Rejection in His Own Country

Luke 4:14-32

Earlier this week I jotted down a few observations about verses in this passage. Here are some of them:

14 — Remember: This comes right after the record of His 40 days of fasting and the temptations which followed.

15 — His message was well-received through-out all Galilee, until He arrived in Nazareth, where they had known Him for a long time. He soon experienced murderous rejection there.

21 — What a stunning message He had for the people of His hometown! He told them they were witnessing, right then and there, the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy about the Messiah.

22 — The Greek term translated gracious is far more often translated grace. They marveled at the words of grace than came out of His mouth. May grace-giving words come from our mouths!

29 — It seems He was telling them that they were rejected whereas the people of Capernaum were accepted. Whatever the case, He allowed Himself to be manhandled for a while.

30 — Did they suddenly lose sight of Him? Did He abruptly make it so they could no longer hold Him? We aren’t told, but it all sounds so matter-of-fact. One good lesson for us: All our interactions with Jesus are on His terms.

32 — Back in Capernaum, the people also responded to the wonder and authority of His teaching.

Here are some excerpts from older material of mine:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to… [and] he hath sent me to…” (Luke 4:18). Though Jesus said this about Himself, the principle applies as well to all of God’s children. No assignment from the Father comes without the empowering presence of His Spirit. God wishes to see His mission accomplished through us; He has no desire for or pleasure in our failure. That is why He does all He can to ensure our success.

Whatever the need of the one turning to Him, Jesus ably meets it. It doesn’t matter whether we are brokenhearted, bound, blind, or wounded, or all of the above — He will bring us rest, peace, healing, freedom, and restoration. That is the Gospel we receive; that is the Gospel we offer.

So why did He bother going to Nazareth? No matter how closed their hearts were, even they needed to have Luke 4:18,19 fulfilled in their ears. Even if they rejected it, they needed to have the message delivered to them. Even if they despised the Messenger, He loved them beyond measure. So He went to them.

Please read my full article here: Jesus Defines His Ministry

And a few more excerpts…

“No prophet is accepted in his own country,” said the Master in today’s lesson. This He said in immediate reference to Himself in response to the people’s inability (or was it unwillingness?) to reconcile two facts: He spoke such gracious words, and He was a local boy.

We can have such a hard time accepting the teaching of those who are one of us. We even have a way of struggling with rejoicing in the spiritual success and prominence of one of our own. We may not necessarily despise and mistrust him, but we certainly cannot afford him the ear, honor and esteem that we with such ease grant the one from another congregation (preferably out of state). If he’s of our congregation, he will most likely enjoy higher esteem from those in other congregations. Why are we that way?

Please read the full piece here:
Alas for the Home-Grown Prophet!

Rejection: Without Honor

1 thought on “Rejection in His Own Country”

  1. Hi, I am truly grateful that the LORD allowed you to inspirationally speak to us to offer clarity of HIS WORD. I missed you and pray you and yours are well. God bless you ALWAYS and Keep you in HIS loving care.

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