Unexpected Grace of God: Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

God’s Surprising Plan Begins in Nazareth

Our God is a God of surprises. He doesn't rely on our understanding. His ways are far above ours. When Jesus began his public ministry it was in his hometown. Here He announced His purpose and who His mission was for. The people of Nazareth were in for the shocks of their life. Nazareth was where the surprising nature of God's plan first became obvious as He explained the unexpected grace of God.

Jesus Announces the Unexpected Grace of God

Nazareth, Jesus' home town, was the place where He and his earthly father were carpenters, building furniture for the townspeople. He returned to this place, Luke tells us, after teaching and healing in Galilee. Upon arriving, He went to the Synagogue to read and teach the Scripture. Here He was handed the scroll of Isaiah and, opening it, He read,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He has anointed Me

To preach the gospel to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18-19

Who Are the Poor, Brokenhearted, and Captive?

Who are these poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind, and oppressed people? They are those who are poor in Spirit, who will have the Kingdom of Heaven. They are not arrogant. They are aware of their spiritual poverty. They know that without God, they have nothing. But they can also be economically poor and socially outcast.

Why are they brokenhearted? Because they know there is no hope for them without God. If they stay in this spiritual state they are doomed. But it is Jesus who heals the brokenhearted. He gives them a new heart of flesh to replace their heart of stone (Ezekiel 36:26).

What are they captive to? They are captive to sin. They are quite literally slaves to sin (John 8:34). But John 8:36 tells us, "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." His audience would have been reminded of the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25), a time when slaves were freed and debts were forgiven.

Who are the blind He gives sight to? He heals and gives physical sight to many but more importantly He heals spiritual blindness. To be spiritually blind is to have a lack of wisdom and understanding. It is an inability to perceive truth, a hardness of heart and a rejection of God’s revelation. He is our light in the darkness; we go to Him like a moth to a flame and reflect His light to the world.

And finally, how are we oppressed? This is not just a promise to those who are physically oppressed but also to those who are spiritually oppressed. Who is it that makes one feel doubt and fear? Who is it that whispers to us that "God doesn't love you." It is the father of lies, Satan, himself. He oppresses us, but God delivers us, as Acts 10:38 says,

"how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him."

But oppression can also be caused by the sin we live in. It can smother us and make us feel hopeless. Jesus gives us liberty in Him. Jesus removes the oppression and replaces it with the joy of salvation. His audience knows these Scriptures. They are waiting to hear what more Jesus has to tell them.

The Crowd Amazed but Uncertain

You can almost feel the excitement in the room: "all eyes were fixed on Him." Those in the crowd knew of the miracles He had performed in Galilee. They knew this was no ordinary man. And then He spoke the words they were stunned by, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

This Scripture was well known. It was a prophecy of words that the Messiah would bring upon His coming to Israel. They were amazed at the authority with which He spoke. "They all spoke well of Him." But they also had trouble reconciling this authority and power with which He spoke and the fact that He was a simple town boy, "Joseph's son" (Luke 4:22). It's like a President coming back to the hometown he grew up in as the son of an unimportant laborer.

When Expectations Replace Faith

But then the mood of the room changed as He addressed what many were thinking. He acknowledged their doubts about who He claimed to be and told them He knew they expected Him to perform signs and wonders there as He had done in Capernaum. They needed proof that this carpenter boy was who He said He was. They had no faith, so they believed He had to perform for them. Jesus was about to show them that God had often bypassed unbelieving Israel.

They are not so different from us. We often have a particular set of expectations of how God will work in a given situation. When He doesn't do it the way we think He should we have doubts. Have you seen people, after many decades away from them, who are serving God faithfully but you doubt them because you remember them "back when?" Have you missed out on blessings because of a lack of faith, just as the Nazarene's did? Or perhaps have you spoken up for God and truth and been rejected for it, just as the ancient prophets and Jesus Himself were?

Grace Beyond Israel: The Examples of Elijah and Elisha

At this point Jesus proceeds to tell them the story of Elijah and Elisha to help them understand. Elijah in the midst of a terrible drought was not sent to the suffering of Israel, but to a non-Jew and a woman. She lived in Sidon which was famous for its Baal worship. Israel was being punished for her lack of faithfulness, but the woman Elijah goes to is promised bread that will never fail. A bread that foreshadows the Bread of Life Jesus would later promise, not just to the Jews, but also the Gentiles.

And Elisha, instead of healing a Jewish leper, heals Naaman, a Syrian. This story was a clear example that God chose who to extend grace to—even to Gentiles while Israel remained unhealed. Naaman and his fellow lepers showed faith and obedience to the prophet's commands. These two qualities are important when we expect to see God's blessings in our lives.

Why the People of Nazareth Became Furious

His point is that He has not come just to them, but our gracious God has also come to the world. And not as the political liberator they had expected. This made them so angry they rose up and tried to kill Him but in some supernatural way He managed to escape them. This great promise of a Messiah could not possibly be for anyone but them, they believed. They had everything figured out, or so they thought. Be careful to be humble in discerning the ways of the Lord.

This was the beginning of His public ministry. It's as though to the spiritually arrogant who thought they were fulfilling the will of God, He had thrown down a gauntlet at the very start. As though He were saying, "You, you who think you are so righteous are nothing but filthy rags." To them, the ones who killed the prophets and rejected the cornerstone, to them He was as direct and plain spoken as possible.

Today, we have choices to make. We can think we are just fine and in need of nothing, or we can see our brokenness and blindness. We can realize we need to stop being sin's slave. We need to become poor—poor in spirit before the Holy Spirit. When we seek Jesus with a broken and contrite heart we will find Him and we will be made free.

When God’s Grace Reaches the Unexpected Today

Does God reach out to people you never imagined? Are you surprised when the homeless drug addict finds God? Do we think it is unfair when someone close to death becomes a Christian? Are we stunned to see "that person" teaching a Sunday School class? We cannot put God in a box. Softening of a hardened heart is what His Spirit does. The unexpected grace of God means He extends grace to whom He will. We thank God for every soul that has been set free.