Luke 4:16–30

 ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ 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: ¹⁸ “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; ¹⁹ To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” ²⁰ 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. ²¹ And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” ²² 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?” ²³ 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.’ ” ²⁴ Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. ²⁵ 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; ²⁶ but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. ²⁷ And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸ So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, ²⁹ 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. ³⁰ Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

Commentary
Jesus then having established Himself in Judea and Galilee and the surrounding regions now returns to Nazareth, the very place where He grew up. And as was His custom He stood up to read the Scriptures on the Sabbath in the local synagogue there (vs. 16). Having done so Jesus was handed the Book (i.e. scroll) of the prophet Isaiah. And when He opened it He found the place in the Scriptures where it is written: ¹⁸ “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; ¹⁹ To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Thus, Jesus read from specifically from Isaiah 61:1-2, a Scripture that perfectly describes Him and His Ministry, but here Jesus intentionally omits the section that refers to the Day of the vengeance of our God; because that is still future. Today then is the Day of Salvation, the Day for us all to believe and receive the Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts and lives and have remission of all our sins and everlasting life, and thus peace with God, and Holy Spirit Union with Christ. Because when the Day of Christ’s vengeance comes it will come upon all who did not repent and believe in Him (Isaiah 66:16; Rev. 19:11-16). There will be then no recourse for anyone who did not repent and believe in God’s Son. Now let’s look at the passage:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He has anointed Me

To preach the gospel to the poor;

Notice that it is the Spirit of the Lord that is upon Jesus Christ, anointing Him to preach the Gospel (the Good News) to the poor, and not just the materially poor, though the poor have been chosen by God to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom He promised to those who love Him (James 2:5), but to everyone who is poor in Spirit (Matt. 5:3), whose heart and life is seeking for Christ, for that always guarantees that one will find Him regardless of their financial or material status.

                   “He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,”

It is then God in heaven who has sent Jesus Christ to heal the broken hearted. For the lovingkindness of our Father in heaven cannot be contained too Himself or found in the Law of our God, but is completely found when one believes and receives Jesus Christ for themselves. For only then does one experience the renewal and regeneration (and thus healing) that the Holy Spirit works in all who believe in Him. 

          “To proclaim liberty to the captives”

In the Old testament times God foretold of these days, giving us glimpses of it when He foretold how the captive exile hastens to lose his bonds because His God (our God) has freed him (Isaiah 51:14; Zechariah 9:11-12). For that is the clear work of the Messiah (i.e. Christ, see Isaiah 42:5-9, vs. 7) to set men and woman free from all that holds them in bondage.

“And recovery of sight to the blind”

Again, foretold in Isaiah 42:7, the Lord Jesus Christ’s work is to restore sight to the blind, and not just the physically blind, as we so often see in the Gospel as evidence of His Person at Work. But Spiritually, to restore to believing mankind their Spiritual eyes and vision so that they might see God as He really is, and not as He is so often wrongly portrayed and displayed (see John 9:1-41, vs. 25, 39).

          “To set at liberty those who are oppressed;”

In another amazing and gracious work of the Christ is to set at liberty those who are oppressed, primarily those who are oppressed by devil. For throughout the Gospel we see individuals set free from the devils oppression and subjection of their persons (from the little boy and girl who were being oppressed by demon spirits, Mark 9:17-29; Matt. 15:21-28 ) to the demonic man in the tombs who went on to declare all that Christ did for him (Mark 5:1-20), to Mary Magdalene who become arguably His most loyal and thankful early disciple (Luke 8:2; Mark 16:9). The work of God In Christ then is always undeniably gracious (Matt. 9:32-34; 15:29-31). And that is how you will know Him, because the devil does not come but to steal, kill, and destroy peoples lives, but the Lord Jesus Christ comes to bring us life and life more abundantly (John 10:10).

“To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

The proclamation of the Gospel that this is now the Day (i.e. time) of Salvation is what the Lord Jesus Christ does. For it is now the acceptable year of the Lord, that is the time for His people to return to Him, to be saved and healed by Him. For the New Covenant of God embraces all who believe in Him.

