"And all bare Him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?"
Luke 4:22
Part 3
Yesterday:
“And all bare Him witness.”
All of the stories of the great words and works of Jesus, the people of Nazareth, could now see they were right.
“And wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.”
Amazing words, “words of grace” came from Jesus as He taught the people. They were in awe!
Today:
“And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?”
The people kept on saying to each other, “isn’t this Joseph’s boy?” “We knew him when he was a child.” “He grew up with our kids.” Mark adds these words,
“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him” (Mark 6:3).
In spite of Jesus’ “words of grace,” the crowd was “scandalized” (offended) because of Him that day.
“But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folks, and healed them” (Mark 6:4-5).
What were the results of His sermon that day? The audience was “offended” because of Him. And as they began to understand Jesus’ two illustrations of how the Father blessed the “Gentiles” (the heathen) and not the Jewish people the implications were obvious,
“Nazareth was no better than Capernaum if as good. He was under no special obligation to do unusual things in Nazareth because he had been raised there”[1] (Robertson).
Their second response to His gracious words was white-hot-anger! They became so angry that they threw Jesus out of town. Their city was built on a hill, and they took Him the cliff to throw Him off and kill Him (Luke 4:29-30)!
If “crowd response” is the mark of a “good sermon,” Jesus’ words that day would not receive a passing grade. But if the goal is pleasing God and faithfully preaching His Word, Jesus’ teaching always hits the mark!
“And He marveled because of their unbelief. And He went round about the villages, teaching” (Mark 6:6).
As believers, we need to realize when we share God’s Word with others that even though our words are kind and gracious, they may not be received well. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ!” (2 Corinthians 5:20b). We must remember that the message is His, the Gospel is His, the words are His. We are faithful to give His Words graciously, regardless of how they are received.
Quote: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
[1] A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, the electronic version in eSword.