Joel M Bradshaw

24And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”28When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30But passing through their midst, he went away.–Luke 4

Jesus had just been rejected by his hometown crowd. He had just finished reading Isaiah 61:1-2 and claiming it fulfilled in himself. Thus, he claimed to be the Messiah. The word translated ‘anointed’ means Messiah. They considered his family heritage over having faith in him. Wasn’t he just Joseph’s kid? So like a good rabbi, Jesus turned the tables on them using their own categories.

Jesus brought up two miracle moments from the Old Testament. First a widow who had almost no food and was asked to use what she had left to make one last meal. Elijah promised God would provide.

She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lordspoken by Elijah. (1 Kings 17:15-16)

The second was a powerful army commander who had gotten leprosy. The prophet Elisha was sought sought out and he then gave what sounded like a silly order to the commander to take 7 baths in the public river.

 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. (2 Kings 5:14)

In both cases, the ones healed were not of Jewish heritage, but rather were Gentiles. And with both the widow and the army commander, faith was shown by trustful obedience. It may have seemed crazy to the hometown crowd that Joseph’s son was the Messiah, but it was also crazy to obey Elijah and Elisha in those old stories.

Faith is more important than family heritage. A Gentile who shows faith in Jesus is prioritized over a Jewish person who rejects Jesus. So Jesus’ words to his hometown stung twice. First, because Gentiles were the faith examples. And second, because the ones who should have shown faith were being proclaimed faithless. No wonder they tried to cancel Jesus by throwing him off the cliff!

What are your excuses? Are you leaning on them versus having a radical faith and trust in Jesus?–JMB