In these early days of Jesus’ ministry, everyone began by thinking well of him. He was engaged from the start in a traveling ministry, going to various towns and teaching in the synagogues. During the course of this, he came to his home town of Nazareth. He may not have been living still living there; he seems to have moved to Capernaum. But Nazareth was the place where he’d been known as a child. It was a small place; everyone probably knew each other. Anyone who’s had the experience of being away from the childhood circle and then returning, may be able to sympathize with the circumstances. After all, when Jesus stood up to read in the Nazareth synagogue, he was facing people who’d seen his scraped knees, heard his mother telling him to be sure and get home in time for supper, and who saw his first childhood attempts to handle wood as Joseph taught him the carpentry trade.
Upon Jesus’ visit to Nazareth, it was the Sabbath and it was his custom to attend synagogue worship on the Sabbath day. This comment frequently goes unnoticed, but prayer and public worship were habits for Jesus, not anomalies.
It was the custom to stand for reading of the scriptures, then to sit while giving the sermon or commentary. The scroll would have been handed to him by the Chazzan or attendant of the synagogue. Jesus unrolled the scroll (no convenient books at that time), and chose which portion to read from Isaiah. There were no chapters and verses, these were added later to help people find things in the bible. Today we would cite the portions that Jesus read as Isaiah 61:1,2 and 58:6.
When Jesus sat down after reading from the scroll, Luke says that all eyes were fixed on him. This could indicate an ordinarily attentive congregation, but might equally show the expectation of people who’d heard the rumors about Jesus from neighboring communities. Jesus told them this scripture had been fulfilled in their hearing. This is all that Luke reports, but perhaps there was more. In any case, the people were impressed by the quality of his words. They spoke well of him, but were confounded also. After all, this was the boy they’d seen grow up—Joseph’s son. How could one of their own be something special? (Perhaps they were influenced by their own bad ‘press.’ It seems to have even been something of a proverb, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
Again, more may have been said than is recorded by Luke. Jesus’ words show that he was either responding to additional comments, or that he discerned something of their feelings, for Jesus was a master in understanding human beings. He first quotes a proverb to them, that they would say, ‘doctor, cure yourself.’
Proverbs are often difficult to understand outside the culture in which they originated. For example, the proverb from one African culture says, ‘the Marsh antelope says the marsh is under water.’ This phrase likely means little without its cultural context to explain it. It comes from a story where the Marsh antelope warns that the marsh is under water, but the other animal doesn’t believe him. The proverb intends to advise people to pay attention to those who know what they’re talking about. A modern example would be “dog in a manger.” Growing up hearing it, we know what it means without explanation. Imagine how it would seem to someone who’d never heard it before. Thus, ‘Doctor cure yourself,’ might seem relatively straightforward, but there could be cultural subtext we’re missing. The people could have been saying, ‘you’ve got a problem. You think you’re something special, but you’re as ordinary as the rest of us, so cure yourself of this delusion.” But it could also have been a challenge to prove himself. That seems to be the weight of what Jesus believes they are privately saying or thinking, that he should do in his hometown the same things they’re saying he was doing in Capernaum. There is irony in Jesus’ statement that no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. Today we might also remember our proverb/saying that familiarity breeds contempt.
The story Jesus tells about two foreigners receiving help in time of crisis when Israelites did not. This enraged the people in the synagogue. Luke reports that they tried to kill him, but he escaped. Matthew merely says that their unbelief kept Jesus from doing great things in Nazareth. While it seems unlikely that everyone in his home town would participate in mob violence, he clearly won little acceptance there. It is also unknown whether he ever re-visited his hometown before his death.
The scripture Jesus chose deals with tremendous concerns – good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight, freedom for the oppressed, and the acceptable year of the Lord. Some of it is reminiscent of his parable of the sheep and the goats where he says feeding and clothing people, giving drink to the thirsty and visiting the imprisoned is the same as doing it for him. From Nazareth, Jesus engaged in an active ministry that included healing and calls to justice. (See also Matthew 11:4,5).
What do you suppose Jesus meant by saying this scripture was fulfilled?
Have your ideas ever been dismissed because people knew you too well?
How can his followers today help to continuing fulfillment of Isaiah’s words?
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