Because Jesus proclaimed God’s love for the Gentiles…
“But I tell you truly, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months and a great famine came over the entire land; yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but only to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian. When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with rage, and they got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went on his way” (Luke 4:25–30).
I desire to receive the lesson given to us as we meditate on this passage:
(1) In “Nazareth, the town where he had grown up” (Lk. 4:16), Jesus did not receive “welcome” (v.24) or “honor” (Mt. 13:57; Mk. 6:4); rather, he suffered rejection (Mt. 13:57; Mk. 6:3). Seeing that his hometown people did not believe in him, Jesus could not help being amazed (Mk. 6:6).
(a) On the Sabbath, as he customarily did, Jesus went into the synagogue (Lk. 4:16), read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah (v.17), and after reading (vv.18–19) said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (v.21). The people gathered in the synagogue (v.20) were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth (v.22). But now it was Jesus who was amazed at their unbelief (Mk. 6:6).
(i) These people—Jesus’ own townspeople—who had marveled at the gracious words coming from his mouth did not welcome him, nor did they honor him; instead, they rejected him. In today’s passage, Luke 4:28–29, we see that after hearing what Jesus said, they became furious, stood up, drove him out of the town, and dragged him to the cliff on which the town was built in order to throw him down.
· Why were they so extremely enraged? What did they hear from Jesus—whom they had admired and whose gracious words they had marveled at (v.22)—that made them so furious as to drag him to the cliff outside the town built on a hill and attempt to throw him off (v.29)?
- At this point I recalled the third temptation with which the devil tested Jesus in the wilderness: “Then he led him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone’” (vv. 9–11). I was reminded of this because just as the devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and “set him on the pinnacle of the temple,” tempting him to throw himself down, so also the “children of the devil”—all who were in the synagogue—became enraged (“indignant,” Korean Modern Bible), rose up, and dragged Jesus to the cliff outside the town built on a hill intending to push him over (vv.28–29).
n The reason everyone in the synagogue became so enraged that they attempted to throw Jesus off the cliff was that, from their perspective, Jesus was guilty of treason against the nation. According to Jewish tradition, a common method of executing a traitor was to push the person off a cliff [(2 Chr 25:12) “The people of Judah also captured ten thousand alive, took them to the top of a cliff, and threw them down from there, so that all of them were dashed to pieces”] (Hochmah).
(2) Is it not astonishing? How could those very people—who had admired Jesus and marveled at his gracious words—so suddenly turn and attempt to throw him off a cliff to kill him? The reason is that, from their perspective, Jesus had committed national treason. In other words, those Jews regarded Jesus as a traitor because he proclaimed God’s love for the Gentiles, and so they sought to carry out the traditional Jewish execution for traitors—pushing him off a cliff (Hochmah).
(a) So then, what was the proclamation of God’s love for the Gentiles that Jesus gave? It is found in today’s passage, Luke 4:25–27: “But I tell you truly, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months and a great famine came over the entire land; yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but only to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
(i) The proclamation of God’s love for the Gentiles that Jesus made to the people gathered in the synagogue consisted of two points: (1) First, in the days of Elijah, when there was a great famine throughout the land because it did not rain for three and a half years, there were many widows in Israel, yet God sent Elijah only to a widow in Zarephath of Sidon (vv.25–26). (2) Second, in the days of Elisha, there were many lepers in Israel, but none of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian (v.27).
· Both Old Testament examples mentioned by Jesus—what Elijah and Elisha did—were acts performed not for Jews, but for Gentiles. Elijah was sent only to a Gentile widow living in Zarephath of Sidon (today in southern Lebanon), and through the miracle of the flour and oil not running out, she received God’s great grace and provision during the severe famine. Elisha, likewise, instructed Naaman, the Syrian commander (from the region of modern Syria), to wash seven times in the Jordan River; as a result, Naaman was healed of leprosy. In citing these two examples to the people gathered in the synagogue, Jesus was declaring that just as God had sent these two prophets to Gentiles and delivered them, so now God had sent “the Prophet” (Acts 3:23; cf. Deut. 18:15), Jesus, into the world so that not only Jews but also Gentiles who come to him (who believe in him) might have the door of salvation opened wide to them [(Matt 8:11) “And I tell you this: Many from the east and the west will come and sit down at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”; (John 6:37) “Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and I will never reject anyone who comes to me”].
- This message of Jesus was more than enough to arouse intense anger among those Jews whose minds were filled with the ideology of Jewish chosenness. Their fury reached its height, turning into murderous intent, and they attempted to justify their hostility and attempt to kill Jesus by dragging him to the cliff outside the town built on the hill and pushing him off (Hochmah) [Note: The Jewish doctrine of chosenness is the belief that the Jewish people alone are God’s specially chosen nation. Even today, they regard themselves as God’s people and view all others as Gentiles who are unrelated to God. This sense of chosenness remains among Jews and Judaism, leading them to think that no one except Jews can be saved (Internet)].
n Hochmah Commentary writes: “Jesus’ words must have been received by Jews filled with the ideology of chosenness as a grievous insult. Thus, the synagogue, a place for worship and praise of God, instantly turned into chaos. The audience, who should have listened to Jesus’ words and humbly sought his blessing, went beyond cynical unbelief and suddenly transformed into a mob of blind hatred and fury. … When anger reaches its peak, it becomes murderous intent. The audience, who at first listened with goodwill, suddenly became a violent mob. When compared to the scene where the crowd that once shouted ‘Hosanna’ for Jesus later turns into a hostile mob crying ‘Crucify him,’ this may well be seen as a natural outcome” (Hochmah).
(3) But because the time for Jesus’ death had not yet come, he passed through the midst of them and went on his way (Lk. 4:30). In other words, Jesus continued on the path he intended to walk (Hochmah).
(a) Seeing Jesus, who did not bend his purpose even when facing the obstacle of death, but faithfully continued his ministry and quietly walked the path for the sake of the gospel (Hochmah), we also must imitate him. Following each of our callings, with a deep sense of mission, we must devote our lives for Jesus and the gospel (Mk. 8:35), and even if we face the obstacle of death, we should quietly walk our path, praying, ‘Whether living or dying, let your will be done’.
(i) Hymnal “My Jesus, as Thou Wilt”:
(v. 1) My Jesus, as Thou wilt! Oh, may Thy will be mine! Into Thy hand of love I would my all resign; Through sorrow, or through joy, Conduct me as Thine own,
And help me still to say, My Lord, Thy will be done!
(v. 2) My Jesus, as Thou wilt! Though seen through many a tear, Let not my star of hope Grow dim or disappear; Since Thou on earth hast wept, And sorrowed oft alone, If I must weep with Thee, My Lord, Thy will be done!
(v. 3) My Jesus, as Thou wilt! All shall be well for me; Each changing future scene
I gladly trust with Thee. Straight to Thy rest above I travel calmly on, And sing, in life or death,
· This hymn was written by Benjamin Schmolck (1672–1737), a German Lutheran pastor, during a time of suffering more difficult to bear than death. In 1704, when he was 32, he and his wife returned home from visitation to find their house burned to the ground and their two sons charred to death. He cried out in agony, but then saw a vision of the Lord praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, and wrote the hymn “Mein Jesu, wie du willst” (“My Jesus, as You Will”). The final line of verse 3—“Whether living or dying, let your will be done”—is his confession of faith (Internet).