Rejection in Nazareth

Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. And when He stood up to read, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then He rolled up the scroll, returned it to the attendant, and sat down. Now, in the synagogue, the teacher would read the Scripture passage that was the subject of their teaching, and they would then teach the listeners. And so, the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Jesus. And He began by saying, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

As Jesus taught, all the people spoke well of Jesus and marveled at the gracious words that came from His lips. “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” they asked.

Jesus knew they were aware of the events since His return to Galilee. And so, Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in Your hometown what we have heard that You did in Capernaum.’ ”

Then He added, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. But I tell you truthfully that there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah when the sky was shut for three and a half years and great famine swept over all the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to the widow of Zarephath in Sidon. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. Yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

On hearing this, all the people in the synagogue were enraged. They got up, drove Him out of the town, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him over the cliff. But Jesus passed through the crowd and went on His way.

(See Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:16-30)

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