INTRODUCTION

Adam and Eve by Raphael (Raffaello Santi of Urbino), 1509-1511.

When God created Adam and Eve the world was good. They fell into disobedience and sin was brought into the world. This tainted everything and brought death to all. But before the creation God had a plan in place to restore mankind. Even as he put a curse on the world, he made this promise of a future redeemer:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15

Although created by God, Adam and Eve inclined toward their own desires and by listening to Satan man became the Devil’s adopted offspring. But there would be a future offspring of woman, one not of any man, who would eventually crush the head of evil. His name would be Jesus.

However, in those early times, men grieved God so much by their depravity he considered wiping all off the face of the Earth. Still, he remembered his promise of The Redeemer and God never breaks a promise. God found one righteous man and his family to save a sample of each living creature. Noah was not the promised Redeemer of course. Noah did not redeem mankind. He merely preserved it and allowed it to start anew. The sinful nature that began with Adam was preserved along with mankind and the promise of a coming Redeemer was still needed.

Among the survivors, of the Flood God had used to destroy his creation were Noah’s three sons. All the people living upon the planet today descended from those three.

The inhabitants of what we call the Middle East basically descended from Shem. Thus they are known as Semites.  Shem’s grandson was Eber. Jewish tradition holds that Eber refused to help in the building of the Tower of Babel and he was allowed to retain his own language, the original language of mankind. Eber’s descendents were Eberites. However, the name Eber was sometimes shown as Heber (I had an Uncle Heber named for him) and in time his descendents and their language was called Hebrew. A further descendent of Eber was Abrams, who was renamed by God as Abraham. He was to become the great patriarch of the Hebrews and they were God’s Chosen people from whom the Redeemer would one day come and they were to show God’s way to the world. (The name Jew referred to those of the Tribe of Judah, but the name eventually came to mean all those of the Hebrew faith.)

Despite the fresh start, as the population grew, people again turned to wickedness, even the Chosen People. God sent prophets to warn them and call them to repentance, but they ignored and sometimes even killed these messengers. Finally, God dispersed the Hebrews and sent many into captivity in Babylon. The country of Israel and Judah was taken from them and Jerusalem and the temple destroyed. The Law itself was lost to the people for decades.

In 539 B.C., King Nabonidus surrendered Babylon to the Persian King Cyrus without a fight.  Within the year, the first Jews were allowed to return to their former homeland. By 516 B.C. a new temple had been built.

Ezra, accompanied by about 5,000 former exiles, arrived out of Babylon in 458 B.C. Nehemiah was overseeing the building of a reconstructed wall around Jerusalem, and after its completion in 445 B.C., Ezra stood and read the Law of Moses to the assembled people. (The Book of the Law had been rediscovered during construction.) Since the Law had been lost, the people were overjoyed at hearing it again. They forsook idols and returned to accepting the One and Only Mighty God.

Despite these incredible events, a mere 15 years later the Jews had strayed again. They were sacrificing blemished animals, showing their disrespect to God, and they were marrying foreigners. Why was it bad to marry foreigners? Because God had promised a redeemer and he had promised this redeemer would be a direct and unblemished descendent of Abraham and of David. If the Jews continued to marry with foreigners that ancestry would be lost and God’s plan could not be fulfilled.

So in 430 B.C., God raised up a prophet named Malachi who warned the Jews of coming judgment if they didn’t repent. His prophecies came with assurances of God’s love for them and a promise of salvation. And so it was with these words in Malachi quoting God that the Old Testament comes to an end:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Malachi 4:5-6

We have 400 silent years between the Old and New Testaments; between the prophesies of Malachi and the Birth of Our Lord, Christ Jesus. Much changed in the world in those years.

Alexander the Great defeated Persia in 331 B.C. King Darius was killed by his own men. Alexander went on to rule the known world until 323 B.C., when he died under mysterious circumstances.

His empire was divided among four of his top generals and split into four sectors ruled thusly: Seleucus (Asia), Ptolemy (Egypt), Lysimachus (Thrace) and Cassander, son of Antipater over Macedonia/Greece. (Many think of Cleopatra VII [69 B.C. - 30 B.C.] as Egyptian, but she was Macedonian/Greek being the last Ptolemy ruler of Egypt, which upon her death became part of the Roman Empire. Her father was Pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes his sister, Cleopatra V Tryphaena, was most likely her mother. (Cleopatra VII was married to two of her own brothers, before having her famous liaisons with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony.)

