Lesson for March 10, 2021
The Life of Christ
Lesson 12
Jesus’ Galilean Ministry
John 4:43-54, Luke 4:14-30
After His stop in Samaria, Jesus continued His journey into Galilee according to John 4:43. We have a parallel passage in Luke 4:14-15. John and Luke give a lot of insight as to where Jesus traveled at this time and what He was doing.
Luke makes it clear that Jesus was visiting synagogues as He traveled throughout the region. Both John and Luke tell us that Christ was well received upon His arrival in Galilee. Many people were hoping to see more miracles. However, there was some positive volition among these Galileans, as we see from their positive reaction to the teaching of Jesus in Luke 4:14-15.
One of the stops that Christ made on this journey was in His hometown of Nazareth. Contrary to the warm reception that He received in other parts of Galilee He was not received favorably by those from His hometown. John hinted at the story in John 4:43, but the full story was told in Luke 4:16-30.
Luke 4:16 recorded Jesus’ arrival in Nazareth, where He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to read the Scriptures. This was His custom from childhood. From this statement we see that Jesus was raised by His parents as a faithful Jew and was obviously taken to the synagogue where He would have been trained in the Scriptures. This passage confirms the fact that Jesus had to study and learn the Scriptures. The Greek word for brought up is “trepho” and means to nourish or to feed. It means His parents supplied all the necessities of physical life for Him as a youth and took Jesus to the synagogue for spiritual nourishment as well.
When Jesus rose to read the Scriptures, He chose a specific messianic passage from Isaiah 61:1-2 However, Jesus made the application personal since He read it in the first person. He also quoted only the portion that pertained to His first advent. The last part of the verse was still to be fulfilled. Jesus also took the proper liberty with this passage in paraphrasing certain words or phrases without changing the meaning. By doing this He made the passage more understandable for those listening to Him.
Of course, the application that should have been made was a spiritual one. The phrases: release of captives, the proclamation of liberty, the recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the downtrodden and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, were all spiritual in nature, not physical. The last phrase in Luke 4:20 tells us that the eyes of the congregation were fixed upon Christ. The Greek word for fixed is “atenizo” and means to stretch muscles or ligaments, to strain, or to gaze intently. This looks good on the surface, until we continue to read verses 28-30.
What occurred next in this passage cannot be fully understood apart from the original Greek, and the translation in most Bibles does not accurately convene the meaning. As Jesus was finishing His reading of Isaiah 61, a roar of conversation began among the congregation. What seemed innocent conversation (though a rude interruption) was in fact a trivialization of Jesus. The Greek words in this verse are in the imperfect tense, which makes it clear that this was an ongoing uproar of voices. However, what they were marveling at was the words going forth from Christ’s mouth and how they were spoken. In other words, they were amazed at the eloquence with which He spoke and failed to make the connection that the words which He read were a reference to Himself as Messiah. What they were saying was, “isn’t this Joseph’s (Mary’s husband) son and just listen to Him speak – our hometown boy has made good.”
As the narrative in Luke 4 continues, we begin to see the true nature of their attitude towards Christ. Jesus, of course, understood what all this commotion meant and immediately identified their true character. When Christ once again began to speak, He spoke as if His audience was saying the words (No doubt you will say to me). He also identified the true reason that this group seemed to flatter Him – they wanted Him to perform a miracle or two like He had done at Capernaum. Christ, of course, refused to be bullied into performing a miracle just to satisfy their curiosity. The saying, “No prophet is welcome in His hometown” was applied properly to this group in Nazareth. They exhibited a lust for the stimulation of the senses and missed completely the message of the fulfillment of prophecy regarding the Messiah.
We see a similar trend in churches today. Stimulation of the senses – eyes, ears, touch, smell and taste – has replaced the teaching of God’s Word. The result is human viewpoint thinking, which leads to all types of reversionism. The spiritual life is replaced with a system of “do goodism” and emotionalism. God is reduced to a “fairy godmother” Who will grant your every wish as long as you conform to a set of rules, taboos, code of ethics, a system of good works or give money. All this, of course, is satanic in origin and has nothing to do with God or Bible doctrine.
The next three verses in Luke 4:25-27 it would be hard for Gentiles to get the meaning, but the Jews fully understood Jesus’ meaning. We must go back into the Old Testament in the book of I Kings 17 and 18 to read the story of Elijah and the widow. The point Jesus made was that Elijah was sent to one Gentile widow who exhibited positive volition and not to the many widows in Israel who were negative toward God and His Word. Jesus was saying that He would be sent to those with positive volition whether they were Jew or Gentile. And there would be no miracles in Nazareth because these Jews were full of negative volition. In like manner, there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha (II Kings 5:1-14), but Elisha was sent to a Gentile soldier who had positive volition, unlike the nation of Israel at that time which was negative toward God. The Jews understood completely that Jesus was comparing them (and rightfully so) with the negative Jews in Elijah’s and Elisha’s time. They also understood that Jesus would not fulfill their lust for stimulation by the performance of a miracle. Remember, the Jews hated the Gentiles. Jesus was telling them that He would rather go to a Gentile with positive volition than to a Jew with negative volition. This, of course, infuriated the group and they took Jesus out of the synagogue to throw Him off a cliff. Jesus managed to slip away from this hysterical mob and escaped without harm.
In John 4:46-54, Jesus continued His journey toward Capernaum and came once again to Cana, the site of His first miracle. It was here that Jesus performed His second miracle – the healing of the official’s son. It is interesting to note that Jesus had earlier in His journey shared the Gospel with a Samaritan woman who was an outcast to society. Now He was dealing with a person of nobility, which shows that God is no respecter of persons. The Greek word for royal official is “basilikos” and literally means belonging to a king. This man could have been of royal blood or simply an official of the king. In either case, he was a man of some importance in the city of Capernaum.
The official’s son was very ill and about to die, so he sought Jesus to come to Capernaum and perform a miracle – heal his son. This nobleman was an unbeliever and yet he knew Jesus could heal his son. Perhaps he had seen Jesus in Capernaum or Jerusalem and had heard the story of how He turned water into wine. When Jesus addressed the man regarding the requirement to see signs and wonders before he would believe, He was addressing everyone (the Greek word for “you” is plural). Christ had to continually demonstrate His authority by performing miracles.
Showing respect, the man addressed Christ as sir and requested that He come to Capernaum to heal his son. The official’s mistake was in believing that Jesus had to be present to perform a miracle. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus simply spoke the word and the boy was healed.
The healing of the official’s son was confirmed by his servants, who he met on the road home. After he inquired, he found out that the servants had come to find him and tell him that his son had recovered. When he asked the exact time that the son began to recover, he realized it was the exact time Jesus had told him that He had healed the boy.
The result was the same as with the Samaritan woman… this official believed in Christ as Messiah (Savior). The Scripture also says that his entire household believed as well. The passages Jesus read in the synagogue were already being fulfilled when this Gentile received Jesus as the Messiah (Savior).