Luke 4:28-29 “And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they rose up and cast Him out of the city and led Him to the brow of the hill on which the city had been built in order to throw Him down the cliff.”
Observation: What so enraged these folks that they rose up to kill Jesus? The morning had begun well enough. Jesus was in his home-town Temple…the church he had been raised in…preparing to read from the scroll that had been handed to Him by the priest. He was among friends. Surely He had been one of the readers countless times before as He had grown up and worshipped faithfully among these people.
He read a beautiful passage that day, the as-yet-unrevealed Messiah reading from Isaiah about Himself, the Messiah who would come to preach the gospel to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the downtrodden and to proclaim the favorable day of the Lord…that sort of thing. (Isa. 61:1-2).
Finishing the reading He closed the scroll and began teaching by saying that the Scriptures He had just read had been fulfilled in their hearing (v. 21) At that point things were still going well. His listeners took no offense even though He was declaring Himself to be the long-awaited Messiah. They spoke well of Him and marveled over the gracious words falling from his lips; they could hardly believe this was coming from Joseph’s son.
But then things took a nasty turn when He reminded them that their prophet Elijah, during three and a half years of drought, had saved one widow in Sidon even though there were a great many widows in Israel. (v. 26) In the next verse He reminded them that there had been many lepers in Israel, but the prophet Elisha had cleansed only Naaman the Syrian.
Application: So what exactly was it that so offended His friends? It was the reminder that these gracious works were done for gentiles. Overcome by denominationalism they immediately blocked any further capacity they may have had to receive from the Son who had grown up in their midst.
It is so easy for similar arrogance to underlie my own attitude toward tongues and tribes and nations different from me. We separate over differences in baptism, over what we find permissible to eat; we divide from others who have a different view of tithing during today’s church age, and declare that we have the corner on tribulation truth. But what Jesus really wants me to understand is that we being many are one body in Christ, and everyone members of one another…” (Rom. 12:5) It is to my shame that I would ever denigrate one for whom Christ died.
Prayer: Forgive me Jesus for ever thinking more highly of myself or my doctrinal beliefs than I ought. Press hard on those areas of heart-arrogance that would perpetuate separation rather than unity in the faith. O Lord, convict me every time I entertain the thought of being right. In Jesus’ name, Amen