. 4:18: a free version, based on the Septuagint.