The Third Sunday after Epiphany
January 26, 2025

Luke 4:16-30

Epiphany Moments—

Rejection is Not Proof of Failure!

16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him and 21he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

23Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ ”

24“I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

28All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. (NIV1984)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Imagine that you have some of the best news that you or anyone else could imagine. After years of struggling with a life-threatening disease you receive a treatment that cures you! What would you do with that news? Would you give your doctors and nurses a great big hug, thank them profusely for all that they have done for you, and then resume your day-to-day life quietly rejoicing that you no longer have to deal with that disease? Probably not! After you give your doctors and nurses a great big hug, after you thank them profusely, you would get on the phone or get on your social media accounts and share that glorious news with as many people as you could!

What reaction might you receive? There are two possibilities. Some people will rejoice with you and express how grateful they are to hear about your cure. Others will reject the news you shared with them, claiming that it couldn’t possibly be true, claiming that you and/or your doctors are delusional. Their rejection of the news you shared with them might lead us to think that we failed. Maybe if I just said it differently, maybe if I showed them my test results maybe then they would rejoice along with me!

Something very similar happened to Jesus in His hometown of Nazareth— but on a far higher and a far more consequential level. As the Holy Spirit enables us to become a part of the congregation in Nazareth this morning, He reveals to us this week’s Epiphany Moment— Rejection is Not Proof of Failure!

Luke’s progression of thought in the opening chapters of his Gospel account is quite easy to follow. With the goal of assuring Theophilus (1:3) that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Messianic prophecies Luke records the testimony of the angel Gabriel, Elizabeth and Mary, Simeon and Anna, John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit as He visibly anoints Jesus to be the Christ, the Messiah, and he even records the testimony of the heavenly Father. Now, Luke enables us to hear the testimony of Jesus Himself!

After Jesus had conquered Satan’s temptations in the wilderness, Luke tells us, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.”

The words I want us to contemplate here are the words, “On the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.” Think about what these words mean! Even though Jesus is the true eternal Son of the one and only living God, throughout His entire life Jesus made sure that He went to synagogue, He went to church each and every week. Here we might ask ourselves the question— why? Before we ask that question in relation to Jesus, however, let’s ask that question concerning ourselves, shall we? Why do we come to church? Our old sinful nature might respond to that question by saying, “Because I have to! Because my Mom and my Dad, my Grandma and my Grandpa, my spouse don’t give me much of a choice! I am expected to go to church!” Satan will try to convince us that there are any number of valid reasons not to go to church: “It’s the same thing week after week. The service and the music are so boring. There are so many other things I would rather do with my time.”

None of that ever entered into Jesus’ mind for even a moment. As a child Jesus faithfully went to synagogue in order to hear and study and learn the Scriptures. As an adult Jesus attended the worship services faithfully so that He could bring His praise and His prayers to His heavenly Father. For His entire life Jesus loved to gather in the synagogue— because He knew! He knew exactly why Moses was inspired to write, “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3). Jesus knew exactly why He inspired His servant King David to write, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD” (Psalm 122”1). So, my friends, when your Brother Jesus extends His hand to you and says, “Come, let us go to the house of the LORD,” do not listen to your old sinful nature as it comes up with all these reasons as to why you can’t make it to church this week. Don’t listen to Satan as he tries to convince you that you don’t need to go to church. Follow the example that the Son of God Himself has set for you, “On the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.”

But there was something different on this particular Sabbath day, wasn’t there. After thirty years of faithfully attending the worship services in His home synagogue, this week Jesus did not go to the synagogue to listen as God’s Word was proclaimed to Him. No, rather, this week Jesus went to the synagogue service to that He could proclaim something eternally important to the people with whom He had worshiped so many times. As a visiting Rabbi and as a hometown Boy who had gained a powerful reputation, when Jesus attended that worship service the leader of the synagogue invited Jesus to lead the worship service. He handed Jesus the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus unrolled the scroll until He got to Isaiah chapter sixty-one, and then He read these well-known words, “’The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’”

Do not underestimate the power of Jesus’ proclamation, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” God’s people— including God’s people in Nazareth— were very familiar with this ancient Messianic prophecy. For 700 years these words helped to keep God’s people focused on the Person and the work of the Messiah whom the Lord their God had promised to send into this world. “What Isaiah wrote,” Jesus said to the people of His hometown, “he wrote about Me!” It was as if the words of the prophet had stepped off of that scroll and were now right there in front of them! Jesus is the One who has been anointed by the Holy Spirit to serve as “the Messiah.” That’s why Jesus went to the synagogue on that particular Saturday. He went there to proclaim the Truth: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

How did the people of Nazareth react? How did the people who had watched Jesus grow up in their midst, the people who had worshiped with Jesus for all those years— how did they respond to what Jesus had just told them? Luke tells us, “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son?’ they asked.”