The Jews, after Alexander, came under Seleucid rule. However, when the Seleucid King Antiochus defiled the Jewish Temple in 167 B.C. (a foreshadowing of the future Antichrist), Judah Maccabeus led a Jewish Army, which defeated the Seleucids. This began what is called the Hasmonean Rule of Palestine. However, in 63 B.C., the great Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem and Israel once again lost its independence and came under Roman Rule.

In 42 B.C., Mark Antony appointed Herod tetrarch of Galilee. The Jews resented him because he wasn’t a Jew. He was an Idumean with an Arabian mother. (Idumea was the Greek name for Edom, which bordered Judea on the south. This was a land populated by the descendents of Esau, Edom being another name of his. Esau was the brother of Jacob. The Edomites were perpetual thorns in the side of the Israelites. Given the history between Israel and Edom, it is no wonder the Jews were not happy to have Herod named their king.)  During the Parthian War, Herod had to flee because the Jews sided with the Parthians. But after the war and order was restored, Rome reinstated Herod as the sole ruler of Judea. Thus in 37 B.C., Herod the Great was King of the Jews. He was ruling when Jesus was born.

During the Hasmonean Rule arose three important factions among the Jews: Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes.

The Pharisees were spiritual leaders to the extreme. They not only embraced the Law, but also began to add to it their own interpretation and traditions. They did, however, believe in an afterlife, the judgment of the wicked and a coming Messiah.

The Sadducees were an elite priestly group, yet liberally embraced Greek ways into their lives. They insisted on a literal interpretation of the Law rejecting the ideas of the Pharisees, including resurrection. Their lives revolved around ritual and the Temple. They disappeared from history with the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

The Essenes didn’t like either of the other two groups. They became monks, moved to the desert and strictly obeyed dietary laws and being celibate. They are associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls.

During this time a body came into existence known as the Sanhedrin (sitting together). It was a ruling institution for the Jews, a sort of Supreme Court and legislature rolled into one. It consisted of 71 Jewish elders and was presided over by a President and a Chancellor. Members of the Sanhedrin did not gain a seat by election. The supplanted a sitting member on the council be establishing superior knowledge of the Law. (Nicodemus and Saul [Paul) held seats in the council at times.) Both Pharisees and Sadducees were members of this group.

Another group often mention is Scripture were the Scribes. These were akin to attorneys.

So when we come to the beginning of the New Testament and the birth of Jesus, the world is quite different than it was when Malachi talked of a coming prophet like Elijah. The Persian Empire has been replaced by the Roman Empire. The King of Judea is not of the line of David, but a non-Jew named Herod. The Jewish religion and tradition is not being directed by God’s chosen prophets, but is in the hands of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes. It is also a time when many Jews are earnestly expecting the promised Messiah to come as a king that will defeat Rome and rule as David once did. This is the world at the time the Christ came.

THE BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST FORETOLD

Angel Gabriel and Zechariah by Julius Schnoor von Carolsfeld, 1852-1860

[The Temple in Jerusalem B.C. 6]

Luke 1:5-25

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias [which means YAHWEH Remembers], of the course [priestly division] of Abia [or Abijah]: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth [Elisheva: meaning -My God is abundance]. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying without at the time of incense.

In 1 Chronicles 24, King David divided the priesthood into twenty-four orders. Zachariah was serving in the order of Abijah (Abia). This was the eighth in sequence of the twenty-four orders. Each order served in the temple twice a year for one week each time. They would move to Jerusalem and live together during their period of service.

People have attempted to date the birth of John and the birth of Jesus based on this information. (I admit I tried this myself.) However, dating is difficult. I am of the mind God choose to obscure the actual dates so we wouldn’t become fixed on dates and not the personage. (See “A problem with Dates.)

But since we know the orders served in rotation and Abijah was eighth in the rotation, we think we can pinpoint when Gabriel visited Zachariah and deduce John’s birth from that and then because John is six months older than Jesus, infer Jesus’ birthday.

We could if calendars were exact measurements. Traditionally, the priestly rotation began in the Hebrew month Nissan, which would be mid-March to mid-April. Zachariah’s division would have thus served at the end of Iyyar (mid-April to mid-May) and Marheshvan (mid-October to mid-November). This is the rub. The Jewish calendar was twelve months long, but based on moon cycles, not the rotation around the Sun. The year was 354 days long, 11 days shorter than our solar calendar. Periodically, the Jews added an extra month after Adar, to make up the difference. This result in extra service and caused the service periods to fluctuate from year to year. Without knowing a specific year, it becomes impossible to know exactly when Zachariah was serving when Gabriel appeared.

We do know Zachariah had the great honor of burning the incense that day. This was an honor a priest only received once in his lifetime and it was chosen  by lot.

And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Fear not, Zacharias: for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elisabeth shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name John [Yochanan: YAHWEH is gracious].

