In my daily Bible reading, I am reading through the gospel of Luke. We know that Luke was a physician, and one who observes and records great detail. Details allow us to see the big picture of a story, just as a physician who is trying to help a patient, must look at the whole person. As we believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, we know that all of the facts given help us to see the whole glory of God’s purpose and plan.
In Luke’s Gospel, after Jesus has been in the wilderness being tempted for 40 days, he begins his ministry. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. (Luke 4:14-15) Here he is being hailed and talked about. He would be trending on Twitter today.
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. (4:16) He came to his hometown, but he did not create a scene. He did what he had always done, what good Jews did. He went to the synagogue to hear God’s word and to hear it expounded. Matthew Henry explains the practice at the time: “They had in their synagogues seven readers every sabbath, the first a priest, the second a Levite, and the other five Israelites of that synagogue. We often find Christ preaching in other synagogues, but never reading, except in this synagogue at Nazareth, of which he had been many years a member. Now he offered his service as he had perhaps often done; he read one of the lessons out of the prophets”
Jesus read a portion of Isaiah that foretold the coming of the Kingdom of God, when the blind would see and the lame would walk. Then he sat down. There is nothing unusual in this. At that time, all the people stood for the reading of God’s Word, and all sat, even the one speaking, for the exposition of the word.
And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (4:21-22) Here is Jesus, proclaiming who He is for the first time, in his hometown. It is like he is making a campaign announcement, and has chosen the place where he is likely to find the most support. And so it is at first, as everyone is eager to claim knowing him, and be pleased to think what it will mean for a ruler to come from their town. Imagine the favor they will have!
But of course, Jesus knows their hearts, and speaks to them in a way that quickly deflates their enthusiasm. He tells them that while they may be expecting greater miracles than he has thus performed, it is not to be. And he gives two examples from the Scriptures where God passed by the Israelites and saved and healed Gentiles. The response of the people is immediate anger and turning away. When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And 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. (4:28-29)
C.H. Spurgeon says that the reason they became angry is that they did not like this view of God as Sovereign. “God is a Sovereign; he can save whom he wills; and he will exercise that sovereignty, and bless some of those who appear to be most hopeless, and to have the least signs of good about them, and to be the farthest removed from the means of grace. Men do not like this doctrine of sovereignty; they are willing to have a god if he is not God; they do not mind believing in a god who is not King, and who does not do as he wills with his own. They believe in free will, they say. Yes, yes, free will for everybody but God! Man is to be the god of man and of God, too, according to the talk of some. But this is the thunder from the divine throne: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” Blessed is he who humbly boweth his bead, and saith, “Be it so, my Lord!” Absolute power cannot be in better hands than in those of the God of love.”
There is a tension between the idea of free will of man and Sovereignty of God. For His own reasons and purposes, Jesus did not heal or cast out demons in Nazareth. And He told the people there that he was under no obligation to. They did not want Jesus to pass them by, so they decided to kill Him. This was their free will choice. But of course, they could not. Luke simply puts it, “But passing through their midst, he went away.” (4:30)
God’s sovereign will overcame the people’s free will, and always has since the fall. Adam was given free will, but when he sinned, he constrained the will of all mankind under the bondage of sin. Paul explains in Romans 6 how we were slaves to sin until we died to sin and were brought to a new life in Christ. The same Spirit that resurrected Jesus from the dead, brought us from death and bondage to sin into eternal life with Christ.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-5, 8-9)
Soli Deo Gloria,
Diane