The Great Physician - Luke 4:14-30

Luke 4:14-30

And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. And He {began} teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

After Jesus had spent forty days in the wilderness facing the temptations of the devil, He returned to Galilee empowered by the Holy Spirit. Galilee was the region surrounding the Sea of Galilee, where several cities were located. Because of the wonderful things that He was doing, the news about Him began to spread through all the land. From His birth, His teaching in the temple at a youthful age, to the beginning of His earthly ministry, we find that enough information has been made known about Jesus that He is starting to have a following.

We need to make two applications here. First, when you live a life that is pleasing to God, full of goodness and kindness, people will take note of it and even tell others about it. The question that we need to ask is, are we sending good news or unwelcome news to those around us? Are we allowing others to speak evil of us, or are we causing others to give glory to God for what they see in us (Matt. 5:16)? What others learn about us, is it worth being told throughout the land? Secondly, are we telling others about Jesus, once we realize how much he has impacted our lives? The people who saw and heard Him in the first century were moved to speak of His magnificence to everyone that they encountered. What about us? Are we spreading the good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ? Are we so touched by Jesus that we cannot help but to preach and teach about the Lord?

The Bible says that Jesus was, “teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all” When you come with a message of truth and righteousness, people will respond if their heart is right. What Jesus was saying to the people, must have been a message of salvation and deliverance, because the people were praising him. In fact, one of His messages is recorded in this text, and that is exactly what it is, a message of hope for a sick and troubled people. 

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD." And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Jesus, after spending some time in Galilee, went southwest to His hometown of Nazareth. The Jewish synagogue was a place that Jesus would be found on the Sabbath. On this Sabbath, He would give a reading and a message to the locals. The servant (the Chazzan), who handed the roll to Jesus, was responsible for several tasks in the synagogue (blowing a trumpet from the roof to announce the Sabbath, cleaning, keeping the sacred rolls of scripture safe and secure etc.).

The book that was given to Jesus was the book of Isaiah, and He read from chapter 61 verses 1 and 2. This tells us that the texts were kept separate and were not in book form. These scrolls were kept in a chest or case and were taken out by the official servant in the synagogue and handed to the selected readers for the day (usually seven people would read). We will read from verse 1 through verse 3, which says, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, To grant those who mourn {in} Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So, they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

While this text originally applied to the return and restoration of the Jews out of Babylon, it was no doubt in its greater application a Messianic hope of deliverance from sin and unrighteousness in Jesus our Lord. When Jesus stands on this occasion and says, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me…” He not only claims to be a prophet, but He also claims that He was speaking at that very moment with Divine authority, being anointed by God for that very purpose.

If man wrote the gospel, the poor would continue to be despised, the brokenhearted would be hurt even more, the afflicted would hear only sad news, while prisoners and captives would be forever in bondage. But Jesus came to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and help people to get back to the joy of living life at its fullest.

Jesus had a real purpose in reading this passage, as the text states, “He opened the book and found the place where it was written”. It was a custom to follow up in a book where the last Sabbath reader left off. It could be that Jesus skipped a portion of the text to read this Messianic portion regarding Himself. Jesus had to unroll a scroll to find this place for the reading. This tells us that in reading this text Jesus was now ready to make a bold statement about who He was. When He finished reading the text, he handed the scroll to the attendant of the Sabbath meeting, and He sat down. Apparently, He had made a profound statement, because the text says, “the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.” Jesus seems to have waited until He had the attention of all the people and then He said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." While we might get the impression that Jesus was finished when he sat down, it is important to note that only the reading was given while standing, the address to the audience was given while sitting in a chair.

What Jesus was teaching here, was that the hearing of these words as He read, were a fulfillment of what Isaiah had written about. The audience of the Christ, needed to hear the message from Him, so that this text could be fulfilled.

Professor Hackett ("Illustrations of Scripture," p. 232) says: "I attended the Jewish worship at Jerusalem, and was struck with the accordance of the ceremonies with those mentioned in the New Testament. The sacred roll was brought from the chest or closet where it was kept; it was handed by an attendant to the reader; a portion of it was rehearsed; the congregation rose and stood while it was read, whereas the speaker, as well as the others present, sat during the delivery of the address which formed a part of the service."

Imagine being in Jesus’ place on this occasion. You come before an audience from your hometown, and you have a chance to make a bold statement that will change the lives of those in attendance. When you are given the opportunity to speak, you rise and read precisely what needs to be read, you put away the text and you sit down. Everyone present is in a state of wonder and they are staring at you. It is then when you make an application and offer your address to those assembled.

A point of application that can be made is that we too are to fix our eyes on Jesus, so that we can hear and heed His every word. The gospel is to be obeyed, and the Lord Jesus is the one who brought that message of good news to us. The Hebrew writer said in Hebrews 12:2 that we should be, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith…” Where are your eyes looking today? Work? Play? [Back of your eyelids] Sleep? or heaven above where Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father?

And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, "Is this not Joseph's son?" And He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, "Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well."' And He said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.

The text continues in telling us that the people were speaking well of Jesus and considered His words to be gracious as they fell from His lips. But in the question that they ask, “Is this not Joseph's son?” there seems to be a spell of doubt that comes upon the audience. It is almost fitting to say that they were suggesting, “We see the good things that you are doing and saying, and we find them to be gracious, but aren’t you just one of us? Weren’t you raised by Joseph and Mary in this very city? How can you be the Messiah or the Prophet?”

Remember that the Jews were waiting for a strong and mighty conqueror in the Messiah, a leader who would guard and deliver them from all enemies. As Jesus stood in their midst on this occasion, no doubt, He fell short of their expectations.