“And you shall have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias [Elijah], to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

And Zacharias said to the angel, “Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.”

And the angel answering said to him, “I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak to you, and to show you these glad tidings. And, behold, you shall be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because you believed not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.

Gabriel had appeared in the Old Testament to Daniel to interpret visions (Daniel 8:15-17 and Daniel 9:20-22). He is to appear again to Mary to tell her she will give birth to Christ. He is considered one of the four archangels. The name Gabriel means “Strong Man of God”.

There are three Archangels named in the Bible. Gabriel, who seems to bring prophesy to humans each time he appears. The name means “Strong man of God”. The name appears four times, twice in Daniel and then Twice in Luke, where he appears first to Zachariah to announce he will father John the Baptist and then to Mary to tell her she will give birth to the Messiah. In Daniel 8 and 9, Gabriel explains to Daniel the meaning of future visions

(It is Islamic tradition that Gabriel visited Muhammad on Mount Hira and this meeting led to future revelations that became the basis of the Qur’an.)

The second Archangel is Michael, meaning, “who is like God”. Also Michael is first mentioned in Daniel, as well as in Jude and Revelation. He always seems to be engaged in battle with the Devil and his demons.

A CONTROVERSIAL THEORY

The Devil is the third named Archangel, the fallen one, who became known as Satan and the Dragon, among other names. There is one place, Isaiah 14:12, he is referred to as Lucifer, meaning “light-bearer” or “Morning Star”.  However, the Hebrew word translated in the literal is “shining one” and it comes from a root that can mean boasting or boastful.

Compare “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” Isaiah 14:12 to 2 Peter 1:19,  “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” The Greek translated “Morning Star” in English would be translated “Lucifer” in Latin, but the verse in 2 Peter refers to Christ. If we translate Isaiah 14 more literally we would get, “O shining one [or boastful one], son of the dawn!” Some make the case that the name Lucifer is another name applied to Christ as the Morning Star. That Satan’s name was Heylel, one who once bore the reflective light of the dawn; that is, Christ his creator, but boasted of it as if he were the light bearer and not simply its reflection.

And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak to them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned to them, and remained speechless.

And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, “Thus has the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.”

The people were wondering what was taking him so long. There are bells sews in the hem of his robe, so they probably heard him move about. (There is a myth that the priest had a rope tied about his ankle in case he died. This would allow people to pull him out of the place. This is not true and has no scriptural basis.) When he did come out there was no doubt he had seen a vision.

It is not certain how long afterward Elizabeth became impregnated. It is not certain which day Zachariah served. He would have to serve out his week and then travel home. This trip may have been a couple days long.

Elizabeth, who was a descendent of Aaron, and of the Priestly family of Levites, had never been able to have children. We don’t know if it was her problem or his, but in those times it was always considered the woman’s problem. There was a certain stigma to being barren, which is why she says God took away her reproach.

This has personal meanings for me. My wife could not have children (we lost seven) and she had been told it was impossible for her to have a child. When I became a Christian at age 34, with the prayer of a church and the mercy of God, we had three children. Miracles are very real to me because I experienced them.

JOHN THE BAPTIST DENIES BEING THE CHRIST

John the Baptist, an iconic painting from the Monastery of St. Catherine at Mt. Sinai and dated to the 6th Century.

Autumn 26 A.D

Bethany Beyond the Jordan

No one knows exactly where this “Bethany beyond the Jordan” was. There are strong arguments for two proposed sites. One places it closer to the Sea of Galilee while the other places it closer to the Dead Sea opposite Jericho. I favor the location nearer the Dead Sea for several reasons. One is the proximity to Jerusalem. It would seem more logical that John the Baptist was baptizing in this area. It also places the site of this “Bethany beyond the Jordan” at the place where Elijah ascended to Heaven in a whirlwind. This would have ties to the statement that John the Baptist was in the spirit of the Elijah to come. Another reason is the timing of Jesus’ movements at the death of Lazarus. Messengers came to Jesus with news of Lazarus’s illness. Jesus tarried two days before saying to his disciples they would travel to the Bethany of Mary and Martha, which is about two miles from Jerusalem. When Jesus arrives in the Bethany of Mary and Martha, he is told Lazarus has been dead four days. It is a day’s journey from the alleged Bethany beyond the Jordan site to the Bethany of Martha and Mary.  Thus, a massager took a day to arrive and inform Jesus that Lazarus was ill. Jesus waited two days and then took a day to travel to the grave – four days. 

