Luke 4

Luke 4:14-32

CHRIST AT CHURCH Luke 4:14-32 THE life of Jesus is not a diary. Neither Matthew, Mark, Luke nor John—the four men who were so inspired by this matchless personage as to write each a brief record of His life, attempts a daily chronology. They were not mere computers of time; they are recorders of incidents instead; reporters of great pivotal points in the greatest of all personal history. The temptation finished, they have called our attention first of all to the Galilean ministry, upon which He entered “in the power of the Spirit”. The minor incidents of that Galilean ministry they made little or nothing of; but when He works a work such as man had never accomplished, or speaks such a word as mortal tongue never uttered, they record it. Hence the record of the water made wine at Cana, and the inclusive statement, “He taught in their synagogues”, being glorified of all. His visit to Nazareth had in it so many elements of interest that the synoptical writers could not disregard it. Since Luke gives us the fullest report we have selected our text from his Gospel. This report fairly embarks Him upon His Messianic mission; and the place of His beginning work, was, as the prophets had foretold, in “Galilee of the Gen-tiles”. This simple, straightforward record is both suggestive and instructive. It involves His knowledge of the Scriptures: the rejection by His neighbors: and His departure from Nazareth. HIS OF THE . “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. And there was delivered unto Him the Book of the Prophet Esaias. 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 hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath 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. And He closed the Book and gave it again to the minister and sat down”. He was no stranger to the temple service. The little phrase, “As His custom was” is indicative of His early education, as well as of His personal habits. His parents were not infidels; nor yet indifferent members of Israel; they did not belong to the crowd who go to church only when attracted by the new bonnets of the Easter season; or by the special program of music at the Christmas time. They were not of that eminently respectable company who felt that they ought to be found in their pews at the dignified service of Sunday morning; but not at any other time. They were of that inner circle known to every church, and without which the pastor’s success would be impossible; they could be depended upon for practically every service, and they took the lad with them. They believed that children should attend upon the public ministry of the Word, and to all the knowledge that He might have gathered from their reading of the Scriptures in the family devotions, and to all that He might have gotten from a special teacher in a special class, they proposed to add that which He might receive also from the public temple service. And, in this judgment, father and mother agreed, while Joseph lived; and after His death, the devout widow was doubtless more diligent still in cultivating the religious life of her growing lad. It seems strange that any father or mother who has ever had any experience in grace should be either blind or indifferent to the sweetness and strength that properly conducted religious services are sure to contribute to developing character. There are those who seem to think that the mental education is altogether the important process; that nothing must interfere with the child’s school attendance; but that his spiritual equipment is a matter of minor concern. They can attend church, or not, as they like; adopt the custom of going or staying at home, as they please; and parents utter no protest, and apparently feel no disappointment. Fools we are to the correction of the stocks. We have longed for our children to be wholesome, strong, successful in life, and we ignore the chief element in all growth—the cultivation of the soul. And yet again, Jesus, the man, did not belong to that company who publicly say that “the reason for non-church attendance is that they grew tired and sick of sacred services in their youth, that their parents compelled them to go so much that they learned to loathe the very sight of a church house; and so often, that they fell under the weakness of the flesh from which they have never recovered”. It is doubtful if His parents ever had to compel Him to go. There were few Sundays in my youth that I ever missed church. I do not recall a single instance in which my father or mother ever compelled me to attend. The lad in the house who, because there were not horses enough to go around the entire family was, once in a while, left behind, was enduring a great hardship; and many a time we rode double rather than be deprived the pleasure of the sanctuary. If a bright, interesting church service is a bore, may it not indicate an utterly rebellious heart? Nor did Jesus belong to that company of men who will tell you that they attended church once and the people did not speak to them; and that the inhospitality froze the blood in their veins. A second trial might succeed better. Rev. Joseph Weston tells of the time when he attended church in New York City, and found no welcome. He remained to Sunday School. But not a hand was extended.

Years have intervened since that day, but the memory of its loneliness still lies like a shadow over the mind. Churchmen, take heed and be cured of that cold treatment of the stranger. But that lad was wise enough to go again and that night, “the same day when the evening was come”, he testifies that no sooner had he reached the inside of the room than W. B. Templeton, that nobleman who was a worshipper at the Calvary Church, met him at the door, extended his hand, and said, “You are a stranger here. I give you welcome.

