Jesus Announces Himself as Messiah and is Rejected for it | Luke 4:14-30

There are few moments more dramatic than when Jesus teaches in the synagogue in Nazareth. Since He has been teaching and healing, He is initially received well by the town that He grew up in. He is even asked to teach in the synagogue service. When it is His turn to speak, Jesus is given the scheduled reading for that day - which "just so happened" to be the very clearly messianic passage from Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to [a]heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; The normal practice was to read 3 verses and then sit and teach. Jesus ignored man's tradition and omitted that part of Isaiah 61 which deal with the second coming. He took the time to unroll the scroll, read the Scripture, and then sit down before making Himself as clear as He ever possibly could be: This Scripture about the Messiah and His ministry has been fulfilled today right here in your presence. Jesus announces Himself as not only Messiah, but Lord and King based on the quoted Scripture. It is an amazing moment and the people are initially excited, until Jesus challenges them to follow Him. Then they try to kill Him. Luke 4:14-30 14 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. 15 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. Jesus Rejected at Nazareth 16 So 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 to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” 20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’ ” 24 Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; 26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with ]wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. 30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.