The Prophet Not Accepted In Hometown
An audio reading based on Luke 4:16-30
SNU – Sketching from the Neck Up / Art works made by quadriplegic artist, Johann Q.
After the Baptist was arrested, Jesus returned to his boyhood home, a small village built on a hill overlooking the Valley of Jezreel. It was called Nazareth.
As usual, he would go to the village’s synagogue, which is the Jewish house of worship, study, and community gathering.
It was the Sabbath.
He stood up to read the Scriptures.
The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written…
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
The people initially responded favorably to Jesus’ reading and teaching. And were in awe and were wondering about the words of grace which were coming from His lips. Then a number of them asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph, the carpenter?”
So He said to them, “You will no doubt quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal Yourself! We have heard of the healings done by You in Capernaum, so do so here in Your hometown as well.’ ”
“Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”
When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.
Then Jesus went to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught there in the synagogue every Sabbath day.