Come with me and let me give you a good seat. We like young men here, and we are glad to have you present”. How much Templeton’s welcome had to do with Weston’s religious life, and even his entry upon the ministry, who can tell? Had Weston dropped out after that first morning I should have accounted him a weakling. The young man who attempts an education and gives up after the first failure, or any business enterprise, and gives up because he does not do well from the first moment, is doomed; and this truth has its spiritual counterpart. “Oh, but”, says some one, “I was even ordered out of a pew at church; and hence, I have no disposition to return”. They tell us that years ago a scholarly-looking man, plainly dressed, came into a church in Holland, and took a seat. A few minutes later a haughty woman went up to the pew, and seeing a stranger in it, ordered him out by an imperious gesture. He quickly obeyed, and going into one of the pews reserved for the poor, he listened devoutly to the service. After it was over the lady’s friends gathered around her and asked her why she had treated the king so.

She replied, “King? I saw no king!” “But it was King Oscar of Sweden that you ordered out of the pew. He is in this country visiting the Queen, and had taken his seat in your pew, thereby honoring you as you were never honored before, and you have done yourself an injustice in ordering out the royal visitor”. You can imagine her mortification. The truth is that every time a pew is rented to anybody it is an unjustifiable barter in sacred things; and the additional truth is that every time a pew renter demands his rights and drives forth from it any man he orders out the King of Glory, for “inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these, My brethren, ye did it unto Me”, is the language of Christ. And yet, the great King Oscar of Sweden had too much sense to stop all visits to the sanctuary because one puny soul had purchased a pew there.

No, not one of these customs, nor all of them, obtained with Jesus. He was an habitual attendant upon the synagogue services. Again, He was splendidly familiar with the Sacred Scriptures. “There was delivered unto Him the Book of the Prophet Esaias. 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 hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath 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”. He could find the place. He was not lost when an open Bible was before Him. He knew its contents well, as is illustrated in His repeated reference to the Scriptures, and even His copious quotations from them. It has become the custom, in this country now, to laugh at the ignorance of the Bible on the part of University and college students. Dr. L. W. Munhall, some years ago, called attention to an experience in our own Minneapolis Public Schools. The pupils were reading “Evangeline”, and when asked to tell what the lines, “And crowed the cock with the self-same voice that in ages of old had startled Peter” meant, twenty-two answers were submitted and only one was correct.

He reports a freshman class in an Indiana college who were assigned the Book of Job as the subject for an essay and they went to the public library and asked for it, never dreaming that it was in the Bible; and says that in “Northwestern University, a Methodist School, ninety-six men and women, mostly from the higher classes, were examined and thirty-six could not define the Pentateuch; forty did not know the Book of Jude was in the New Testament; thirty-three could not name the patriarchs of the Old Testament, fifty-one could not name one of the Judges; forty-nine could not name three kings of Israel; forty-four could not name three prophets; twenty could not write a beatitude; sixty-five could not write a verse from Romans; for Judges they named Solomon, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Lazarus; for the prophets they named Matthew, Luke, Herod, and Ananias”. This trial has been often repeated in more recent days with little improvement. Ignorance on the part of young men and women concerning the Word is an extremely serious matter; and yet that they stand not alone in this was made clear some years ago when one of the leading editors of America, on hearing a discussion of Mendelssohn’s oratorio1 of “Elijah” inquired, “Who was Elijah?” About that time Mr. Stead went over to Paris and arranged for the translation of his pamphlet on “Peace” and a cabinet minister seriously advised him to omit the reference to Cain, because he “did not think the French would know who Cain was”. In the London House of Commons Mr. Wyndham told how David created his army by “hiding his men by fifties in a cave”. Mr. Balfour, the champion of definite religious teaching in the elementary schools, referred to Aaron as having his hands supported by one on either side; and appeared to think that two babies were involved in the judgment of Solomon.

Afterward a member of the House approached a Free Church representative and asked him who it was that hid his men by fifties in a cave, and when informed that it was Obadiah, he remarked, “Obadiah? I never heard of him”. When the family altar falls down and the youth of the land attend church with irregularity, ignorance of the Word of God is the only possible result. It is little wonder that men are skeptical when they know so little of the Scriptures and easy dupes of every fad of faith promulgated when they have no biblical knowledge upon which to rest as a foundation; or by which to define an intelligent faith. The injunction of Jesus is the sore need of the twentieth century—“Search the Scriptures”. The souls of men will never be saved apart from Scripture knowledge; the Church of God will never acquire strength apart from the same; and the cause of God will never conquer save as men follow the example of their Master and make themselves familiar with His Holy Word. It is the solitary “lamp for their feet”, the supreme light on their pathway. He was capable of its proper interpretation. “And He closed the Book and 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 unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears”. Men may debate as long as they please the meaning of this passage and that, taken from any one of the great volumes of the Word. Some of Shakespeare’s sentences are capable of two or more interpretations; exactly what was meant by them, we may never know, for Shakespeare is dead; but if he could be brought back to life in all the fullness of his faculties, and asked the meaning, his answer would forever settle debate. The author of a sentence knows the meaning of the same. Christ was the Author of the Word—Christ was the Word— “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God; and the Word was God”. When He speaks, let others keep silent. What blasphemy it is for a modern University president to say, “Of the Old Testament Scriptures Christ was as ignorant as Thomas Aquinas was of the modern electric light”.

