2 Jan. Jesus provokes fury in Nazareth
"Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit... [and] travelled to Nazareth, where he had grown up. On the Sabbath day he went to the synagogue, as he always did, and stood up to read."
"'The Lord has put his Spirit in me, because he appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again. God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly and to announce the time when the Lord will show his kindness'" [Jesus read, from Isaiah 61:1-2 & 58:6].
"All the people spoke well of Jesus and were amazed at the words of grace he spoke. But some asked, 'Isn't this just the son of Joseph, a poor tradesman?' … Then Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, a prophet is not accepted in his home town'..."
"When all the people in the synagogue heard these things, they became very angry. They got up, forced Jesus out of town, and took him to the edge of the cliff on which the town was built. They planned to throw him off the edge, but Jesus walked through the crowd and went on his way."
(Luke 4:14-30)
One Sabbath day, according to his usual custom, Jesus went to the local synagogue in Nazareth where he was brought up. Rapidly gaining a reputation in Galilee as the 'local boy done good', he was asked to read from the Jewish scriptures. This was the usual custom - to ask a renowned visitor to read from the word of God.
Jesus selected the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, unrolled it, and began to read, “The Lord has put his Spirit in me, because he appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again… to announce the time when the Lord will show his kindness” (Luke 4:18) (see Isaiah 61:1-2).
All eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him as he said, “While you heard these words just now, they were coming true!” (Luke 4:21). Many were impressed by Jesus’s teaching, but others, realising he was a local boy – ‘Joseph’s son’ – dismissed his words as arrogant nonsense, and they threatened to throw him down the steep cliff below the brow of the hill on which Nazareth is located.
This opposition was typical of the reaction Jesus would encounter from conservative religious people who weren't prepared to allow the Holy Spirit to shake up their strongly-held traditional views.
The same is true today. The Holy Spirit challenges us to re-assess our understanding of the scriptures and to allow Jesus to completely change the way we see things, how we do politics, and how we live our daily lives.
The photo shows the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth.
You can read more about the start of Jesus's ministry in 26AD @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/jesus-goes-back-to-nazareth