Luke 4:22-30--Extreme Sermon Response II

Jesus approach in 4:23-38 is to counter the assumptions of the people in 4:22. He says to them that he is not going to fulfill their expectations of him. They want him to be "Joseph's son" to them--i.e., someone whom they know, someone who is predictably on their side. Maybe they would even want some private miracle showings, like Herod later in the story. Well, to be fair to the people, they haven't explicitly said this. They only say: "Isn't this Joseph's son?" But the way Jesus hears their words indicates that he interprets them to be a call for special attention to their needs. What Jesus will do in these verses is, as Joel Green says, to address "the parochial vision of the townspeople directly, countering their assumptions that, as Joseph's son, he will be especially for them a source of God's favor" (The Gospel of Luke, 217).

The meaning of the two proverbial sayings of v. 23 is not crystal clear, but most scholars suggest they mean that one must not benefit others while refusing the same benefits to one's own relations. "What you have done in Capernaum do also here." Jesus had blessed people who were not from Nazareth; now it was the time to do some hometown healing. But Jesus' reason for citing these proverbs is to show how he is interpreting what people are saying. "Doubtless" people want him now to do here what he did there. But his laconic comment tells it all: "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown" (24). Isn't he being a bit premature in his judgment of them?

The Prophetic Model (4:25-27)

Jesus not only interprets the people's reaction to him but he then distances himself from their understanding by mentioning briefly two prophetic figures: Elijah and Elisha (25-27). But he does more than mention them; he suggests that they will be models for his own activity. Thus, these verses encourage our closest attention. There is a threefold structure to each of the references which you should note: (1) the neediness of Israel's people; (2) the sending of the prophet of God to those outside of Israel; (3) the outcast status of those to whom the prophets were sent. You can easily see this structure at work. What is essential to understand is that Luke has Jesus say that from the beginning of his ministry he not only will be practicing a ministry of "release" (cf. 4:18), but that it will be directed to the unlovely people. Whether or not this assumes that Jesus' ministry will be primarily with those outside of Israel is not clear; what is clear is that, in the later words of Luke, Jesus will find his home not in Nazareth but among the "poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind" (14:13). He also will eat dinner in the home of the despised tax collector Zacchaeus (19:1-10). When we put the Isaiah quotation from 4:18-19 together with these prophetic stories we have a picture of Jesus that is emerging. He will not only be sent to the outsiders, to "release" them from their debilities, but he doesn't mind undercutting the assumptions of those who think they have a right to demand his services.

What is striking about Jesus is that he doesn't mind telling the people that this is the nature of his ministry. He seems to ignore all the good advice we give to people today about how to win friends and establish success.

The People Reply (28-30)

The people's response shows that he had indeed provoked them to the heart. They are "filled with rage." Not only were a few so filled but the text says that "all" were enraged at him. A later passage in Luke-Acts is phrased similarly. When Stephen spoke of Jesus and then accused the people of rejecting him, they too were enraged at him and even ground their teeth against him (Acts 7:54-58). Like Christ, like disciple. They take him to the brow of the hill to throw him off. You wonder whether Jesus at that brief moment recalled the words of Satan to him in the second temptation just past:

"If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone,'" (Luke 3:9-11).

Don't you suppose that for one fleeting moment the thought went through Jesus' mind that he could let himself be cast off the cliff, that he would emerge unscathed, and that this would lead to a rapid "conversion" of his townspeople to his way of looking at God's work in the world? Indeed, don't you think that it probably rankled Jesus just a small bit to have such a divisive conversation with the hometown folk at the beginning of his ministry when he probably could have won them over by showing off his airborne skills? Actually, I think we succumb to the temptation to which Jesus wouldn't permit himself to yield. We work for harmony against truth in many instances because that is simply the way to establish longevity, peace and what we think is a frutiful ministry. But Jesus decided to work for truth against harmony in this instance. He would be sent to the outcasts; he would refuse not only Satan's bidding to throw himself down from the high point but also the inclination to do so here for dramatic effect. He would pursue his truth--which was a ministry to the outsiders.

So he passed through their midst and went away (v. 30). Luke gives no indication that this was a miraculous divine deliverence. He makes it seem so matter-of-fact. But the words used, to go "on his way," are a frequent Lucan phrase to indicate that Jesus is pursuing the path of obedience to God (see similar phrases in 4:42; 7:6, 11; 9:51-53; 13:33; 17:11). His wilderness experience, his reading of Isaiah, his preaching to the people--all helped Jesus hone in on his self-understanding as the servant of God. Would that we would have the same sort of confidence.

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