Thomas Aquinas was not the author of the modern electric light; Christ was the Author of the Old Testament Scriptures. Of them it is as true as of any part of the physical universe, “Without Him was not anything made that was made”. And when He said, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears”, He interpreted it correctly and proved it conclusively. “Hushed be the noise and the strife of the schools, Volume and pamphlet, sermon and speech, The lips of the wise and the prattle of fools; Let the Son of Man teach! Who has the key to the Future but He, Who can unravel the knots of the skein? We have groaned and have travailed and sought to be free: We have travailed in vain. Bewildered, dejected, and prone to despair To Him as at first do we turn and beseech: Our ears are all opened; give heed to our prayer! O Son of Man, teach!” But we pass to the second suggestion: HIS BY HIS . “They said, Is not this Joseph’s son? And He said unto them, Ye will surely say unto Me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself; whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Thy country. And He said, Verily, I say unto 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 Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them were cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. 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 unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong” (Luke 4:22-29). His words profoundly impressed them. “All bare Him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth”. His own townsmen must have felt within themselves that day as other enemies later expressed themselves, “Never man spake like this Man”. They marvelled the more because they knew Him; and they knew that He had not had the advantages of a common school, even of that hour; and they knew that He had had no instruction in elocution. The grace of His speech and the power of the same at once charmed and amazed them; and the main topic held their interest intent, for it was the theme of messiahship, the one subject in which they were more interested than in any or all others. To speak to the Jew of his Messianic hope is to start vibrating every string of the heart. Mr. Fellman, a converted Jew, speaking before our Bible Conference once wisely said, “Do not preach a crucified Christ to Jews; preach to them the Coming Lord”.

They have little interest in a malefactor. The orthodox Jew is forever chained by his conception of a Messiah and so long as Jesus kept Himself to that subject, His words had a gracious sound; but the moment He said, “I am He”, the fashion of every Jewish countenance changed; and the claim which they interpreted to be a blasphemy struck them to a frenzy. If they had been profoundly impressed by the graciousness of His speech a deeper impression was made now by the egoism of His claims, and they swung from silent, intense interest to violent and vocal opposition. The most profound impression is not always peaceful; the most potent Gospel is not usually a sleeping powder. The great Joseph Parker is quoting from the lips of people to whom we have all listened when he says: “Hear the trumpet criticism of this day—“ The sermon was so quiet, so delightfully quiet. The preacher was so pleasing, so tranquil, so composed, he never betrayed the faintest excitement!’ Or hear again in another form, ‘I like him; his sermons are so comforting, healing; how richly he dwells upon the Divine promises; how aptly and happily he applied them to human necessities’. Yes, there is room for all that kind of preaching! Christ sometimes did it; and every good man should sometimes do it. The world is full of sorrow; heartbreaks are a multitude, and the pouring out of oil is on occasion the preacher’s business; the binding up of the brokenhearted is a work so sweet, so gracious, that the Son of Man gave Himself unreservedly to it; but let no man forget that there are times when the thunder’s roar and the lightning’s flash should also be in the sermon. Let no man forget that there are occasions for the sentences that will cut like a knife; for the very storming of the strongholds of iniquity; for royal battle against false beliefs, for criticism of the fox-like Herods and the cringing Pilates; for excoriation of the professedly pious, but inwardly rotten Pharisees of the world. The man who reads the history of the great preachers of the past will find them “sons of consolation” and also “sons of thunder”. As one has suggested, “Study the life of George Fox, one of the journals of John Wesley, or the biography of George Whitfield, or the more recent story of Charles Spurgeon and General Booth”. Truly, as Parker remarks, “God is full-orbed, now soft as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes, and now a wind that silences Euroclydon”. He declined their demands for miracles. “And He said unto them, Ye will surely say unto Me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself; whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Thy country”, etc. (Luke 4:23-29). One of the strange things about the conduct of Jesus, and yet to the mature judgment, one of the admirable things, was that He never created miracles on demand. When Herod had Him within his possession he questioned Him in many words, but He answered him nothing; and wrought for him no marvel. When certain of the Scribes and Pharisees said, “We will see a sign from Thee”, He replied, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh for a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but that of the Prophet Jonah”. There are some sects that must live on signs; and can only live by persistent reproduction of the same. Let it be understood that while Christ was the Mighty God, able to make wine from water, rebuke fever, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, and often did these things, He never did them on demand; and He never permitted His disciples to parade them when once they were done. The Christian Science testimony meeting is as distinctly removed from any assembly recorded in the New Testament as could be imagined. The teaching of Dr. Dowie appealed to me; he knew much of God’s Word, and he knew it well, and in spirit he was no coward; but his claim that “Thy will be done” should be stricken from our prayer, that we should convert God’s promises into demands, were without Biblical example; and I fear, equally without sacred promise. Christ experienced the wrath of resentment. Neighbors, like people, are more or less conceited. The pride of locality is almost as strong as pride of family. The fact that Christ had wrought miracles in Capernaum and refused them in Nazareth, looked to His fellow-townsmen like a silent criticism of the little city, and they rebelled. Remembering the precipitous sides of the mountain just beyond the limits of the town, they pushed Him hither, and would have flung Him down to His death. This is another instance of the insecurity of the public judgment, One moment it is charmed; in the next it chafes; in one hour it is crying, “Crown Him Lord of all”! and in the next it has actually taken His crucifixion in hand.

