Have you ever been confronted with the fact that you aren’t as special as you might think you are? Perhaps you got a Christmas gift from a boss, only to discover everyone else got that gift too. Perhaps you purchased what you thought were rare, premium tickets to an event, only to discover that about 2,000 other people thought the same thing.
It happens to all of us—and generally it is good for us. Moments like these can surely keep us humble. But most of the time, these events are rather benign. We feel a little special about what is really something unimportant and then we are brought back down to earth. But what happens when it is important? What happens when we go past feeling special and become prideful?
That is what this week’s session is about.
The People Were Willing to Accept Jesus as Their Messiah
When Jesus was in His hometown of Nazareth, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath to read Scripture and teach. Allowing a guest teacher to do so would not have been unusual—especially since this guest was a local whom the people knew.
The attendant handed Jesus a scroll of Isaiah and Jesus found Isaiah 61 and read the first verse and a half:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
Luke 4:18-19 (Isaiah 61:1-2a)
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me
to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
It’s noteworthy that Jesus stopped His reading there. Here is what He chose not to read:
and the day of our God’s vengeance;
Isaiah 61:2b-3
to comfort all who mourn,
to provide for those who mourn in Zion;
to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
festive oil instead of mourning,
and splendid clothes instead of despair.
And they will be called righteous trees,
planted by the Lord
to glorify him.
Jesus’ declaration that, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled” (Luke 4:21 CSB) explains why He stopped short. The first part of Isaiah’s prophecy focused on Jesus’ first coming while the second part on His second coming. When Jesus returns, God’s vengeance—His wrath—will be poured out on those who continue in their disbelief. But at the same time, God will bring comfort to His people—their mourning will be turned into joy.
When Jesus uttered this clear claim to be the Messiah , the people’s response was positive. They spoke well of Him and were amazed by what He had said. They wondered how a local boy—Joseph’s son—might be the Messiah.
Don’t miss this: the Israelites in Nazareth were willing at least to consider that Jesus was the Messiah. Unlike the religious leaders who responded to Jesus’ claims with scorn, the group gathered in the synagogue had open minds. At least at first.
The People Were Unwilling to Accept Jesus as the World’s Messiah
But then Jesus continued:
He also said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. But I say to you, there were certainly many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months while a great famine came over all the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them except a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. And in the prophet Elisha’s time, there were many in Israel who had leprosy, and yet not one of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
Luke 4:24-27
Why did Jesus tell them these two Old Testament stories? Of all the stories of God’s work, what was it about these two that led Him to share them?
Gentiles.
Both of these stories show how God provided for Gentiles, even passing over Jews to do so. His point? That God loves all people and by extension that He would be the Messiah not just for the Jews, but for the whole world.
And at this, the people turned on a dime:
When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They got up, drove him out of town, and brought him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl him over the cliff.
Luke 4:28-29
The people went from entertaining the possibility that Jesus was their Messiah, but the idea that He would be the Messiah of the world drove them into a rage, so much so that they wanted to kill Him.
That is the power of pride. That is what happens when people misunderstand something critically important and come to believe it is just for them. And this is what the power of the gospel would need to break through in the Gospels and into the Book of Acts.
Can We do Something Similar?
We don’t want to miss the main idea of this session’s story, that Jesus is the Savior of everyone who trusts in Him. It is easy to see how the Jews in Nazareth missed this, and for us to criticize them. But we need to allow the Holy Spirit to work in our minds and hearts too. Are we every guilty of something similar? Do we value and love all people? Do we want all people to hear and respond to the gospel? Truly?
As you prepare this week, consider if there are any holes in your gospel. It might be one toward people of a different ethnicity or nationality. It might be those who hold to a different political position than you do. It might be someone in a different theological tribe. If you are human (and you are) you will have some area where your love for others—your value of them—is wanting. Let God speak to you about that this week.
At the same time, consider how you can encourage your kids this week to love all without restriction. If your kids are human—and they are—they too will have holes. Perhaps their holes will not be as large or well-formed, but they are likely there. Pray that God works in you and through you so that you can be part of God working in them.
Rejection should not drive us to dial back our devotion to Jesus. Instead, we lean into it. There’s no relationship more precious, none more important… The cry of our heart ought to be to know him. Sharing in his suffering deepens that knowing.” — Kim Cash Tate
Kim Cash Tate, “Rejected by Friends, Loved by Jesus,” Desiring God, December 29, 2015, www.desiringgod.org/articles/rejected-byfriends-loved-by-jesus.
Podcast (kidsleadertraining): Play in new window | Download