The First Reactions to the Son of Man
Luke 4:22-30
December 8, 2024
First impressions are not always accurate impressions. And first evaluations are not always true. I have experienced those truisms many times in my life, but one of the first times was when I was about seven years old.
Mom and Dad were going on a date and had arranged with our neighbors to watch my brother and me; a couple of days before the event, the husband saw me in the yard and said something like, “We’ll have a great time — we’re going to have pizza!” To which I replied, “I don’t like pizza.” (I still had something to learn about gracious responses as well!) The neighbor was incredulous — “What!? You don’t like pizza?? Have you ever had pizza?” “No.” “Well, how do you know you don’t like it?” Exactly.
So, we went to the neighbor’s home and had pizza — and well, I liked (and like) pizza!
In the ministry of Jesus, the Son of Man, we find a similar (though opposite) evaluation of Jesus. The first public ministry of Jesus in Luke (though it had been about a year since He began His ministry in Jerusalem) seemed to be well-received — and in His hometown of Nazareth. But was it?
It took only minutes, maybe even moments, for the initial positive response to turn to questions and then to anger about Jesus. And this vacillation about Jesus served as a picture of the varied responses people would have to Jesus. From Jesus’ teaching in the Nazareth synagogue (Lk. 4:22-30) we observe…
Despite the Son of Man’s message of salvation, both He and His message are often rejected.
Given the story of His advent that we remember this month, and what we know of Him, that seems incredible. This section immediately followed Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue where He proclaimed Himself as the Messiah, fulfilling the promise of Isaiah 61 — and also calling the people to humble faith in Him. “Other teachers had spoken of a future fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, but Jesus told them that they were witnessing its fulfillment before their eyes. Salvation had come; the messianic era had begun; the Messiah was present that day in the synagogue in the person of Jesus, a man from that very village.” [MacArthur]
But they had to humbly believe in Him. What would they do? This passage is the rest of the story…
This passage reveals four reactions to the nature and teaching of Christ, the Son of Man…
- Jesus May Be Accepted as a Wise and Gracious Teacher (v. 22a)
- Jesus is Not Accepted Because of His Origin in Humility (vv. 22b-24)
- Jesus is Not Accepted Because of His Teaching of Humility (vv. 25-27)
- Israel has a history of rejecting God
- God has a history of redeeming Gentiles
- Jesus is Not Accepted — But He is Not Deterred (vv. 28-30)
Download the rest of this sermon on Luke 4:22-30.
Illustration: Haghe, Louis, 1806-1885, lithographer; Roberts, David, 1796-1864, artist, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.
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