Jesus Reveals Himself As The Spirit Anointed Prophet of Isaiah (4:16-21).
In this next passage Jesus reveals that the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the coming anointed Prophet is to come about through Himself. It commences with His proclamation of Himself as such in the synagogue at Nazareth, and goes on to demonstrate the different ways in which the prophecy will be fulfilled. But there are mixed reactions to Him and in the end they are so angry at His comments that they drag Him to a precipice in order to kill Him, at which He walks through their midst and goes away. It appears that basic to their anger is His failure to perform miracles in Nazareth (Luke 4:23), which we learn elsewhere is because of their unbelief, an unbelief that prevented them bringing their sick to be healed. They were not going to bring their sick to the local carpenter! It is typical of perverse human beings that although they did not come for healing they still blamed Him because there were no healings. But this is exacerbated when they misunderstand His comments,
We can compare here Matthew 13:53-58; Mark 6:1-5. There is a question as to whether these are describing the same incident, for in Matthew 4:13 Jesus has already left Nazareth in order to dwell in Capernaum. There are also clear differences. In Matthew and Mark Jesus is accompanied by His disciples, while in Luke the disciples are not mentioned. In Matthew/Mark He is represented as having done at least some miracles in Nazareth, while in Luke the impression is that He had done none. Had He even done one or two surely they would not have been so sceptical. In Matthew/Mark the people identify Him in terms of his mother, brothers and sisters, in Luke He is identified in terms of Joseph, this may suggest that in the latter case Joseph was still alive, or had only recently died while in the former case he had been dead long enough for the changed description to become normal. In Matthew/Mark He simply marvels at their unbelief, in Luke they nearly kill Him. Thus in spite of the similarities, which are explicable simply in terms of the fact that both cases occur in His home town/former home town, so that similar reactions and comments arise, they would appear to be different incidents. There is no reason at all why, after time had caused tempers to cool down, Jesus should not have made a second attempt to reach those whom He had known from babyhood and some of whom had at times been so kind to Him. By then He was fully established throughout Galilee as a Prophet, and some who felt friendly towards Him might well have urged him to come back and try again. And it would be in His nature to give them a second opportunity. The repetition of the proverb is not at all unlikely. It referred equally in both cases.
a Jesus entered Nazareth where He was brought up (Luke 4:16 a).
b He entered, as His custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read (Luke 4:16 b).
c He read the passage about the Spirit of the Lord being on the Prophet with the consequent results of proclaiming good news, releasing captives, opening the eyes of the blind, freeing those in bondage and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord, and He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on Him, and He began to say to them, “Today has this scripture been fulfilled in your ears.” (Luke 4:17-21).
d And all bore Him witness, and wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph's son?” (Luke 4:22).
e And He said to them, “Doubtless you will say to me this parable, ‘Physician, heal yourself,' whatever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in your own country.” (Luke 4:23).
d And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country.” (Luke 4:24).'
c But of a truth I say to you, ‘There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land, and to none of them was Elijah sent, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian' (Luke 4:25-27).
b And they were all filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things, and they rose up, and cast Him forth out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, so that they might throw Him down headlong (Luke 4:28-29).
a But He passing through the midst of them went His way (Luke 4:30).
It will be noted that in ‘a' He comes to Nazareth, and in the parallel He goes His way. In ‘b' He enters the synagogue to read, and in the parallel those in the synagogue drive Him from the synagogue and seek to hurl Him over a cliff. In ‘c' He proclaims His ministry as the anointed Prophet, and what the consequences are going to be, and in the parallel He describes the consequences of God's previous activity through His prophets. In ‘d' they begin to express doubt because He is Joseph's son and in the parallel he points out that a prophet is not honoured in his own country. In ‘e', central to their problem is that He is not doing in Nazareth what He has been doing in Capernaum.