(E) Surprise and Scepticism

Jesus received a very mixed reaction to his first sermon in Nazareth. It was one of surprise and scepticism. All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked. v22.

(1) Surprise.

(a) The people of Nazareth were agreeably surprised by how well Jesus spoke. We know from the gospel record that Jesus had an excellent command of language. He spoke concisely but with precision. His delivery was gracious - winsome, moving and arresting. What Jesus said was full of interest. There is nothing commonplace, shallow, pedantic or patronising about Christ's preaching. His parables of the Prodigal Son and Good Samaritan have not lost their power to move after 2000 years of use.

(b) The inhabitants of Jesus' hometown were also astonished. This is a better translation than 'amazed'. They obviously didn't think Jesus had it in him to preach the way he did - with insight, eloquence and authority. This is very revealing:

(I) Jesus hadn't gradually established a reputation for himself in Nazareth by preaching regularly in the synagogue. He didn't go into the world with the blessing of his local synagogue. He began his mission with the blessing of his Father in Heaven. Jesus didn't belong to Nazareth - he belonged to God.

The local church must be careful not to abrogate too much power to itself. In the final analysis we do not answer to our church but to Jesus Christ - whose we are and whom we serve. Some denominations are far too particular about who they accept into the ministry.

(II) The long silence in Nazareth shows how genuinely meek and lowly Jesus was. Jesus claimed to be meek and lowly of heart but we may feel that this does not square with the statements he made about himself. For example he told his critics: "I tell you one greater than the temple is here." Mt12v6. However, Jesus was not a natural self-publicist. He wasn't pushy and for many years was content to remain in obscurity.

Jesus stands in marked contrast to a man like Sir Robert Watson-Watt who was the self-professed inventor of radar. In his autobiography he took all the glory to himself. Yet in 1904 the German, Christian Halsmeyer, used the echoes of radio waves to locate a distant object on the river Rhine in Cologne.

Christians should not ape the world by promoting themselves and their ministries. Some Television evangelists and leaders of huge prosperous churches in America are a total disgrace in this respect. Jesus only left the carpenter's shop in Nazareth and commenced teaching and healing under compulsion from God's Spirit.

(III) The quiet years in Nazareth reveal the submissiveness of Jesus. He waited God's time and only began his public ministry when God was ready. It is important to wait God's time - Joseph had to, Moses had to, and so, too, did Paul. See exposition on Paul's first ten years.

(2) Scepticism

Luke records that the people of Nazareth said, "Isn't this Joseph's son?" v22. Mark describes the congregation's reaction more fully: "Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon. Aren't his sisters with us?" And they took offence at him." Mk6v3.

Jesus fell victim to insularity. I was brought up in a small Suffolk village where everyone was inter-related by marriage and so I understand the reaction of the inward looking folk of Nazareth.

There are three points to note:

(a) Jesus was judged by his family connections. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" I can almost hear the old people of my native village discussing someone they've heard has made good and saying, "Ain't he ol' Muvvies Wheeler's boy. ..... Poor old Muvvies - he never were a lot a cop!" The implication being: because Muvvies was nothing special nor is his son - whatever others may say about him.

The fact is we do not like people being better than us - particularly those we grew up with! It is hard to acknowledge that they are something special whereas we remain nothing out of the ordinary.

(b) The Nazarenes reckoned that because they were familiar with Jesus he couldn't possibly deserve the reputation he had acquired in Galilee. He'd been their carpenter, they could name his entire family - why, his sisters were members of the congregation!

Familiarity does breed contempt. Moses was a very humble man. He didn't give himself airs and graces. In all likelihood he married beneath himself - a Cushite - a former black slave - one of the mixed multitude that left Egypt. So first Aaron and Miriam began to question his leadership and then Korah and his associates. Moses was underestimated by his family and his people - but what does God say to Aaron and Miriam? "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

We should be careful not to underestimate one of God's servants purely on the basis of our familiarity with him or her.

(c) The scepticism of the folk at Nazareth shows how little impression sheer goodness makes. They had lived with an ongoing miracle for nearly 30 years and it had left them totally unmoved. Jesus was the only truly virtuous person that has ever lived and yet it went completely unnoticed.

Lessons:

(I) Familiarity can deaden our susceptibilities. We can even be so familiar with Jesus that we begin to lose sight of how great he is.

(II) We should be aware that, some of the greatest lives are hidden. People who get all the glory, all the attention, all the honour - are not necessarily those who deserve it.

Selman Wakeman, head of the laboratory where streptomycin was discovered, took all the credit for identifying this wonderful antibiotic that cured tuberculosis. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to Medical Science. Yet the actual discovery was made by a dedicated research scientist named Albert Schatz who put his life at risk testing different substances on the tuberculosis bacteria. Schatz had no share of the royalties earned by streptomycin, received less and less credit as time passed and was eventually written out the discovery altogether.

I sometimes wonder about the lives of the authors of the hymns we sing. Last week I put the name of Lucy E.G.Whitmore (1792 - 1840) into the Google search engine. There is nothing written about her at all. She is a total unknown - except for her lovely hymn.

O by that Name in whom all fullness dwells,
O by that love which every love excels,
O by that blood so freely shed for sin,
Open blest mercy's gate, and take us in.

It is evident from what Jesus said that he was rejected in Nazareth. He probably saw this as a sign that the Jews as a whole would reject him and the gospel would be taken to the Gentiles.