Vs. 20-21 ²⁰ 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. ²¹ And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Having then read from the Book of Isiah the Lord Jesus now gives the book back to the attendant and sits down. It is now while the eyes of all in the synagogue are fixed upon Him that Jesus says to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus then in no uncertain terms now declares to them all that in Him this Word of God is fulfilled, that He is the Messiah.

Vs. 22 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?”

Now the people new the passage of Scripture which Jesus just read, (that it was a Messianic passage) and so though they marveled at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth His declaration to them after reading it left them a little confused, for they said amongst themselves, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” Therefore, they could hardly believe that Joseph the carpenter’s son could have such an ability to read and speak so well. They were then only blinded to Jesus through their own biases of Him. For them the Messiah would come through the royal line of David (and be the son of an earthly king or something similar) and so in their minds He would never come through a lowly carpenter.

Vs. 23 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.’ ”

Jesus then knowing that they had already heard of His mighty works and miracles which He had done in Capernaum, and yet for all that they did not believe that He was the Messiah, but rather they would only be offended at Him (see Matt. 13:54-58) now takes up their place and the seat of scorn and unbelief that is them, and declares to them just how they will demand proof and evidence that He is the Messiah. It is then Jesus mimicking the scornful way in which they are going to demand signs from Him.

Vs. 24-30 ²⁴ Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.

Having said as much Jesus now reveals a great truth, that no prophet is accepted in His own country (see Matt13:57). For inevitably those who know us best, in reality now us the least, until God opens their eyes to us (consider John 7:1-9, vs. 5). For the people closest to us very often are blinded to God’s calling and equipping of us for His service. Conversely family members may want someone in their family, a son, or grandson to be a Gospel preacher and such, but that does not mean they have been called and equipped by God to do as much.

Vs. 25-30 ²⁵ 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; ²⁶ but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. ²⁷ And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸ So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, ²⁹ 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. ³⁰ Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

Jesus then will now cite to the unbelieving people of Nazareth two Scriptural examples of believing faith. Both of which are Gentiles! In the first example Jesus recalls that in the days of Elijah when there was a great drought at his word, that heavens gave no rain for three years and six months because of the peoples having forsaken God (though they had all the religious trappings of serving God) just as the people of Nazareth had. Yet there was no faith in the One true God, but only in their pagan idols. And so, as Jesus rightly recalls though there were many widows in Israel at that time, yet to none of them was Elijah the great prophet sent too, except to a widow in a Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, well beyond the borders of Israel. For it was only there in that woman’s household where faith in God (and thus a reception of God’s prophet) could be found (see 1 Kings 17:8-16, 17-24). Similarly, in the days of Elisha the prophet, Elijah’s successor when there were many lepers in Israel in those days, yet to none of them was Elisha the prophet sent by God too except Naaman the Syrian, who was a noble and just man, who was also the commander of the Syrian army, Israel’s enemy. And yet Elisha was sent only to him to heal him of his leprously, because in those days in Israel, true and just faith was severally lacking (see 2 Kings 5:1-14). Therefore, Jesus by stating as much to the people of Nazareth is essentially saying that they too are severally lacking in faith, because they could not, or would not, see Him for who He truly is. Yea they had their religion and it’s services and practices; they’d all assemble at the synagogue on the Sabbath and hear the Scripture read to them, but in their hearts they had no love for God, and as we will see, no love for His Son. And so with Jesus’ declaration that only two people (a widow and a leper) were visited by God’s great prophets in Israel (and both were Gentiles) the assembled ranks of the Nazareth worshippers became enraged at Him, indeed the Scripture says they were filled with wrath, and they collectively rose up and thrust Jesus out of their city, taking Him to the brow of the hill upon which their city was built that they might throw Him over the cliff. Nonetheless Jesus was only subject to their ungodly wrath right up until this point, then He by His Power passed through the midst of them, unencumbered and unhindered by anyone, and went His way. For having exposed their brutal nature and deep hatred of God who always does justly to all without partiality (consider Acts 10:34-35) Jesus departs from Nazareth to never return again.

Scripture Quotations

New King James Version. (1982): Thomas Nelson