By REV. LAWRENCE ALTHOUSE
The Bible Speaks 

Oct. 4, 2015

The story of Jesus’ return to Nazareth following his baptism by John is hardly a good text on "How To Win Friends and Influence People." Yet, it might have been.

Actually, it seemed to get off to a good start. Jesus, Luke tells us, did not go directly from his baptism in Judea to his hometown of Nazareth, but did some preaching and teaching in some of the towns of Galilee. So impressed were the people who heard him that "he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all (4:15).

It wasn’t long before his new reputation spread to his own hometown of Nazareth. Thus, when it was learned that at last he had come home, his presence in the synagogue was anticipated with much interest. Because of the reputation that had reached them, the authorities of the synagogue treated him as an honored guest, passing the scroll of Isaiah to him to read – a mark of respect.

Jesus stood to read the scroll, as was the custom, and turned to a passage he chose to communicate to them the nature of his mission to his own people. Part of what he read was from Isaiah 58:6 and part from Isaiah 61:1,2, passages in which the prophet speaks of the role of God’s "servant."

Luke describes the tense moment as he closed the scroll: "And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him" (4:20). "Today," said Jesus, "this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (4:21). That was all, nothing more.

It was hardly the message they might have expected from one whom some claimed to be the Messiah. Few people associated Isaiah’s "servant passages" with the expectation of the Messiah. The Messiah they were looking for would be a powerful ruler, military leader – a liberator to throw off the Roman yoke of oppression.

Jesus, however, saw his mission as one of preaching "good news to the poor," proclaiming "release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (4:18,19).

Even to this they responded favorably at first, but then they began to question among themselves: "Is not this Joseph’s son?" (Not only did other people believe that "nothing good" could come out of Nazareth, but apparently the people of Nazareth shared this expectation.) And Jesus understood what was going on in their minds: "No prophet is acceptable in his own country" (4:24).

A similar statement is attributed to Jesus in the recently-discovered Gospel According to Thomas: "No prophet is acceptable in his village; no physician heals those who know him."

Ah, but that’s the problem – we think we know that person. Our little bit of knowledge about that person – and it is always a "little bit" regardless of how much we may know – tells us not to expect anything really important from him or her.

It is our own arrogant complacency that persuades us to believe our limited minds can know all there is to know about one of God’s children, who is far more complex and gifted than we could ever imagine.

While in college, I was a member of a dramatic organization, The Penn Players. One of my fellow members seemed so lackadaisical that one day I commented to a friend, "There’s one guy who’ll never make it in the theatre."

Years later, it was with some chagrin I learned this "unpromising" fellow actor had become one of the motion picture industry’s most successful directors. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Most of us are equally wrong in our judgments of the potential of those around us. It is our familiarity with others that makes us so blind to what God has placed within them. Of all people, we who are closest should be able to see their hidden or sleeping potential.

Our blindness, of course, is an indication of both our overestimation of our own worth and our underestimation of the creative power of God. Home country should be the place where people expect us to bring forth the best that God has given us. Instead, it is often the last place where God’s gifts are recognized in others.

•As indicated in his choice of passages from Isaiah, what was it in Jesus’ image of the Messiah to which the people of Nazareth objected? In what ways did his picture of the Messiah anger them? Are there times today when we react with similar hostility because the Jesus with whom we are confronted is not the Jesus we expected to find?

•Consider this question carefully: Do you customarily tend to see in a person too much or too little potential? What about those closest to you? How much do you think you know of the potential God has placed within them?

•Read Luke 4:25-30. Why do you think these two scripture references by Jesus infuriated the people of Nazareth? If Jesus was to appear in your church today and say pretty much the same thing, who might be some contemporary counterparts to Zarephath (4:26) and Naaman (4:27)? In other words, who today might we resent in the event that God would help them instead of helping us?

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.