READ: Luke 4:14-30: … THE Spirit of the Lord is upon Me … He has sent Me … Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing … Is this not Joseph’s son? … I tell you that no prophet is accepted in his own country … wrath … And passing through the midst of them, He went His way.
Jesus was brought up in Nazareth in Galilee. The people there know Him as none other than Jesus, the son of Joseph the carpenter and Mary. But now that He has been anointed with the Holy Spirit, His work of redemption has begun. He has already been preaching in the synagogues of other places in Galilee. This was well received. Now He also preaches in Nazareth. Will those who know Him accept His word? Will they accept Him as the Christ, that is, the Anointed One?
Jesus chooses a passage from Isaiah that specifically speaks, word for word, about His anointing: Isa. 61:1 and 2. It speaks not only of His anointing as the One chosen and sent by God the Father, but this text, which Jesus applies to Himself in part, also shows what His work of office as the Anointed One entails: bringing the good news to the meek, those who are humble of heart. To comfort believers who receive Him (‘to heal the brokenhearted’) and to redeem them (by transferring them from the power of darkness into the kingdom of light and peace).
Therefore, ‘the acceptable year of the LORD’ has now arrived, that is, the year of jubilee. When Jesus has read and expounded these verses from Isaiah, He sits down. Everyone still expects a further explanation: they all look at Him. When will all this happen? To whom does this refer?
And then the Lord Jesus gives His answer, an answer that almost no one expects: ‘Today, now, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!’ At first everyone is impressed: what wonderful news! But then doubt sets in: how can a man whom we know, the son of a carpenter, say this?
Then Jesus points to the unbelief that is so characteristic of Israel, which is why in the past Gentiles were saved before covenant children. When they subsequently want to kill Him, He shows His power and walks away.
Can you explain the reaction in the synagogue?
Sing: Ps. 146:3,6