Luke 4:2130 ~ 31 January 2010

Luke 4:21-30

Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” ’ And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

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This week’s reading overlaps with last week’s scripture, Luke 4:14-21. Now we have the rest of the story. In essence, Jesus tells the people gathered in the synagogue in his Nazareth, hometown, that they cannot expect that he will perform miracles and healings for them as he has done in Capernaum. Their amazement turns to rage.

What do you think if this Jesus? Why is it that he will not do in Nazareth what he done in Capernaum? Why is it that the prophets Elisha and Elijah were not sent to the many widows and lepers of their time?

In this week’s Bible Workbench Bill Dols asks:

What do you know of the synagogue people” in your world who can be amazed and can speak gracious words yet suddenly turn into people filled with enough rage to drive out the disturber of their world and, if they can, hurl them off a cliff?