Wanting to Get Well – Luke 4:14-30

According to John 5, when Jesus comes upon a paralyzed man sitting at the pool of Bethesda, waiting for the water to be stirred so someone can help him in and he can be healed (there was a belief that an angel would come occasionally and stir the water and first one in got healing), Jesus asks the man if he wants to get well.  What an astounding question.  Of course he wants to get well, doesn’t he?  But it’s not always true that we want the healing we need.  We want it our way, not God’s way.  Sometimes we don’t agree on how sick we are.

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

   “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them 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 the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him 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.  (Luke 4:14-30 ESV)

Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee, the northern section of Israel where there are as many Gentiles as there are Jews and where, from the perspective of the southern Jews of Judea, Jewish culture is not as pure.  Because he is ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit, many miracles are being done and he is becoming famous.

When he arrives in the town in which he was raised, Nazareth, and is invited by the ruler of the synagogue to speak in the service, he reads from Isaiah the passage where the servant of Yahweh speaks.  The servant of Yahweh, in Isaiah, is a mysterious individual who is sent to redeem Israel, and Jesus tells the congregation that in him this Scripture is fulfilled.  He is claiming to be the Messiah.

As Jesus notes proverbially, it is hard to see the greatness of a local boy whom you saw grow up.  They have taken offense at him and will want to see him prove his claims.  But he doesn’t yield to their demands, reminding them, instead, of how God was very selective in the past with how His prophets’ power was expressed.  He is here in Nazareth to set the captive free, but like the widow who received Elijah’s blessing, or the foreigner who received healing, they must be desirous of God’s ministry and believe in Him.  Elijah was rejected as a prophet in Israel but found those who believed among the Gentiles.  Are they rejecting him, too.  They must want to be set free.

This drives them to riotous anger and they try to kill Jesus by throwing him off a precipice, but somehow he is able to walk away from them unharmed.  Jesus’ claims are extraordinary and come with an expectation that we need rescuing, that we are poor, captive, blind and oppressed by sin.  In our attempt to keep from repenting of our waywardness we may seek to discount Jesus’ amazing claims.  We do so to our own hurt.