Now another difficulty with places here is in the King James Version it is not translated as Bethany, but as Bethabara. No one knows where Bethabara was either. Ancient villages, towns and cities have ways of disappearing from history. They could disappear because of some disaster or, in many cases, because different peoples occupied the area over time and the names changed. Therefore, if we accept the King James translation, it is possible that Bethabara is not a place, but a location. Bethabara means “house of the ford, a place on the east”.  So when it is said John was baptizing at “Bethabara beyond the Jordan” it is possible it means John was baptizing at a place east beyond the Jordan or at a ford of the Jordan, it may be there were multiple such locations where John plied his trade.

However, the oldest extent manuscripts have the name Bethany, not Bethabara and the statement “at Bethany beyond the Jordan” would indicate the author did not want this place confused with the Bethany of Martha and Mary. As a result, we have had many arguments over the centuries of where this Bethany is and whether the name Bethany was a corruption of some other name of similar sound. I think we need to be careful not to get too absorbed in trying to figure out where a place was located when no one knows rather than concentrating on the events and their import. 

John the Baptist was six months older than his cousin Jesus, but this does not mean John started his own ministry when he was thirty years old too. John could have begun his preparing of the way several years before Jesus came to be Baptized and he could have moved up and down along the Jordan during that time to reach more people. 

(We will discuss locations and distances a bit more when we come to the Wedding at Cana passage.)

John 1:15-34

John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, “This was he of whom I spoke, He that comes after me is preferred before me for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.” (Reference Luke 3:16, Matthew 3:11 and Mark 1:7.) And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”

And he said, “I am not.” 

“Are you that prophet?”

And he answered, “No.”

Then said they to him, “Who are you that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What say you of yourself?”

He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.” (Isaiah 40:3--“A voice of one calling in the desert, prepare 
the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.”)

And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him, “Why baptize you then, if you be not that Christ, nor Elijah, neither that prophet?”

John answered them saying, “I baptize with water: but there stands one among you, whom you know not. He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.”

These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

There is an interesting, and perhaps confusing, exchange between John and the groups who came to question him. First, it is not clear how many different groups came or how often. The opening of this passage would indicate it was a recurring dialogue. John has not been shy in crying out that Jesus was the one he had meant would come after him. It would then appear that some priests and members of the priestly tribe came and questioned him on at least one occasion.  It is also clear a higher authority, probably the Sanhedrin, sent them.

Why did they come? I would think for two reasons. One, they were curious about this fellow who was drawing such crowds and two, they knew the Scriptures and were looking for the Messiah, perhaps John was he. (Remember the Scripture told us the people were already asking that question.) John pretty quickly put it to rest that he was not the Messiah.

So why did they ask him if he was Elijah?

Because they knew Malachi had prophesied that God would send Elijah back before the Messiah. 

"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse." Malachi 4:5-6 (NIV)

Perhaps then John was actually Elijah, but John says he isn’t. This is true. John came in “the spirit of Elijah”. He is a type of Elijah and he was preparing the way for the Messiah, but for the first coming, not the ”great and dreadful day of the Lord”, which refer to the second coming. However, the prophesy in Malachi does apply to both. 

In the latter days, Elijah will return and Israel’s sons will have their hearts turned to God the Father and to Jesus as the Messiah at last. But John came as Elijah preparing the hearts to receive Jesus as the Messiah and they did not receive. As a result, God did strike the land with a curse and the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD and the Jews were scattered to the four corners of the world.

Yet, they didn’t stop with that question. They asked a third, “Are you The Prophet?” John was indeed a prophet, the last Old Testament style prophet, but he was not The Prophet. So, who was The Prophet?

The Muslims will tell you this was Mohammad. I will tell you it was not. The Prophet was Christ. Now, how can that be? Why would they ask if he was The Christ and then ask if he was The Prophet when he denied being Christ? This is because they didn’t understand the prophesy of The Prophet anymore than they understood there would be two appearances of the Messiah. 

Moses in Deuteronomy 17 and 18 speaks of the King, the priests and the prophet, the three-in-one posts fulfilled in Christ. Moses says:

The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so. The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die." Deuteronomy 18:14-16 (NIV)

What did the Israelites ask? Well, they feared if they heard the voice of God speaking to them they would die and so they asked Moses to be a mediator between God and them. This Prophet who Moses speaks of will be a mediator between God and us, another position fulfilled in Christ.

The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, ‘After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me’. And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.”

And John bare record, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said to me, ‘Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost’. And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God.”

(See my comments in the section on Jesus’ Baptism regarding John’s comment, “I myself did not know him…etc.”)