Vox Populi is not always Vox Dei; and the truth remains till this hour almost as potent as in the day of Christ, that “a prophet is not without honor save in his own country and among his own people”. So mean is the judgment of the best of us, and so intense our easy prejudices! “But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way”. The passage marks HIS FROM . Two or three things are suggested by it in the Scriptures that follow. First of all, He seems to have walked away unmolested. There is no declaration here that a miracle was wrought; no claim that He was lifted into heaven; that He passed down through the earth; or that He was certainly made invisible. I have no question in my mind that when He passed through the midst of them, they fell back to a man, made afraid by the majesty of His face. Such an interpretation harmonizes with much that is found in the Word. On one occasion the Jews in the temple took up stones to stone Him, but those stones fell from nerveless grasp; on another, the Pharisees of the Sanhedrin proposed His arrest as He taught in public during the feast of the tabernacle at Jerusalem; but they never attempted it. On the night of His betrayal an armed band of enemies were round about Him, but when He suddenly stood full before them, they fell to the ground like men in a faint.

Wherever Jesus walks the conscious ones are over-awed; the person of Christ makes vaunting impossible; renders boasting unlikely, and takes all natural bravery from the heart. The man who comes into His holy temple on the Lord’s Day does well to bow himself and in a holy hush, await silently the coming of the Son of God. But the profound pity about this departure from Nazareth is: He was quitting the place once for all. On other occasions Jesus was literally driven from neighborhoods to which He offered His services. In the country of the Gadarene, after He wrought the miracle of healing the man in the tombs, by casting out of him a legion of devils, and these had entered the swine and driven them into the sea, where they were drowned; “They that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city”— and to the owners doubtless—and they went out to see what was done, and they came to Jesus and besought Him that He would depart out of their coasts; and we read that “Jesus passed over again by ship unto the other side”. In other words, He went! Christ is not compelling men to pay Him tribute; Christ is not -forcing Himself upon people who do not want Him; Christ is actually departing from those who pray Him so to do. When Jehovah found “Ephraim joined to his idols” He “let him alone”! When He found the heart of Saul set to do evil, He removed His spirit from him; when He saw that the antediluvians would not respond to Him, He said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man”, and He turned them over to a reprobate mind. Some people think it a simple sin to reject Jesus; but remember, the mighty consequences for Nazareth for His final departure; and be careful how you entreat Him to go away. But the Scriptures following present a truthful contrast. He located where He was expected. After passing through the midst of them He went His way and came down to Capernaum and “taught them on the Sabbath days”. And from that hour His home was Capernaum. Capernaum was a city favored beyond its sisters; a city in whose streets many marvelous works were wrought; and whose citizens were privileged such teaching as the world had never heard beside. “Oh, Capernaum, thou art exalted unto Heaven!” So is every city that gives to Christ a cordial reception; so is every house that keeps for Him open doors; so is every soul that shows Him hospitality. “Let the Saviour in!”