To Miss Out on Jesus’ Truth Over Something So Simple
Luke 4:23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘“Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’”
Luke 4:24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
Luke 4:25 But 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,
Luke 4:26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
Luke 4:27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
Luke 4:28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.
Luke 4:29 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.
Luke 4:30 But passing through their midst, he went away.
Everything was going great. People felt like they were hearing the best teaching they had ever heard. They “Marveled at His gracious words,” and listened to Him.
Until He included the people that weren’t like all of them.
They started to rumble a little bit, questioning how the ‘carpenter’s son’ could come up with such teaching. Jesus called them out that they would resist someone’s teaching just because they were local. This is called the Ad Hominem fallacy. It’s where people don’t believe something not because of the facts, but because of the person that said it. Instead of listening and believing, it’s easier to discount what they hear because of the person saying it.
That made it that much easier for them to hate Jesus when He brought up the Gentiles. When Jesus pointed out that Elijah healed more Gentiles than Jews because of their faith, that was the last straw.
But just think if they would have listened? Just think, if they would have put their nationalism and hometown pride aside and listened to the Messiah?
It says in other Matthew that “‘He did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.’” Matthew 13:58
Note how caring and merciful Jesus is! He didn’t call down fire or fight them, He just moved on to find people that would listen. He wasn’t happy about it, certainly, but He wasn’t going to force it.
I want to be somebody that hears what Jesus has to say, even if it doesn’t sit well with what my culture has taught me since I was born. Let’s pray that we not miss any of Christ’s truth today, just because of who delivers it.
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