Daily Devotion – January 31, 2022 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
Luke 4:21-30
4:21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
4:22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
4:23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'”
4:24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.
4:25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land;
4:26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.
4:27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
4:28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage.
4:29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.
4:30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Jesus is in his own hometown synagogue. He has read from the scroll and begun to teach. Everyone (yes, the passage says ALL) spoke well of what he was saying and were amazed and delighted. And then Jesus wants to have an effect on these hometown people, whom he knows want special attention because Nazareth is his hometown. Not only doesn’t Jesus want to do that, but he also wants to make the point clearly that he isn’t a special prophet for only his own hometown. He isn’t a special prophet even for his own country. He has come to be Messiah for all people everywhere.
So he starts to tell stories about prophets who did miracles especially for foreigners. He is refusing to be just for Nazareth, or even just for Israel. This is not what people want, and everyone (yes, the passage says ALL) was filled with rage and wanted to kill Jesus, rather than have him not show favoritism to his home town.
This little story gets repeated over and over in Jesus’s ministry, doesn’t it. He is forever taking the side of folks the religious leaders think are unworthy of God’s special attention. And after 3 years, they still want to kill him for it.
So the question for us is this: what kind of Messiah do we think we have in Jesus? Do we as Christians think Jesus should be doing miracles for us first and everyone else second? Is that why we are so reluctant to reach out into the neighborhood or help our friends know about our faith? Do we get upset when our church moves in a missional direction to the town at the expense of traditional ministries that serve only already existing members? It’s a good thing that God protects Jesus from the crowd of faithful Nazareth residents who want to kill him. And it’s a good thing God protects folks who want to share the church with people who don’t belong to it yet.
Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for generously providing us with everything we will ever need. Help us to make sure the whole world gets those gifts and not keep them just for us.   Amen.
