Jesus Predicts His Rejection

Applying Isaiah 61:1–2 to Himself, Jesus was making the startling claim in the synagogue in Nazareth that He was the promised Messiah sent to fully and finally redeem God’s people from the exile and the oppression of their enemies (Luke 4:16–21). The Jews in the congregation that day clearly recognized the significance of Jesus’ words. They marveled at His teaching, wondering if it could be true, as we see in their question “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (Luke 4:22). Many first-century Jews expected the Messiah to be a conquering king from a family of high social status, so they were taken aback when Jesus, who came from an ordinary family, asserted that He was the Messiah. Their reference to Jesus’ poor family of origin shows that they could not believe Him. They wanted more evidence before they would receive Him as their King.

Our Lord knew what they were thinking, as seen in Luke 4:23. He said that they would quote Him a proverb: “ ‘Physician, heal your-self.’ What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” In other words, He knew that the crowd wanted to respond: “If You are who You say You are, You need to fix things here at home before You go off helping others. You have been healing people in Capernaum, not Your hometown, so heal somebody here in Nazareth and we will believe Your claims.” The people in Nazareth were making their faith contingent on Jesus’ doing a sign for them, on performing for them on demand.

Displays of divine power cannot be demanded, however, and those who ask for them are not necessarily going to believe them anyway. Thus, Jesus would not do them, and He foresaw that His hometown would not accept Him (Luke 4:24). He then compared His ministry to that of Elijah and Elisha, both of whom had preached to unbelieving Israelites but healed gentiles outside the land of Israel, the widow’s son in Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian (Luke 4:25–27; see 1 Kings 17:8–24; 2 Kings 5:1–19a). Even though many Israelites had needs similar to those gentiles’, God’s prophets did not heal the Israelites but only the gentiles because those gentiles were willing to trust the God of Israel, but God’s own covenant community was not. Jesus was predicting that His ministry would be rejected by the Jews in His day, especially the Jews in Nazareth, just as the wicked Jews had rejected Elijah and Elisha hundreds of years earlier. Jesus’ own people, in other words, would not receive Him (see John 1:11).