Unfortunately, they were looking for the wrong kind of deliverer. We need to be careful that we remember the nature of the kingdom of Christ so that we worship or serve the Lord in spirit and truth. 

I have always thought that it would be difficult to preach to the hometown crowd. While they know you better than anyone else, sometimes this knowledge stands in the way of the wisdom of God. It is difficult to preach to your own because they know you and expect that you are no different than they are.

Jesus said, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.' And He said, 'Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.'”

While much can be said in regard to these statements made by Jesus, a few short observations will serve our purposes here.

>The proverb that Jesus is referring to, was well known to the people.

>The idea of saying, “Physician, heal yourself!” is not so much a mocking as it was a desire for Him to prove His ability. In other words, “If you say you can heal the sick and restore the blind to full sight, heal yourself!” Unfortunately, the place where they would quote this proverb, would be while Jesus was hanging in agony on the cross (Luke 23:36-39). Luke includes this unique feature regarding the “Physician” as he himself was a doctor.

>The implication in this text seems to be that the people of Nazareth want Jesus to perform miracles to prove that He is who He is claiming to be. Jesus had already performed some miracle in Capernaum that were witnessed and told by others in this gathering. Now they would have to see a similar miracle to believe in Him (See Matt. 4:12-13).

>Where there is no belief on the part of the people, Jesus tends not to work a miracle just to cause belief. On this occasion, many were showing disbelief and doubt, and Jesus would simply say to them, “No prophet is accepted in His own country”. (See Matt. 13:54-58). No doubt he had in mind, the Jewish nation.

>Jesus will now explain to them why He will not work a miracle among them.

"But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, {in the land} of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." And all {the people} in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went His way.”

Jesus here states examples of two other notable prophets that had so little respect in their own Jewish homeland that they only blessed foreigners (Gentiles) with their God given abilities (healing, provisions etc.). The warning here from Jesus is, “If you treat me the same way that you treated Elijah and Elisha, you too will miss out on the benefits and blessings that I bring from God.”.

Zarephath in Sidon and Syria were territories that were far removed from the main homelands of the Jewish people. They were Gentile areas. Many times, in scripture the Jews were reprimanded for persecuting and killing the prophets who came to deliver God’s messages to them (Matt. 23:37-39). When no one else would listen to the word of God, many times God would share His message with the Gentiles and in some cases, would use Gentile nations to punish His own people, Israel. In this case, to spite the hard-hearted Jews, Jesus is telling those in Nazareth that they too can lose the blessings of the Lord.

To close this episode, I want us to note two things. One of these truths, is the attitude that we have when we hear a message from the word of God. The other is to make comments on one of the examples that Jesus used in His lesson in the synagogue, regarding Naaman.

When Jesus preached that people who will not hear and heed His words, will lose the blessings of God, they became angry and wanted to kill Him. They completely missed the point that He was making about these Jews following in the footsteps of the ancestors in killing the prophets. To apply that, let me say that if you leave angry after hearing a clear message from the word of God and you choose not to obey, but would rather destroy the messenger, you are going to miss the blessings of the Lord. You can get mad when you hear the truth, if you want to, but that does not change the validity of the message. If you want to be saved and have eternal life, you need to obey Jesus (John 3:36; Matt 17:5).

In saying that, let us look to the example of Naaman the leper. In II Kings 5:1-14 we read the story of Naaman as he encountered the prophet Elisha to be made clean of his leprosy. In the text, Naaman heard about the abilities of the man of God to make him whole again. He gathered enormous quantities of gold, silver and various riches and had planned to pay for his cure. When he arrived to hear the prescription for his ailments, he was told to plunge himself seven times into the Jordan river. He became angry at the message of God’s prophet and thought that the prophet would magically wave his hand over the leprosy, calling on the name of the Lord, and it would go away. He did not want to follow what the Lord had commanded through Elisha but thought that he could be healed another way. He even went as far as to complain about the fact that the Jordan river was not as clean and pleasant as other rivers. He was asking sarcastically, “Can I not wash in those other rivers and be clean?” And just when he was ready to walk away from the Divine remedy for his leprosy, his servants came and convinced him that if he were asked to do some remarkable thing, he would have done it. So, why not go to the Jordan and wash seven times. I am sure that Naaman thought that a sevenfold washing in water, could do nothing for a removal of leprosy, but that is exactly what the Lord asked of him through Elisha. Once Naaman obeyed the commands delivered to him, the text says, he was made clean. (Read I Peter 3:21)

At the end of our episode, it is customary for us to extend an invitation to any who have not been made clean from the guilt of sin or any who have fallen back into sin through neglect and unfaithfulness. As we think about Naaman and his cleansing from leprosy, let us make application of that example when it comes to our cleansing. Where has the Lord told us to wash to be made clean? There is only one crimson flow where we can go. That is to wash in the blood of Jesus.

Some people refuse to be washed in the blood of Jesus, but that is what God prescribed for us through His Son to be saved. Jesus said in Matt 26:28,

“…for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”

The Bible teaches us that Jesus shed His blood in His death and when we, in coming in the likeness of His death are baptized, we can put away the man of sin and be raised to walk in the newness of life (Rom. 6:1-8). Jesus commands in Mark 16:16,

"He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned” (See Acts 2:38; 22:16).

Today, you can leave this podcast in anger at the Lord for what He taught, or you can accept Him and His words, by coming in obedience to Him.

What will your response be to the message of the Lord? Our text concludes,

“And all {the people} in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went His way.”

It was not time for Jesus to die this early in His ministry. Eventually he would die for our sins on the cross and provide the healing only available through being washed in the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is the Great Physician and those who are sick in sin need to come to Him. If you need to be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38) or if you need prayer, please reach out to me and I will be glad to assist you.