WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON

An international Sunday school lesson commentary

For Sunday January 3, 2021

 

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CALLED TO PROCLAIM

(JESUS rejected at Nazareth)

(Luke 4:14-30)

 

   After teaching in several synagogues in the region of Galilee, JESUS returned to HIS childhood hometown of Nazareth filled with the power of the HOLY SPIRIT. His ministry had begun to pick up steam, and HE had already gained some degree of notoriety throughout the surrounding countryside.

    Upon arriving at the village of Nazareth, as had become HIS custom, JESUS entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood and read from the scriptures. HE was handed the scroll that contained a prophetic message from Isaiah (Isaiah 61:1-2). HE unrolled the scroll to the place where it says: “The SPIRIT of the LORD is upon ME, for HE has appointed ME to preach the Good News to the poor. HE has sent ME to proclaim that the captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come…” (NLT).

    JESUS rolled up the scroll and handed it back to the attendant. HE then went and sat down in the pews, as everyone gazed at HIM intently. We may or may not notice that JESUS stopped reading in the middle of a sentence, and did not read the last part (“…and with it, the day of GOD’s anger against their enemies”) that actually concerned GOD’s judgment. That is because, on this particular occasion (HIS first advent), JESUS did not come to “judge”, but rather, this time, HE only came to “save”. Here JESUS is saying, in effect, that HIS “judgment will be reserved for HIS second coming”.

    By coming back to Nazareth, JESUS put HIMSELF to a very severe test, because there is never a more severe critic of a person, than is the people, whom, one grew up around, or with. However, this was not meant to be a private visit, because this time, JESUS came as a rabbi, and so we see HIM going directly to the synagogue to preach and teach, just as a rabbi should. Unfortunately, the people of Nazareth greeted JESUS with contempt, and even seem to take offense to HIM even coming there’

    It has often been said that “familiarity breeds contempt”, and certainly that seemed to be the case here in JESUS’ hometown of Nazareth. Here the people refused to listen to JESUS, because in their minds, JESUS was just a carpenter, a working man just like them. HE had grown up there, right before their eyes, and they couldn’t make the leap that HE could be anyone even remotely special, and certainly not the MESSIAH whom people were claiming that HE was.

    And so, there can be no preaching or teaching in the wrong atmosphere, and on that day in Nazareth, the atmosphere was clearly wrong. A person can never be healed if they refuse to accept the treatment necessary to make it so. One must be receptive to what is being offered if they are to be delivered back into a state of mental, physical, of spiritual health and well-being.

    In this passage JESUS was actually attempting to show HIS disciples how to handle rejection once HE sends them out into the world to evangelize, and HE started with HIS hometown of Nazareth in order to show them that this might be as good as gets when they were ready to begin the work of introducing the world to the concepts of Christianity. The places in which you are most familiar, is oftentimes the places where you can be most strongly rejected.

    This account in the Gospel of Luke serves to remind us that, sometimes we can be too close to a person, to see just how that person is being used by GOD for HIS purpose. When we look at people, we should remember first that, no one is outside the purpose of GOD. As Christians, we must learn to be concerned about everyone, because one never knows who GOD may be using to advance us into HIS Kingdom. We only need to be able to recognize the things of GOD that can reside in any human being, and then, make the decision to help, rather than hinder them from their work for the cause of CHRIST JESUS.

 

A Sunday school lesson by,

Larry D. Alexander

 

 

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