Luke 4:14–30

Read the passage.

After the time in the wilderness, Jesus began teaching throughout Galilee, the region where His hometown is. He becomes well-known enough that people are talking about Him before He actually returns to Nazareth.

At Nazareth, He attends the synogogue on the Sabbath and reads from the scroll of Isaiah (Isa. 61:1–2). It is from the final section of the book which proclaims that after all the terrible judgements, God will have mercy on Israel and restore the world to a state similar to the one before the curse of sin. After reading, He sits down and declares that the words He read had been fulfilled: He had the Spirit of God and was proclaiming good news to the poor, releasing the captives, giving sight to the blind, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.

At first, the Nazarenes like what they hear, but then they start thinking, “We know this guy. He grew up around here; he’s the carpenter’s son. Does he think he’s better than the rest of us?” Jesus, surely knowing full well what’s about to happen, points out several examples from Scripture where God’s people didn’t believe the prophets, but foreigners were blessed because of them. His point is that the people are so wrapped up in the identity of the messenger that they neglect both the content of the message and the One who sent it.

The crowd takes this as an insult instead of a rebuke, hardens their hearts, and transforms into a mob intent on murder. However, Jesus just walks through them and leaves them up on the town’s cliff.

Help us to be wise and accept correction, even from those we are most familiar with, even those we have corrected before.