JESUS IS REJECTED IN NAZARETH

The Cliffs of Mount Precipice, Nazareth

Luke 4:16-30, John 4:44

Nazareth, Galilee

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

We can think of the synagogue as similar to our church. Most of the larger towns of Israel in Jesus time boasted a synagogue. There were around 480 synagogues in Jerusalem alone. Like our churches and synagogues of today there were modest buildings and there were more elaborate ones. The word Synagogue means “a place of meeting”.

There were some differences to our Christian Churches of course. A synagogue service couldn’t be preformed without a minimum of 10 adult males in attendance. A Jewish boy of 13 would be considered an adult male for this purpose. The service consisted of five parts, more restrictive in practice and order, but reminiscent of a typical church service. It would open with a call to service, a recitation of the Shema "Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah: and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deuteronomy 6:4, 5) accompanied by Blessings or Berakot. There might be some psalm singing. There was a period of prayer, first a ritual prayer and then silent praying by individuals of the congregation. Finally came the reading of scripture and a sermon explaining what had been read and a blessing to end it.

There was not a priest or preacher as we would think of such a position. There was a synagogue leader selected from the elders by the other men. This person acted similar to a facilitator. The reading and sermons were given by any man who felt called upon and qualified to do so.

In this case that was Jesus.

Now Jesus as his custom was, went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He had probably done this faithfully since he was declared a man. Remember even while still considered a boy he had slipped from his parents while in Jerusalem and sat questioning the men in a synagogue. Also, this was the town where he grew up and he had probably taken part here on other occasions and these members of the congregation were very familiar with him. They would not have expected anything unusual when he stood up to read on this particular occasion, although they may have had more interest in what he was going to say this time. Remember, the people in Galilee had greeted him when he first arrived because they knew of what he had done in Jerusalem. We can be pretty sure the people attending this service were just as knowledgeable of those things. They were probably very curious about him, but they didn’t expect to hear what they now heard.

And there was delivered to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” [Isaiah 61:1-2]

And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

And he began to say to them, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”

And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words, which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph's son?” (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)

Note their reaction is not immediately one of rejection. They appear to agree with him and to wonder at what he has said, but not to repudiate anything – yet.  Their rhetorical question, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” has not yet been said out of doubt about who he is. That will come shortly, but right now they are looking at him as something of a celebrity, a brilliant hometown boy to take with some local pride. They have not thought it through yet and understood what he has just claimed.

But Jesus, ever confrontational, doesn’t leave it rest there. 

And he said to them, “You will surely say to me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country.”

Jesus knew what was in their hearts and what would come next. Soon they would be demanding signs from him, proof of whom he was rather than accepting on faith. They had probably been aware of the cure of the Roman official’s son, certainly aware of what happened in Jerusalem, and he knew they would begin to ask him to perform such miracles in Nazareth.

And he said, “Verily I say to you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent, save to Sarepta [Zarephath], a city of Sidon, to a woman that was a widow. [1 Kings 17:7-24 Zarephath is about 13 miles north of Tyre, a Phoenician City, now Modern Sarafend, Lebanon.]

And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.” [2 Kings 5:1-19]

What has just happened here? I believe a couple of things. First, it has now dawned upon these men what Jesus meant in his reading for they understood Isaiah was talking about the coming Messiah. When Jesus did not expound on the reading, but simply said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears,” he was declaring himself that Messiah.  

Secondly, they were offended at the examples he gave from Scripture. The people referred to as given Elijah and Elisha’s miracles were Gentiles, not Jews. Jesus is speaking of faith in God, not of birthright or ceremony. He is saying he will not give them signs because they should know the signs of the time from Scripture and accept his claim on faith.

Jesus is also giving a prophecy here by setting these examples and saying, “A prophet has no honor in his own country.” This is not just a matter of over familiarity because these people knew him from childhood. Certainly, it may have been more difficult for those you’ve been with all your life to accept you as the Messiah easily, but this statement goes to the whole of his ministry and his final crucifixion right until our very modern world. The people of his country, the Chosen People of God, would not accept him and his salvation would go out to the Gentiles before them.

Rather than consider the validity of his statement, they took it as blasphemy and took it upon themselves to execute him there and then. 

And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built that they might cast him down headlong.

But he passing through the midst of them went his way.

They probably wondered how he escaped and it never crossed their mind that he had just preformed a miracle in their midst.

One final comment here, it is important to note where Jesus left off reading Isaiah. He read Isaiah 61, 1-2. Here is the full text, finishing verse 2 and adding verse 3.

1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn

3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

Jesus declares only the first half of Isaiah’s prophecy was being fulfilled at that time. It was the “acceptable year of the Lord”, but not yet the “day of vengeance” or the time when all God’s promises to Israel would be fulfilled. Jesus had first come to save and his countrymen missed it, but the foreigners did not.