(1) Rejection.

Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your home town what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'" "I tell you the truth" he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his home town."

(a) Jesus was rejected in Nazareth because there he did few miracles. "Physician heal yourself!" is an idiomatic expression akin to, 'Charity begins at home.' The Nazarenes thought Jesus should first impress them before dazzling others. This is the correct sense of the saying because Jesus follows it up with: "Do here in your home town what we have heard you did in Capernaum."

Jesus could do few miracles in Nazareth because the population lacked faith in him. See Matthew13v58. Jesus pointed out that no Jewish lepers were cleansed by Elisha because they did not share the faith of Naaman the Syrian. The widows of Israel did not have the same confidence in Elijah as the widow of Zarephath.

It is very hard to operate effectively when people have little confidence in you. I found this as a teacher. It took me 2 or 3 years to teach well after I was appointed to Debenham High School. That is how long it took for the pupils to accept and trust me.

The same is true in church life. One of the advantages of being called to pastor a church is that from the start the members of the church express confidence in you. A Bible teacher indigenous to the church might never enjoy the same commitment and consequently remains relatively ineffectual.

(b) Jesus gave the reason for the Nazarine's lack of faith in him. He said: "A prophet is not without honour save in his own country."

Elijah and Elisha, great men of God, were taken for granted by the Jews. Indeed, Elisha, was mocked by the young men of Bethel. They shouted at him: "Go on up, you baldhead!" 2Kings2v23. (They got rather more than they bargained for!)

We can be dismissive of what we have grown familiar with. Ignorance, lack of interest and arrogance will rob us of respect for, and appreciation of:

(I) The public utilities upon which we rely and the supermarkets that provide an unfailing and abundant supply of high quality goods.

(II) The people who serve us at home, school, work and church. I saw a TV program on the office cleaners of London recently. No-one ever thanks them for what they do!

(III) The means of grace - prayer, the Bible and Christian fellowship.

(IV) Jesus and all he stands for - the Christian Faith in its entirety. The people of Britain are certainly increasingly unaware of all they owe to Christianity.

(2) Relocation.

Jesus indicated that the folk of Nazareth missed out on a blessing through their lack of faith but that others would benefit - just like the Gentile widow of Zarephath benefited from Elijah's company in time of famine and Naaman the Syrian profited from Elisha's miraculous powers. So, although the Jews rejected the Messiah the Gentiles would believe and receive eternal life through faith in Jesus.

Today Western Europeans have largely rejected Jesus Christ but that doesn't mean the Spirit has stopped working or Christianity has stopped spreading. The Spirit is bringing life and light and liberty to millions in Asia, Africa and South America - as they receive Christ and enter his kingdom.

(G) Fury and Farewell.

(1) Fury.

The fury of the Nazarenes was pretty evident! All the people in the synagogues were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. v29. These are chilling words!

The people of Nazareth were impressed, astonished and ultimately offended by Jesus but not yet furious with him. They suffered from the 'who does he think he is' syndrome. Then, suddenly they want to kill Jesus! Why? because he suggested the Gentiles would receive the blessing rather than the Jews. The Jews were racist. They thanked God in their prayers that they were not born a woman, slave or a Gentile. It is not hard to arouse fury in a racist! A riot broke out in Jerusalem when a rumour spread that Paul had introduced Gentiles into the Temple. (See Acts21v27to36)

It is not difficult to stir some Christians up! All you need to do is attack their sacred cow; it might be a fundamentalist attitude to the Scriptures, a commitment to Calvinist doctrine, reverence for the Authorised Version, the infallibility of the church or speaking in tongues. It doesn't really matter what it is. All you have to do is speak against it and all hell breaks lose. Christians are more than capable of intense and bitter hatred of fellow believers they disagree with.

Reason is abandoned when men lose their tempers and are consumed by hatred. Dissenting minorities are excluded, banned, misrepresented and attacked. Henry VIII dredged through Scripture and found what he thought justified the annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. Henry More disagreed and opposed the king's marriage to Anne Boleyn. He didn't attend the wedding and soon afterwards lost his head.

We can all see where religious bigotry leads. Highly religious men engineered the crucifixion of the Lord of Glory. We need to remember that when we begin to get angry with those we disagree with. Bigotry is one of Satan's huge successes! In 'Screwtape Proposes a Toast' by C.S. Lewis the arch-tempter Screwtape ends his speech to the young Devils in the Tempter's Training College of Hell with these words: "All said and done, my friends, it will be an ill day for us if what most humans mean by "religion" ever vanishes from the Earth. It can still send us the truly delicious sins. The fine flower of unholiness can grow only in the close neighbourhood of the Holy. Nowhere do we tempt so successfully as on the very steps of the altar."

(2) Farewell.

Luke records: But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. v30.

(a) The crowd couldn't bring itself to cast Jesus over the cliff. His quiet dignity and moral authority subdued the hot heads of Nazareth. After all what real wrong had he done them?

Sometimes, although not always, a dignified bearing, a calm and courageous demeanour, does more to dispel antagonism than anything else.

(b) Jesus went on his way. He never returned to Nazareth. Jesus never went back. What an opportunity the people of Nazareth missed - missed for time and eternity.

There comes a point - after a person has rejected the Saviour many times and become gospel hardened - when Jesus goes on his way. The opportunity to repent and be saved is lost - lost for ever.

Now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation. 2Cor6v2.