No rabbi had ever spoken like this! While the Holy Spirit chose to record only the essence of Jesus’ sermon that day, the people could hardly believe what they were hearing! They were impressed by not only what Jesus said, but how He said it. A more literal translation of “gracious words” would be “words of grace,” or “words of kindness,” or “words of mercy.” Today we might say that Jesus proclaimed to the people of His hometown the pure, sweet, simple message of the Gospel— the Gospel which announces that the long-awaited Promised Messiah would “preach good news” to those who are spiritually “poor” in God’s sight, to those who have nothing to offer to God. The Messiah would “proclaim freedom” to those who were being held as prisoners of war by sin, death and the devil. He would enable the spiritually “blind” to see and understand the Truth of God’s holy Word. He would “release” those who have been beaten and oppressed by the guilt and the shame of their sins. And He would boldly proclaim “the year of the Lord’s favor.” This is a reference to the Year of Jubilee when all debts were forgiven, all land was returned to its original owners, slaves were set free and joy resounded throughout the land! It’s no wonder that the people were “amazed at the words of grace that came from his lips”!

Then their unbelief reared its ugly head. At least some of the people paused and said, “Hey, wait a minute! Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Satan had planted that powerful seed of doubt in their hearts and minds and led them to reject what Jesus had just said to them. Instead of rejoicing at hearing that the Lord their God had fulfilled His promise, they said, “If you are the Messiah— prove it to us!” Looking into their hearts Jesus verbalized their rejection by saying to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

After waiting so many generations for the Lord to fulfill His promise and send the Messiah into this world, now that the Messiah was right there in their own synagogue, the people of Nazareth rejected Him! In an effort to point out the seriousness of rejecting the Lord’s Messiah Jesus reminded the people of two examples from their past, two examples of the fact that rejection is not proof of failure! When the people of Israel rejected the message that the Lord sent to them through the prophet Elijah, that did not mean that Elijah was a failure. It simply meant that the Lord redirected His servant to a poor Gentile widow in the region of Sidon. And when the people of Israel continued to reject the message that the Lord sent to them through the prophet Elisha, that did not mean that Elisha was a failure. It simply meant that the Lord redirected His servant to reveal the Lord’s saving power by healing a Syrian named Naaman of his leprosy.

Did the people of Nazareth understand what Jesus was saying to them? Did they realize that their rejection of Jesus as the Promised Messiah did not mean that Jesus was a failure? Did it even dawn on them that Jesus was going to take His “words of grace” and share it with others while they were left to endure God’s wrath? We see the answers to those questions when Luke says to us, “All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.” The fact that Jesus was able to walk through this crowd that was so “furious” with Him that they were willing to execute Him, is not only undeniable proof that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy recorded in Isaiah, but it is also undeniable proof that even though people may reject Jesus’ “words of grace” that does not mean that Jesus is a failure!

So, my friends, what can we take home with us today? I think that there are two main points we would all do well to embrace. The first point centers on the words, “On the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.” Every single week Jesus is right here in this church. As He Himself has told us, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matthew 18:20). Why is Jesus here with us today? Jesus is here today to proclaim to us His “words of grace,” His “words of kindness,” His ”words of mercy.” Jesus is here to say to us, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” What does this mean? It means that through His holy Word and through His holy Supper Jesus continues to proclaim the Good News of salvation to those who are spiritually poor and needy. It means that Jesus continues to proclaim liberty to those who are in debt with sin, to give spiritual sight to those who are struggling to understand His Truth, to set free anyone who has fallen back into the bondage of sin, to lift up your eyes to His cross (Pointing to the cross) to assure you that purely by grace through faith in Him you are free to enjoy “the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus never tires of gathering together with you here in His house. Jesus loves to fulfill His promises to you over and over and over again. We need to make sure that we never tire of coming here to Jesus’ house and spending time with Him. We need to make sure that we love to hear Jesus’ promises to us.

The second truth that we want to embrace centers on our efforts to reach out to others with the “words of grace” that Jesus has proclaimed to us. Many of us know from personal experience that when we strive to faithfully share with others the message of Who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for them (Pointing to the cross), there are two possible reactions we can encounter. There are the times when God the Holy Spirit uses our humble efforts to create the flame of saving faith in someone’s heart and/or help them grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is truly a wonderful sight to behold!

Then there are the times when we strive to faithfully share with someone the Good News of Who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for them, and they flat out reject what we are striving to share with them. They might even angrily tell us to go away or stop talking to them about Jesus. That’s when it’s very easy for us to think that we have failed. That’s when it’s very easy for us to think, “Maybe if I change what I am saying or how I am saying it, then maybe they will listen to me.” That’s when we need to remember that when the people of His hometown rejected Him as their Messiah that did not mean that Jesus was a failure. It did mean, however, that Jesus went to share His “words of grace” with others.

As Christians you and I have been given the greatest message that anyone could ever possibly be given! As Christians you and I have been given the command to share that glorious news with others. May God grant that as Christians we understand that just as we cannot claim the credit when God the Holy Spirit uses our humble efforts to bring someone to faith in Jesus as their Savior, so also we need to understand that their rejection is not proof of our failure!

To God be the glory!

Amen