Luke 4:14-30

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised Him.

He went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day He went into the synagogue, as was His custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it is written:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim good news to the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Isaiah 61:1-2

Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

All spoke well of Him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from His lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

“Truly I tell you,” He continued, “no prophet is accepted in His hometown. I assure you that there were many widow’s in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed-only Naaman the Syrian.”

All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove Him out of town, and took Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him off the cliff. But He walked right through the crowd and went on His way.

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A prophet is not honored in his hometown. Why? In the Gospel of Mark it actually makes reference to the fact that their lack of faith prevented Jesus from doing miracles there. Lack of faith? Didn’t they believe in God? You see, it was more about the messenger than the message. They were blind to the message because they were fixated on Joseph’s son saying He was the Son of God. We do this too. We often accept or reject a message based on who is providing it. It’s time we let the Word of God speak louder than the words of man. It’s time to drop our judgment and criticism of the messenger and focus more of the message. You want God to move? Listen to His words…

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