Proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD

 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.  And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.  And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.  And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.  And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

"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."

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is filled in your hearing."  So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.  And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"  He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself!  Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.'"  Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.  But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."  So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.  Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way. 

- Luke 4:14-30

Yesterday we read that Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan [after His Baptism] and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil.  And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.  And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."  But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'"  Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours."  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan!  For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"  Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.  For it is written:  'He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"  And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"  Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.  And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.  We're tempted to see the word glorified as simply meaning hailed or praised.  But in the Scriptural context, it's important to remember that this word implies recognizing His true value, the glory of God at work through Him.

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.  And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.  And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.  And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
"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."  As eternal Son of God, Christ didn't become the world's anointed Savior, says my study bible, but rather has always been our Savior from before the foundation of the world.  It was Christ speaking through Isaiah who said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me" (Isaiah 61:1).  Jesus' doesn't say "The Spirit has come upon Me."  Rather, when the Spirit of the LORD descended on Jesus at His baptism (see 3:22), it was a sign of revelation -- the revelation of an eternal, not temporal, truth to people about the identity of Jesus.  The acceptable year is the time of Christ's Incarnation, when the Kingdom of heaven has come into the world (see 2 Corinthians 6:2). 

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is filled in your hearing."  So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.  And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"  He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself!  Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.'"  Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.  But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."  So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.  Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.  My study bible notes the double response of both marveling and rejection, which it says occurs frequently in those who encounter Christ (see 11:14-16; John 9:16).  Being rejected in His own country fulfills the rejection of the Old Testament prophets such as Elijah and Elisha (named here by Jesus), and foreshadows His rejection by the whole nation at His trial before Pilate (John 19:14-15).  Christ accepts death according to the Father's will, not that of the Jewish leadership.  But here, the hour of His Passion has not yet come (see John 8:20). 

Jesus is rejected in His hometown.  We must understand that without faith, there will be no wonders done, no miracles of the sort which these townspeople have heard Jesus has done elsewhere.  So important is the saying that no prophet is accepted in his own country that it appears in all four Gospels (see also Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4, John 4:44).  It at once intrigues us with a law of familiarity; that those to whom we've already grown used with a certain image of impression retain for us this identity.  But a prophet's job is precisely to remind people of what they've forgotten, to tell them the truth they'd rather not be reminded of, to bring them back to faith and out of the convenience of their own thinking.  Jesus calls people not only to the identity that is truly His, but to a recognition of truth that outsiders can grasp about Him.  He reminds His own townspeople of the prophets of the Old Testament who were able to perform wonders for outsiders, foreigners (like the widow of Sidon, or Naaman the Syrian).  But He will not perform wonders in order to be "glorified."  Faith comes in a different way, and does not depend upon proofs in order to compel a response of love and acceptance.  Jesus will say, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" again in a reference also found in Isaiah. The lesson we can take from today's reading is about familiarity and complacence.  When we're used to things a certain way, when we have a fixed idea in our minds, it's easy to be deaf and blind to God's surprising work and presence in our lives or in the lives of others around ourselves.  We always need to be called back to the surprising "good news."  Sometimes the good news doesn't seem like good news at all.  It shakes up our world, it calls for us to change, and to change our perceptions, which in turn may wind up changing all kinds of things we're not always prepared for.  That is the nature of a truth we've forgotten, or don't want to acknowledge, something that can be like news from a doctor we'd rather not do anything about.   When Jesus suggests that His townspeople wish to say to Him, "Physician, heal yourself!" it's in reference to one who must cure his own faults before criticizing others -- in this case, a way to respond to the prophetic call for change with an accusation and facile criticism.  Prophets themselves were unusual people, to say the least, often called "out" of the society to serve God.  In such a way, then, we can see Christ in His hometown as the fullness of prophecy, the One come into the world to call us back to God, but even more -- the revelation of God Himself.  He cannot just be "Joseph's son" and whatever that means to the townspeople of Nazareth.  He is representing something much greater, a gift one must have open eyes and ears to grasp and realize and value properly.  Such will always be the nature of God at work in the world.  Let us be attentive!