Why the Change?
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him … All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips … All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of town, and took him to the brow of the hill … in order to throw him down the cliff Luke 4:16,17,22,28,29
What happened in between … All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips and All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this?
Luke tells us Jesus spoke of what happened in the days of the great prophets Elijah and Elisha. Elijah was sent to help a widow – but not a Jewish widow. Elisha healed only one leper – not only not a Jew but actually the commander of the enemy army.
His hearers wanted to hear that God was going to liberate Israel from the pagan Romans. Jewish expectation of the day was that God would use Israel to defeat its enemies and punish them severely. Here is Jesus saying that when God is at work, Gentiles are blessed.
Jesus could see that the nation’s failure to embrace its calling would result in its destruction – a message He would repeat over and over. God raised up the nation to bring blessing to the nations of the earth. This was God’s ultimate purpose for Israel.
God’s purpose through us remains the same – to reveal Him to the nations. Some things in life never change and this is one of them.
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