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Luke 4:28–30
“[The men in the synagogue] rose up and drove [Jesus] out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away” (vv. 29–30).
Listen to current discourse about the past and you will soon hear people speaking as if they would have never committed the sins of their ancestors. “We would certainly never be as bad as those guys back then” is a sentiment that often comes through. We are confident that we would do better than those who came before us.
No doubt, many first-century Jews, especially the scribes and Pharisees, thought they would never repeat the sins of their ancestors who had rejected the prophets of God (Matt. 23:29–30). Therefore, it was particularly offensive for the people in the synagogue at Nazareth to hear that they were like the people who lacked faith in the days of Elijah and Elisha, like those who forced the prophets to minister outside the land of Israel to the gentiles (Luke 4:16–27). In fact, the people in Nazareth were more than offended—they were enraged, so much so that they sought to throw Jesus off a cliff to His death (Luke 4:28–29).
Plainly, the crowd’s response indicates that not everyone will receive Jesus gladly, so we should not be surprised when people reject the gospel. If men from His own hometown denied Him, we will not necessarily fare any better when we proclaim Him, especially when we make clear the demands of the gospel that require us to love Jesus more than anyone else, even our closest relatives (Matt. 10:37). Inevitably, the gospel brings offense. Sometimes we can be a stumbling block to people by being rude or offensive, and what offends is not actually the gospel but our demeanor. Let us not think, however, that we will automatically gain a hearing by being nice or that when people do not believe it is because we are insufficiently winsome. If no one is ever hostile to the gospel message that we are preaching, it may be that we are not proclaiming it faithfully.
On that occasion, Jesus escaped the crowd. Luke does not explain in detail how Jesus got out of there, but perhaps God somehow miraculously restrained the people who wanted to kill His Son (Luke 4:30). Jesus, of course, was not out to avoid death at all costs, but it was not yet time for His passion. Cyril of Alexandria, the early-church father whose doctrine of Christ has so shaped our own Christology, comments: “He did not refuse to suffer—he had come to do that very thing—but to wait for a suitable time. Now at the beginning of his preaching, it would have been the wrong time to have suffered before he had proclaimed the word of truth.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
That our Lord escaped from danger shows us that Christians may flee trouble if an opportunity presents itself—provided, of course, that such fleeing does not involve denying Christ. We are not supposed to seek out persecution in any form or martyrdom, though we should be willing to accept it if there is no way to escape without compromising the faith.
FOR FURTHER STUDY
- 1 Samuel 20
- Psalm 124
- Matthew 10:16–23
- Acts 9:22–25
THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
- Numbers 8–10
- Mark 5:21–43